Book Review: Finding Bear by Hannah Gold (The Last Bear #2)

 

Time for book two! Spoilers ahead.

When April believes Bear to be in danger, she and her father travel back to Svalbard to find him. April gets separated from her group and finds the polar bear, but she soon realizes Bear is not alone: he as a cub to look after, with its mother dead. April decides to do her best to keep the cub alive and hopefully find it a new mother.

Yet another cute installment in this series. These books are just pretty warm and fuzzy, despite taking place in the cold north. The bond between April and Bear just feels very nice and genuine. This book further develops their bond as they just completely trust one another and Bear is even willing to let her look after his cub.

I also appreciate how this book once again has some nicely rounded characters. Last book highlighted how, despite April's father at times opposing her, he absolutely wasn't a bad guy or a horrible father. Simply not a perfect one. And in this book this continues. Her father really tries to do right by her, even going to Svalbard just based on a hunch that Bear might need her. I also really enjoyed the older woman, April's guide, who despite initially being very apprehensive of her journey and her bond with Bear turns out to not be a bad person: she simply had her own motivations and they aren't even bad. She just wants to keep both humans and polar bears safe. 

The journey also feels pretty grand and epic despite most of it taking place in a rather same-y environment: ice cold Svalbard glaciers. But we still get a good sense of scale and various threats April, Bear and Peanut have to face. 

Peanut himself sadly doesn't feel like much of a character and is honestly more as something to move the plot forward, but I am willing to forgive it because at least he plays a solid part in the story. I've read other books that have animal sidekicks with no other use than just being there for being cute and marketable, so it's nice that Peanut, even if he doesn't have much of a personality like Bear does, does of course serve a purpose and isn't just there to be a cute animal sidekick. 

Overall I had a good time reading this book. It was cute, it was wholesome, it was intense at times, and if there's ever a third I will probably read it.

Rating: 4/5