Born to Be Badger by Shelly Laurenston – Dual Review

Born to Be Badger by Shelly Laurenston – Dual Review

Amazon / B&N / Kobo / Google Play / Apple / BAM / Bookbub

 

Description:
Emily “Tock” Meyerson-Jackson is on a mission to rid the world of shifters trafficking humans for hunting and cash. And now that she’s narrowed down her suspects to a brutal coalition of male lions, nothing will get between this honey badger and her prey—not even a dog-loving Tiger with absolutely no time management skills. Doesn’t matter that Shay Malone is ferociously adorable. With a war brewing between cat families, Tock doesn’t have time to lounge around with a football-playing tiger shifter. But when she realizes the coalition is also responsible for the death of Shay’s father, she’s forced to partner up with the flirtatious feline. . . .

Revenge is most definitely on the menu for Shay and his tiger shifter brothers. But when it comes to Shay’s alluring partner in crime-solving, so is seduction. Tock might be a bad-ass of a honey badger, but she’s awfully cute when she’s flashing her fangs, which she’s pretty much doing all the time these days. Good thing revenge is a dish best served hot. Because when it comes to Tock, Shay knows just how to turn up the heat. . . .

 

 

Barb’s Review:
Born to be Badger
by Shelly Laurenston is the 5th book in her fantastic The Honey Badger Chronicles. I was happy that Laurenston was giving us more Honey Badgers, as this is such a great series, with so much fun from start to finish.  With the honey badgers being the center of this story, expect crazy badgers, violence, mayhem in a wild hilarious, pulse pounding story.  So many wonderful characters, with many from the previous books. No surprise, since everything Laurenston writes, is filled with not only great stories, but fun humorous laughter throughout each book she writes.

This book focuses around Emily (Tock]) and her magnificent honey badger team, and the start of a romance with Shay, a tiger (with his daughter Dani playing a big part in this story). Shay was immediately attracted to Tock, who loved his daughter, but she did not want him to be part their fight; when she learns that the coalition is responsible for Shay/Finn/Keane father’s death, she allows them to help.  Tock and her team are determined to stop shifters who are trafficking humans for a hunt or cash.  They set out to find them, only to discover that they are in the middle of an ambush.

Tock and Shay were a slow burn romance, with them being a great couple.  I loved how Tock and Dani became close, and loved the cute little puppies that Dani took care of. We got to see so many new characters, as well as many previous characters. Tock’s grandmother was a powerful badger, but Tock and her bonded team were so insanely amazing, with nothing stopping them.   I absolutely loved Charlie, who played a major role throughout the book. Everyone feared Charlie, especially with her amazing abilities; and always able to take control.  Not to mention that when Charlies was stressed, she baked, and all the bears, lions, wolves ran to get her baked foods.

What follows is an exciting adventure that was also fun-filled, with wild & crazy action, a fantastic group of characters, and so much laughter throughout.  In order to stop a coalition of shifters trafficking humans, the Badgers will team up with the badger family, lions and wolves to defeat the enemy and stop the war.

When it comes to fun, wild crazy antics, hysterical and exciting, no one does it better than Laurenston.  Telling too much more would be spoilers, and this is the kind of story that needs to be read and fully enjoyed.

Born to be Badger was another fun, hilarious story, with great characters, sweet romance, action, suspense and so much laughter.  I cannot wait for the next book.   If you have not read Shelly Laurenston, you are missing an author that always gives us fantastic stories, who should not be missed.

•••••••

Sandy’s Review: BORN TO BE BADGER is the fifth instalment in Shelly Laurenston’s contemporary, adult HONEY BADGER CHRONICLES paranormal, romance series-set in the author’s Magnus Pack and Pride Worlds. This is Amur tiger shifter and single father Shay Malone, and badger shifter Emily ‘Tock’ Meyerson-Jackson’s story line. BORN TO BE BADGER can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty but I recommend reading the series in order for back story and cohesion.

NOTE: Due to the nature of the story line premise there may be triggers for more sensitive readers.

Told from several third person perspectives including Tock and Shay BORN TO BE BADGER follows several overlapping scenarios including the hunt for the person(s) responsible for murdering Finn, Keane, Dale and Shay Malone’s father; the take down of a human trafficking ring; and the ongoing investigation into a powerful drug created to take down the honey badger shifters.

Shay and his brothers are desperate to find the person(s) responsible for the murder of their father but without the help of some powerful shifters, Shay struggles to ferret out those responsible. Meanwhile, the honey badgers have been targeted, and Tock Meyerson-Jackson has found herself the victim of a powerful tranquilizer, a drug meant to incapacitate the violent badger. As part of a search and rescue team, that was ambushed, Shay becomes guardian and protector of our story line heroine, something Tock does not need in the face of her large extended vengeful family. The search for any and all suspects reveals a human trafficking ring and a possible connection to a larger coalition somewhere in Europe.

The world building is detailed, complex and elaborate with many references to a number of shifter sports league and powerful groups, including families and deep ops organization, most of whom we met in the PACK series. We are up close and personal with Tock’s broad circle of blood family and family by friendships, as well as the considerable extended matriarchal family of questionable cousins (The MacKilligans), aunts, sisters and close friends. If you have not read any of Laurenston’s previous story lines or series, I recommend starting with The Magnus Pack then the Pride Series where the author begins to build her fantastic shifter world full of snark and fun-you will have to have a sense of humor for some of the darker scenarios. Ultimately, all of the shifters are predators, and therefore, killing is part of the cycle of life.

The secondary and supporting characters are numerous, powerful and energetic.-wolves, bears, lions, tigers, hyenas, badgers etc. We are introduced to Shay’s brothers Finn, Keane and Dale, as well as his daughter Dani, and the return of several Van Holtz including Ric and Niles, and the Dunn Triplets. The requisite evil has many faces.

The relationship between Tock and Shay is slow to build as there is limited break in the action, the impending war between the badgers and everyone else, and the take down of the people responsible. The Badgers are a powerful and vicious group of shifters, a group that every other shifter fears the most. The $ex scenes are limited but passionate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

BORN TO BE BADGER is a story of power and control, betrayal and vengeance, secrets and lies, friendships and family, acceptance and love. Shelly Laurenston pulls the reader into a humorous and frenetic action-packed story of secret organizations run by animal shifters, and the fight for control. The fast paced, character driven premise is intricate and fantastic; the characters are determined, dynamic and boisterous; the romance is subtle.

;

 

Share

Hot and Badgered (The Honey Badger Chronicles #1) by Shelly Laurenston-a dual review

HOT AND BADGERED ( The Honey Badgers Chronicles #1) by Shelly Laurenston-a dual review

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Chapters Indigo / Google Play

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date March 27,2018

It’s not every day that a beautiful naked woman falls out of the sky and lands face-first on grizzly shifter Berg Dunn’s hotel balcony. Definitely they don’t usually hop up and demand his best gun. Berg gives the lady a grizzly-sized t-shirt and his cell phone, too, just on style points. And then she’s gone, taking his XXXL heart with her. By the time he figures out she’s a honey badger shifter, it’s too late.

Honey badgers are survivors. Brutal, vicious, ill-tempered survivors. Or maybe Charlie Taylor-MacKilligan is just pissed that her useless father is trying to get them all killed again, and won’t even tell her how. Protecting her little sisters has always been her job, and she’s not about to let some pesky giant grizzly protection specialist with a network of every shifter in Manhattan get in her way. Wait. He’s trying to help? Why would he want to do that? He’s cute enough that she just might let him tag along—that is, if he can keep up .

••••••••

Sandy’s REVIEW: HOT AND BADGERED is the first instalment in Shelly Laurenston’s contemporary, adult THE HONEY BADGERS CHRONICLES paranormal, romance series –a spin off from the author’s Pack and Pride Series. This is hybrid honey badger/ wolf Charlie Taylor-MacKilligan, and grizzly shifter Berg Dunn’s story line.

NOTE: Fans of the author’s Pride and Pack series will recognize a number of the secondary and supporting characters including the Jean-Louis Parkers, Bo and Blayne, and of course the Van Holtz and Smith Packs; Sissy Mae Smith and her mate lion shifter Mitch Shaw.

Told from several third person points of view including Berg and Charlie HOT AND BADGERED introduces the MacKilligan Honey Badgers and their large extended family, and the Dunn grizzly bear family and friends of the BPC –Bear Protection Council-the international protection agency for the bear nation. HOT AND BADGERED follows the MacKilligan sisters as the struggle to stay one step ahead of a group of mercenaries intent on taking them down –dead or alive. Charlie, and her half-sisters Maxie (honey badger) and Stevie (honey badger/tiger) have been on the run for years. Their father, Freddy MacKilligan, an a$$hole of the first degree, has endangered his daughter’s lives since the moment they were born, and in this, the trio have battled enough evil in their lives to ensure a lifetime of therapy for everyone involved. When news comes that their father has died, the girls go in search of the truth only to discover that desperate times call for desperate measures and the trio find themselves hiding out amongst the shifter bears of New York. Enter Berg Dunn, grizzly shifter and security expert, and the man with whom Charlie will fall in love. What ensues is a complex battle with several forces intent on taking down the MacKilligan sisters, as a series of events and catastrophes threaten their less than well-ordered lives.

HOT AND BADGERED is a detailed storyline with all of the author’s requisite humor, sarcasm, wit and charm. Charlie MacKilligan, the eldest sister, is very protective of Stevie and Max. As members of the honey badger shifters, the trio are feared for their aggression and ability to kill but it is their ‘hybrid’ genes that make them an unknown threat in the world of the shifter nations. Stevie has a copious number of emotional and psychological problems, and her ‘shifter abilities’ attracts some unwanted attention. Maxie is a trained killer; a warrior in her own right, and a woman whose ability to get the job done catches the eye of The Group, and The Carnivore’s shifter hockey team.

There is a large ensemble cast of secondary and supporting characters including some very familiar shifters (Dee-Ann and Ric; Niles Van Holtz, Bo, Blayne, Loch, Crushek and his mate Marcella Malone) and the introduction of many more including Berg’s triplet brother and sister Dag and Britta Dunn, and Maxie’s best friend wolverine shifter Dutch Alexander. Panda shifter Shen Li, Kyle Jean-Louis Parker’s body guard has caught the eye of Stevie MacKilligan.

HOT AND BADGERED advances the series several years as there are now a number of off-spring spawned by the Pride series characters. It was great to reconnect with so many familiar characters, and witness the next-generation of shifters taking their place in the author’s story lines and series.

Shelly Laurenston has an amazing ability to pull the reader into an elaborate world of spirited and playful shifters with her fantastic story line banter, and characteristic charm. Maxie’s on-going and stingingly successful raids on the local honeycomb and bee apiaries is nothing short of pure unadulterated fun; and Stevie’s inability to navigate the world in which she was born is both heart breaking and humorous. HOT AND BADGERED is a fantastic and imaginative take on the paranormal; Shelly Laurenston is an author you do not want to skip.

 

Barb’s Review:

Hot and Badgered by Shelly Laurenston is the 1st book in her new The Honey Badgers series. I was happy to see that Laurenston was starting a new series, as I know whatever I read by her I will have fun and laugh my way through a great story. Once again, Shelly Laurenston gives us a wild crazy hysterical story, with three fantastic heroines.  

Charlie MacKilligan, our main hero in this book, is the oldest sister of the crazy MacKilligans, who are honey badgers.  Charlie is the one who keeps the other two girls in line, and believe me when I say that is some job. Lol  The three sisters are hybrids, not full honey badgers, and they have the same father, but different mothers.  All the MacKilligans, including the three sisters, hate the father who lies and steals from everyone, which gives them one common bond, they want him dead and out of their lives.  Charlie and her sisters, Max and Stevie are usually on the run, with villains trying to kidnap the child prodigy Stevie or using the girls to get the father.  Right from the start, there is an epic battle that allows us to see how powerful and good all three are, and they complement each other.  They manage to fight and kill their enemies, but run to a safe house to hide.

Berg Dunn, our hero, is a bear, and he meets a naked Charlie, when she comes out of a shower.  Seems Berg was on assignment to protect a famous musician, and before he could learn who she is, Charlie is gone.   He will come upon her again a bit later, and will offer to help them hide in his bear pack territory.  Berg is a triplet, and I loved his sister Britta, who is leader of their pack.  Berg knows he is falling hard for Charlie, but she isn’t interested in any long term relationship, as she feels it is too dangerous to be associated with the MacKilligan sisters; though she is very attracted to the cute Berg.

What follows is an exciting adventure to find out who is threatening the sisters, as well as stepping in to help some of their cousins.  There are some villains, and the story is very good.  But what makes this so good is Shelly Laurenston’s amazing ability to have us loving her characters; laughing all the way though the wild craziness that happens constantly, and create a good storyline. 

I loved loved all three of the MacKilligan sisters, who were all hilarious.  Charlie was the strongest and most respected by her Mackilligan relatives, as she has an uncanny ability to take control of any situation, as well as calm things down.  Max was a fearless amazing and yes crazy middle sister.  Everyone fears her, since she is lethal, as she smiles while she happily kills those who are threats to her sisters.  Lastly, Stevie is the younger sister, who is a genius and a prodigy, whom those nasty  villains want.  Stevie with all her smarts, has anxiety and always flips out, leaving us in hysterics at her antics.  LOL   I never had so much fun spending time with all three of these girls. 

Laurenston never lets up, as we just gobble up all the fun, with our own smiles throughout.  The romance between Berg and Charlie was slow built, and very nicely done.  I love how Charlie’s sisters try to push her toward Berg, knowing she too is falling for him.  I loved the relationship between the girls and Berg, Britta and Dam.  Trust me…this was so much fun.

Hot and Badgered was a fun, hilarious story, with great characters, sweet romance, action, suspense and so much laughter.  I cannot wait for the next book.   If you have not read Shelly Laurenston, you are missing an author that always gives us fantastic stories.  When it comes to fun, crazy, hysterical and enjoyable stories, no one does it better then Shelly Laurenston.

 

Copy supplied by Publisher via Netgalley

Share