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Bad Bear Santa

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Listening Length: 2 hours and 31 minutes

Crystal never imagined she’d have to spend Christmas trapped in a tiny cabin with the most infuriating bear shifter in her clan. Tristan Hunter is every woman’s fantasy. Mesmerizing chiseled abs, piercing blue eyes, and a naughty smirk are enough to drive any woman wild. But not Crystal.

Tristan’s cocky, unpredictable, and alpha to the core. She can’t stand him, but her bear’s been lusting after him for years. Snowed in together with only a log burning stove to keep them warm, she’ll do everything in her power to resist his seductive glances and sinfully tempting lips. He can alpha her all he wants, but she’s not going to give in.... Not even a little.

This is the first book in the paranormal bear shifter Christmas Romance Series - Bad Boy Bear Shifters. This is a stand-alone book with no cliff-hangers. Love scenes are fully realized and at times include explicit language.

Audible Audio

Published September 16, 2019

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About the author

Liv Brywood

75 books214 followers

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5 stars
192 (50%)
4 stars
101 (26%)
3 stars
62 (16%)
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6 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
Profile Image for Ingrid Stephanie Jordan.
1,862 reviews25 followers
December 6, 2017
Title: Bad Bear Santa   
Series: Montana Shifters Book #1
Release Date: #AlreadyReleased
Author: Liv Brywood
Reviewer: Ingrid Stephanie Jordan
Serial: Standalone, No Cliffhanger 
Genre:#PRN #BearShifter 
#4Stars🌟⭐🌟🌟
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     Woooo bad Bear Santa yumm. Do I want one. Short but sweet this Christmas story is everything any girl would want to read.
     Crystal is a Bear Shifter who has a near death experience. In fact the last she remembered was trying to get out of her car and she blacked out. When she woke up she was with the sexiest men on the mountain. She's always known Tristan gosh who didn't, such a lady killer he was. But not her no she was not going to fall into his trap never. She would not be one of his notches on his bedpost.
     Tristan is a Bear Shifter he has been out of sorts lately that's why he went to the cabin for Christmas he was going to stay there, trying to get a different perspective of his life. His brother's mate recently had a cub since then Tristan was thinking very hard about changing his life. Maybe he needs to mate!
      A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book and my comments here are my honest opinion. 
Profile Image for Stephanie.
705 reviews1 follower
March 31, 2019
Ew

I don't care for slutty characters, and I don't like when one or both characters sleep with someone else since the main characters have known each other. Tristan was a huge manwhore. It had only been 4 months since he was with someone else, and he has known Crystal a long time. She saw him leave a ckan gathering with one of his many conquests.So, this book had 3 strikes right off the bat. I understand not being celibate, but he'd slept with over half the women in their clan. That's disgusting. She looked past that way too quickly. She's going to have to see those women because they're in her clan. I just don't find circumstances like this conducive to a romance novel. I was really disappointed in this book, especially since I expected better due to liking the Curvy Bear series so much. It wasn't perfect, and I wasn't crazy about the 1st brother, but those books and characters were not this gross or bad.
Profile Image for Sydney M Neblett.
2,663 reviews27 followers
December 16, 2020
Change is in the air

Such a sweet holiday romance. I love how the bad boy bear transforms into the perfect Christmas gift, and the lady of his heart believes in love and Christmas. This book was fantastic from the first white knuckled slide until the last heated embrace, and I can’t wait to see what the author’s bears get up to next.
Profile Image for Hilary Delorey.
128 reviews14 followers
November 17, 2025
Okay I really liked this book. It was a quick easy snowed in, shifter book. Other than a few spelling/grammer issues the rest I enjoyed. The concept of the bear being kinda a physical thing living in them was unique to other shifter books, usually its just there mentally in the back if their mind. I love books when the player is ready to settle down and really has a romantic side, the best.
Profile Image for Chalice.
3,712 reviews111 followers
July 9, 2023
The couple: Tristan and Crystal

Romance trope: shifter
Series: Bad Boy Bear Shifters
Length: 87 pages

Plot: Tristan doesn't know why Crystal hates him so much, but he's the one who rescued her when her car skidded off the road and went into the lake. She doesn't want to stay at his cabin with him, but they're snowed in so that's what she'll have to do. Player alert!

Commentary: But it's okay, because he's getting tired of the grind! Maybe he'll settle down with the one female he hasn't slept with already.
Although I'll be honest - I don't know why she hated him so much either - we're both in the dark, buddy.

Grammar/formatting: needed another pass with the proofreader

Next book in the series: Bad Bear Daddy
Profile Image for Jamoz23.
5,372 reviews46 followers
December 10, 2017
This author is not for me. Far better books out there for my money.
Found this so silly and dislike manwhores.
Crystal was stupid and ungrateful at first.
Tristan was just immature but better than Crystal in his behaviour.
Then they can’t admit they are mates. Once they do it is all marry me. Crystal will still have to deal with all the women Tristan has slept with in the clan, which sounded like most of them.
I have come to the conclusion after reading half a dozen of her books that this author is not for me. Her books are too hit and miss for my reading enjoyment.
I find her characters too insipid, too simple and lots of stupid errors are made in the plotline.
I like to read a book and think, I wish I was living there or I like these people. Books are escapism from life but they still need to be believable.
Profile Image for Thalasa.
187 reviews
December 29, 2025
It probably wasn’t a great idea to have my first bear shifter book be a holiday novella, but l doubt the added nuance would have helped much. It’s a low effort, predictable, snowed-in Christmas romance, and they’re also bears. Not sure why though, since jt didn’t really have any impact on the plot or the smut.

Not worth the read.
726 reviews1 follower
June 13, 2024
Sweet read

This short novella was a sweet read. What better way to just sit back for an hour and let your soul get quite and read a love story. It takes you back when you were young at least for me it is. What romance reader doesn't love💘 a HEA!
Profile Image for Fallon.
360 reviews6 followers
November 16, 2025
SPOILERS AHEAD!

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Slutty bear shifter (who once worked as a male dancer in Vegas) gets snowed in with only woman from his clan he hasn’t slept with so naturally he dicks her down until she falls in love with him. Days later, he proposes. The end.
Profile Image for Jenny.
1,124 reviews14 followers
May 19, 2019
Bad Bear Santa

I loved Bad Bear Santa. Tristian and Crystal are in the same pack and although they have known each other for years they were not close or even friends really. Their bears have never met. Tristian saves Crystals life after she crashed her car while on the way up the mountain to the packs annual Christmas party. They get to know each other while they are trapped in his cabin for several days. I won’t spoil the story for you but I will say that it has a happily ever after with no cliffhanger!

Now the not so good stuff about this book.

Anything past this point may be considered a spoiler by some people.

1. The couple has hot cocoa several times throughout this short story. Every single time cocoa is spelled incorrectly. The author spelled it coco instead of cocoa. Coco is a Disney movie produced by Pixar not a hot chocolate beverage.

2. In the beginning of the story Tristian tells Crystal that there is no phone in the cabin because he wanted to be cut off from the world but that there was internet and a laptop she could use to send an email to her family. However towards the end of the book crystal overhears Tristian on the phone and gets upset. Not because there is in fact a useable phone. That detail was never acknowledged. No she’s upset because she thinks he’s talking to another woman.

3. There are a few other minor things like typos and missing words, spelling errors. Things like that. They do not really take away or distract you from the story too much.

4. The story ends around 14% and there are 4 additional books by the author after the end of the first story. I enjoyed all of them however I was a tiny bit annoyed that there was nothing in the description or on the cover to let me know I was getting these books as well. I went into the book thinking the story was much longer than it really was. I was kinda disappointed.

All said and done I truly enjoyed the first book in this new series and I cannot wait to read more from this series.

Profile Image for Marsha Keeper Bookshelf.
4,290 reviews88 followers
December 16, 2017
Reviewed at Shifter Haven
Bad Bear Santa is a fun, sexy romp that begins the Montana Shifters series. There is mention of one mated brother and several other brothers of Tristan’s so I’ll be looking for more in this series. There is bonus material included in this Kindle edition so don’t stop at the ending of Crystal and Tristan’s story.

Crystal had waited just a bit too long to head up the mountain to her bear clan’s Christmas celebration. Now she was stuck in a white out on a slippery mountain when the worst that could happen… did. She actually thought that she’d seen her last Christmas just before she passed out – only to awaken in the cabin, in the arms of her clan’s most notorious playboy, Tristan. Now truth be told, she’d always had a crush on him but his long line of female conquests puts her off and she’s labeled him as totally unacceptable for her. Now they’re stuck in a small cabin in the middle of blizzard conditions that won’t let up any time soon for the days leading up to Christmas. Could it possibly get worse? Ah, yeah.

I had fun with this short and sexy story. Tristan already had a change of heart concerning his lifestyle long before Crystal’s rescue. Now his bear is sending him messages that this amazing woman, who by the way sorta dislikes him, is their mate. Mate. Of course, the one woman who can’t seem to stand to be around him is his mate. Well, one way to convince her that he’s not all that bad is being the perfect bear for her… but she’s so cute and sexy it’s going to be impossible to keep his paws to himself. Yeah, good luck with that Tristan. *grin*

If you only have a short amount of time between your own Christmas activities to sneak in a good story, then Bad Bear Santa might be one you’d enjoy. Short, sexy and the opener for more stories to come. Sounds like a sweet stocking stuffer to me.

I read this title through my Kindle Unlimited subscription.
Profile Image for D Call.
666 reviews29 followers
December 23, 2020
Find another shifter or Christmas romance

My Rating System
5 stars--WOW
4 stars--would read again
3 stars--was good, won't read again
2 stars--read it, but didn't enjoy it
1 star--didn't finish, it was so awful

Do I need to read books before this one: no
Cliffhanger: no

Summary
Crystal's on her way to the clan Christmas party in a snowstorm. She swerves to miss a deer, dives into a frozen river. Tristan hears the noise, investigates, rescues her. He takes her to his cabin, gets them both naked, wrapped in blankets in front of the fire.

Evaluation
The book starts off with high potential--clan party, car accident. Then it turns into sex after sex after sex, even though Crystal vows not to be another of Tristan's conquests. He's supposedly a bad bear, but we don't see that. We get no history from either of them--no jobs, almost no family, no clan stories, one Christmas tradition from each. There's no character development, no plot, and the setting is a cabin somewhere in the snowy mountains.

Recommendation
I don't recommend this to anyone.

Possible Triggers (spoilers)
Sex: practically the whole book
Language: 1 F word, 8 Lord's name in vain, 2 S words
Violence: car slides off road

Critique (spoilers)
Why aren't her family going to the clan Christmas party? If they're not, why is she?

Doesn't he get splinters in his mouth carrying the tree?

The phone suddenly works Christmas Day?
Profile Image for JodyL.
1,644 reviews5 followers
December 12, 2017
Trent and Crystal

Crystal, a bear shifter, is on her way home for Christmas. She is driving in a snow storm that seems to be getting worse. She slows down but them swerves to kiss a deer. Her car careens down a hill into a lake. As the water fills her car she believes she is going to die.
Trent has decided to spend Christmas alone at his cabin. He is thinking about changes that he wants to make in his life. He is in bear form wondering around near his cabin when he hears the accident. He dives into the water to save her.
Trent is someone who has a new woman every week. Chrystal doesn't like that and doesn't want to be another notch on his bedpost even if she is attracted to him.
The storm worsens and she can't leave, so she has to spend time with someone she doesn't like.
This is a lovely story about how people can change with the right motivations. I liked reading the Curvy Bear Ranch stories. Now we get to read about the Montana clan! This is a stand alone book. I encourage you to read it if you like bear shifters, even if you haven't read any of her previous books. You will be hooked.
Profile Image for Sarah.
2,140 reviews30 followers
December 14, 2017
Book one of the Montana Shifters Series by Liv Brywood.
This is a spin off from another bear shifter series by Liv Brywood.
Tristan is staying in a very remote cabin over Christmas to sort through his choices and what he really wants in life.
While in bear form he comes across a car crash with a member of his bear clan stuck inside the car while sinking in a frozen lake.
Crystal has avoid Tristan like the plague because of his reputation as a player and not wanting to put herself in the way of temptation.
While being stuck together in Tristan tiny cabin they realise how much they get on and how much their bears liked each other.
Crystal at time did annoy me because she would be mean to Tristan because she was scared of falling for the playboy but in end made up for being bitchy.
Really enjoyed this Christmas short story and loved the start of this new series by one of my favourite authors
3,130 reviews14 followers
December 3, 2020
It's probably 2.5 Stars but it's coming up to Christmas.
Crystal is driving home for Christmas to her Bear Shifter clan when her car goes off the road and plunges into an icy river.
Clan Casanova and bad boy Tristan is luckily on hand to rescue her from certain death.
He manages to get her to his home, a remote cabin, where he has been taking time out to rethink his philandering ways.
And, as the snowstorm settles in it is obvious that they're stuck together through the Christmas period.
There's no question of sex - if you think that you're living on another planet :)
It's all very predictable and so it should be in books like this.
'Bad Bear Santa' is a nice read which is somewhat marred by typos (bolder for boulder, rung for wrung are just two).
If you are looking for a short, hot and steamy Shifter romance, look no further.
Profile Image for Pam Louis.
1,722 reviews7 followers
December 12, 2017
Crystal is a bear bear shifter and she is headed to the bear clans annual Christmas party problem is the weather is white-out conditions in Montana. Let's just say she doesn't make it.
Tristan us a bear shifter and he is every women's dream guy. Every women but crystal. She wants no part of a guy who can't stay with one woman. Tristan was out on the mountain in his bear form and saves her.
This was a fun read with lots if spice and some drama. The characters are great and you can feel the feeling building between them. Shifter fans thus will put you in the mood for Christmas. Don't miss it. Plus is has great bonus stories that are awesome too.
Voluntarily read a copy and I honestly loved it.
Profile Image for Judi.
1,931 reviews15 followers
December 5, 2017
Bad Bear Santa finds resident bad bear Tristan spending the holidays in a remote cabin alone. When Crystal crashes her car in the river she is lucky Tristan rescues her, but spending a snowed in Christmas with the notorious player is not her idea of a happy holiday. Their getting to know one another and falling for each other makes for a sweet and spicy read. The story is paced to keep you turning the pages, the characters draw you in and there is just enough angst to make it interesting. And this story is only one of five Christmas romps. If you haven't read the Curvy Bear series catch up with some of the Grant brothers.
Profile Image for Reader_for_LifeTLG.
2,802 reviews17 followers
September 30, 2021
Good read but....

....too many errors given it's such a short story. I still don't know if Crystal wanted to go up or down the mountain to spend Xmas with her family.

Tristan and Crystal are oil and water, mainly because she sees him as a playboy bear. When their bear forms recognize each other as mate, they have to decide if they will take a chance on love. Sweet and a little steamy, this Xmas novella warms the heart. Brywood's bears are different in that they seem to be separate entities within the humans (ex. sitting on a rib to punish the host) who recognize their mate. All animal instinct without human feeling muddying the water.
1,603 reviews12 followers
February 6, 2019
OK shifter romance, but editing really needs work

This is an OK shifter romance, but the editing is really bad. For example, many times the couple make hot cocoa, and it spelled coco -- coco is not even a word. There were lots of other editing errors like that, which was very distracting for me.

I also didn't really like that Tristan was such a womanizer. I get that he had decided to change, but his past behaviour was just awful. With his history, no wonder Crystal didn't trust him.
Profile Image for Stacy J..
1,345 reviews12 followers
December 18, 2020
Crystal and Tristan have been circling each other for a while now. Tristan is intrigued by Crystal but Crystal is letting Tristan's reputation taint her opinion of him.

I liked the character of Tristan. I like that while he had a past, he was reevaluating it and trying to make some changes.

Crystal got on my nerves in the beginning. She thought she had him pegged and tried to discount anything he said or did. I mean he saves her life and the first thing she thinks about is if he is trying to cop a feel.
Profile Image for Schellie.
885 reviews
August 27, 2021
Loving The Bad Boy Bear

If you enjoy insta shifter love, you will enjoy Tristan & Crystal's story. Headed home for Christmas in a snow storm, Crystal crashes into the Gallitin River. Luckily Tristan is close by and saves her. Two people from the same clan, pushed together in a cabin deep in the woods. Can the magic of Christmas bring them together when all she wants to do is push him away? She deserves more than the bad boy of her clan, but has she been wrong about him all along? Check out this quick read today!
Profile Image for Ilene.
45 reviews
December 28, 2018
This book needs editing. There are several grammatical errors and typos. For example she used revolution when she should have used revulsion and another she used shouldering when she should have used smouldering. I really don't understand how this book got such high rating with so many sloppy mistakes.
Profile Image for Susan.
872 reviews1 follower
December 17, 2020
Real together

The characters are well written and the story holds your attention, the characters are real together in a cabin and one wants to be there and the other wants to be home to celebrate Xmas. Plus they are trying to fight the pull of the fated mate of eachother, they learn to about the other person and themselves.
Profile Image for Elizabeth.
21 reviews1 follower
October 27, 2021
i dont write reviews but i needed to comet
one scene really bothered me. at the beginning of the story it is said their is no phone in the cabin
yet near the end the h over hears the H on the phone with his brother. have to say that little detail really bothered me. otherwise cute story with plenty of smex
Profile Image for MARY.
1,490 reviews
September 7, 2022
I finished this first book of this series. I loved reading it very much it was very interesting. Tristian Hunter is a very interesting bad boy bear shifter who gets hole up in his cabin for a few days which is thru Christmas cause of very bad weather with the one woman he has liked and the one he rescued.
910 reviews1 follower
June 5, 2023
Bad Bear Santa

Crystal a Bear Shifter was on her way up the mountain for Clan Christmas Party. She crashes her car off the road into a lake. Tristan a Bear Shifter and in the same clan as Crystal rescues her. Now their snowed in his cabin until christmas. Fated Crystal and Tristan!
Profile Image for Crystal.
1,334 reviews10 followers
December 5, 2017
Sexy Bad Bear Santa!

A Christmas like no other. Sexy. Ear shifter romance full of passion!! Stuck with the most infuriatingly sexy bear shifter in a tiny cabin, Crystal will do anything to resist him, but Tristan has a few tricks up his sleeve that she never sees coming.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews

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