Review: To Kill a Badger by Shelly Laurenston

To Kill a Badger by Shelly Laurenston
Series: The Honey Badger Chronicles, Book 6
Publisher: Kensington
Genre: Paranormal Romance 

ISBN: 9781496730206
Source: Publisher
Buy it here: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Audible

Nelle Zhao is a social media maven who knows what matters. And the only thing that matters right now is survival. Not easy, though, when her honey badger teammates attract trouble the way she attracts attention. She didn’t know when it became her job to protect the ones she cares about from themselves, but even she has to admit…she’s really good at it. Too bad some people don’t appreciate when she’s being helpful. Especially Keane Malone, who doesn’t know how to accept a friendly paw. But Nelle excels at helping! And at ignoring other people’s irrational demands, such as doing it all alone. Keane, poor pretty kitty, doesn’t understand the kind of assistance a shit-starting honey badger like Nelle can truly offer…

Keane knows two things—he doesn’t like other people, and he is going to crush the de Medicis, an evil coalition of male lion shifters who are not only snatching innocent humans for fun and profit, but also killed his father. And for once, he may not be able to fight this fight alone, forcing him to let long-legged, jet-setting Nelle join the fight. And getting close to Nelle is suddenly bringing out his roar…

I come to Shelly Laurenston’s Honey Badger Chronicles expecting a lot of action, a lot of nonsense, more characters than I care to count, and a dash of delightful romance. Unfortunately, only three out of the four were present in To Kill a Badger. The book is billed as being Nelle and Keane’s story, which I was absolutely excited to read. The tiny bits of character that were doled out (few and far between) and the scraps of a love story were charming when they popped up on the page and I do wish there was more of that. They had great chemistry and their back-and-forth was really fun to read about. But Nelle and Keane, as charming as they are, are afterthoughts in their own story and nothing would have been missed by leaving them out of it entirely, which is not a good sign for a romance.

To Kill a Badger is a lot of action and a paper-thin plot that gets very repetitive and only really becomes important at the very end. Mostly, this story is about Charlie MacKilligan whose legacy becomes more mythic as the series goes on. I like Charlie a lot, but the baking and the third act action didn’t break new ground for the series. The other stars of the series are the “crones,” middle-aged badgers who are over-the-top and out-of-control. They are entertaining in small doses, but again, their antics took over way too much of the book.

I wanted to enjoy To Kill a Badger as much as I have the rest of the series, especially since I like Nelle and Keane so much, but this book just fell flat for me. The plot was a jumble that didn’t seem to matter very much and many times it felt like a rehash of past plots. Laurenston’s books are rarely boring, but this one I kept putting down. Yet while this book wasn’t for me, I will certainly pick up more Honey Badger books because as a whole I enjoy the series and the shenanigans the MacKilligans and their friends get into.



FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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Review: Born to Be Badger by Shelly Laurenston

Born to Be Badger by Shelly Laurenston
Series: The Honey Badger Chronicles, Book 5
Publisher: Kensington
Genre: Paranormal Romance 

ISBN: 9781496730176
Release Date: November 28, 2023
Source: Publisher
Buy it here: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Audible

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…

Born to Be Badger is a wild ride filled with action, adventure, and big personalities. Shelly Laurenston’s newest entry into her ever-expanding shifter world is seriously fun.

Tock is a honey badger who is no-nonsense and obsessed with time. She’s blunt to a hilarious degree and has a way of just taking care of things that I really liked. Shay is a tiger with soft, squishy feelings, absolutely no time management skills, and a daughter to get to math camp on time – even when bad guys are after him and the woman he’s supremely attracted to. Tock tries to ignore him at first, but you can’t ignore a tiger trying to get your attention. Shay and Tock just click from the start and I loved them together. They’re funny, her relationship with his daughter is sweet without being saccharine, and I just enjoyed reading about them. Their romance is slow burn and understated to the point that I wish there had been a bit more time devoted to it, but I honestly didn’t mind too much because I just liked them together. There’s an easy chemistry between them that makes them stand out and the two of them stand on their own without being overwhelmed by the giant personalities of the sizeable supporting cast.

Born to Be Badger continues several plots from the Honey Badger Chronicles and Laurenston’s other shifter series, but doesn’t entirely have one of its own outside of Tock and Shay’s understated love story. Normally this would bother me but it kind of works in this book because the daily lives of Tock, Shay, and their friends and family are interesting on their own. I liked seeing Tock and her teammates continue their chaotic (sometimes bloodthirsty) ways and Laurenston introduces several interesting plots that I expect to see continued in future books. So in terms of the series, it’s a bridge book, maybe even filler, but it doesn’t feel that way. Quite simply, this book is fun. There are shenanigans, dozens of shifters, and intriguing hints of what’s to come. I had a blast reading Born to Be Badger and it’s zany, frenetic energy, unique characters, and Laurenston’s entertaining storytelling make it a book I’ll enjoy over and over.



FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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Review: Breaking Badger by Shelly Laurenston

Breaking Badger by Shelly Laurenston
Series: The Honey Badger Chronicles, Book 4
Publisher: Kensington
Genre: Paranormal Romance 

ISBN: 9781496730145
Release Date: August 31, 2021
Source: Publisher
Buy it here: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Audible

It’s instinct that drives Finn Malone to rescue a bunch of hard battling honey badgers. The Siberian tiger shifter just can’t bear to see his fellow shifters harmed. But no way can Finn have a houseful of honey badgers when he also has two brothers with no patience. Things just go from bad to worse when the badgers rudely ejected from his home turn out to be the only ones who can help him solve a family tragedy. He’s just not sure he can even get back into the badgers’ good graces. Since badgers lack graces of any kind…

Mads knows her teammates aren’t about to forgive the cats that were so rude to them, but moody Finn isn’t so bad. And he’s cute! The badger part of her understands Finn’s burning need to avenge his father’s death—after all, vengeance is her favorite pastime. So Mads sets about helping Finn settle his family’s score, which has its perks, since she gets to avoid her own family drama. Besides, fighting side by side with Finn is her kind of fun—especially when she can get in a hot and heavy snuggle with her very own growling, eye-rolling, and utterly irresistible kitty-cat…

Breaking Badger is a wacky, violent, high-octane thrill ride from beginning to end. It’s chaotic in only a way Shelly Laurenston’s honey badgers can be, in that in any other author’s hands this level of craziness would likely be a mess but Laurenston mostly keeps it together.

Mads is a honey badger/hyena hybrid with some nightmare family members out to get her. Fortunately, she has her beloved sport, basketball, and – since middle school – her honey badger teammates. The five of them work hard and play harder but after landing in the middle of a firefight with some tigers, Mads finds herself often in the path of the Black Malones. Finn Malone and his brothers are determined to find out who killed their father and their best shot at getting information requires some help from the honey badgers. If only his brother hadn’t pissed them off… But Mads seems like one of the more sane badgers so he goes to her for help. What follows is a violent, sometimes disjointed ride with action that almost never stops.

I admit, it took me a while to get into Breaking Badger. I don’t mind violent action scenes but it felt at times like overkill and honestly Mads doesn’t have a whole lot to do for much of this story. She seems like an afterthought in her own book, which is a pity. There’s a lot of potential to her and I felt like some of the things about her past that were hinted at (her relationship with her father, for example) were missed out on. It’s not a good sign that Mads could have been dropped from this book and not all that much would have been lost. Finn is an angry, growly tiger who doesn’t have as much of a personality as I would have hoped for (Mads’s coyote easily stole the show from him). He’s interesting when he’s with Mads and when the two of them are alone they actually start to come alive. I would have loved to see more of their romance but it was skimped on in favor of the action. Around the halfway point the book picks up and there feels like order in the chaos and starting there, I was in for the ride.

Though ostensibly this is a book about Mads and Finn, it really is about the MacKilligan sisters with a dash of Malone family drama and a whole host of cameos from the Pride series. I love the MacKilligans, so I didn’t mind spending more time with Max, Charlie, and Stevie. They’re funny and endearing in their own scary ways and I was highly entertained by them. Breaking Badger is the kind of book it’s hard for me to put a rating on because there are some things I really enjoyed. Even with the issues I had with the plot and lack of romance, Laurenston’s writing is entertaining, unique, and left me looking forward to the next installment of The Honey Badger Chronicles.



FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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Review: Badger to the Bone by Shelly Laurenston

Badger to the Bone by Shelly Laurenston
Series: The Honey Badger Chronicles, Book 3
Publisher: Kensington
Genre: Paranormal Romance

ISBN: 9781496714404
Release Date: March 31, 2020
Source: Publisher
Buy it here: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Audible

She’s the woman he’s been hired to kidnap. But ZeZé Vargas has other ideas… like getting them both out of this nightmare alive. Just one problem. She’s crazy. Certifiably. Because while he’s plotting their escape, the petite Asian beauty is plotting something much more deadly…

Max “Kill It Again” MacKilligan has no idea what one of her own is doing with all these criminal humans until she realizes that Zé has no idea who or what he is. Or exactly how much power he truly has.

But Max is more than happy to bring this handsome jaguar shifter into her world and show him everything he’s been missing out on. A move that might be the dumbest thing she’s ever done once she realizes how far her enemies will go to wipe her out. Too bad for them Zé is willing to do whatever it takes to keep her alive . . . and honey badgers are just so damn hard to kill!

Return to the weird and wonderful world of Shelly Laurenston’s Honey Badgers Chronicles with Badger to the Bone. Max’s book is a rip-roarin’ ride that’s a whole lot of fun, even though there are a lot of missed opportunities.

Badger to the Bone is Max’s story and for those who have read Hot and Badgered and In a Badger Way (which I recommend doing before reading this book) Max was the borderline sociopath MacKilligan sister. I was curious how Ms. Laurenston would turn her into a heroine without doing a character lobotomy. The answer is a bit of a mixed bag. Max is still deadly and full of attitude, but she’s no sociopath. She has previously unknown deep and longstanding friendships beyond her sisters and her best friend Dutch. She’s also far more stable and if not well-adjusted, then the closest approximation you’d find in this world. Because I’ve read the previous two Honey Badger books I found the lack of consistency in her character jarring, as Max didn’t so much grow as a character or reveal hidden layers as suddenly have those layers appear because it suited the story. In terms of storytelling, it felt like some shortcuts were taken. But that doesn’t mean I disliked Max – far from it. She’s violent and crazy, but also fun and caring.

A mad MacKilligan needs an unflappable hero, and ZeZé Vargas was a delicious one. Zé has no idea he’s a shifter at the beginning of the book so watching him discover this part of himself he never knew was a delight. Zé is so catlike it was hilarious and I can’t count the number of times he made me laugh. I really liked Zé and Max together, but their romance did feel at first underplayed and then rushed. I wish it had developed more organically. I also wish Zé had played a bigger role in the events of the story, but he was mostly an observer which was a pity.

There are a number of plots to be tied up in Badger to the Bone and a host of familiar faces from both this series and the Pride series show up to play a part. I can’t say much without spoiling things, but I did enjoy watching everything come together. If I had one issue it was that Max and Zé were distanced from many resolutions, which was a bit frustrating. I wanted them to be more important to their own story than they were.

Badger to the Bone is a difficult book to put a star rating on. There were so many missed opportunities that I am saddened by. However, I had a genuinely wonderful time reading this book. It was fast-paced, funny, and totally bonkers – I loved reading it. Ultimately this book is like cotton candy: thoroughly enjoyable but missing substance. But hey, who doesn’t like cotton candy once in a while?


FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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Review: In a Badger Way by Shelly Laurenston

In a Badger Way by Shelly Laurenston
Series: The Honey Badger Chronicles, Book 2
Publisher: Kensington
Genre: Paranormal Romance

ISBN: 9781496714374
Release Date: March 26, 2019
Source: Publisher
Buy it here: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Audible

Petite, kind, brilliant, and young, Stevie is nothing like the usual women bodyguard Shen Li is interested in. Even more surprising, the youngest of the lethal, ball-busting, and beautiful MacKilligan sisters is terrified of bears. But she’s not terrified of pandas. She loves pandas.

Which means that whether Shen wants her to or not, she simply won’t stop cuddling him. He isn’t some stuffed Giant Panda, ya know! He is a Giant Panda shifter. He deserves respect and personal space. Something that little hybrid is completely ignoring.

But Stevie has a way of finding trouble. Like going undercover to take down a scientist experimenting on other shifters. For what, Shen doesn’t want to know, but they’d better find out. And fast. Stevie might be the least violent of the honey badger sisters, but she’s the most dangerous to Shen’s peace of mind. Because she has absolutely no idea how much trouble they’re in…or just how damn adorable she is.

Buckle up, because In a Badger Way is one wild ride. It’s an energetic, outrageous, wholly unique read thanks to Shelly Laurenston’s exuberant shifters.

Stevie MacKilligan, the youngest of the three MacKilligan half-sisters, grabbed my attention in the first of the Honey Badger Chronicles, Hot and Badgered. She’s a genius and the way her mind works is fascinating, which would be enough to entertain me, but she’s also kind and caring. One of Stevie’s biggest problems is that she panic shifts into a two ton badger/tiger. Oh, and she just happens to be terrified of bears…and lives in a bear neighborhood. One type of bear who doesn’t terrify her? Pandas. They’re just so cute! And none is cuter than panda shifter Shen Li. Shen, tasked to guard Stevie’s friend and teenage prodigy Kyle, is used to geniuses and for the most part is unfazed by the MacKilligan craziness. Shen made me smile more than once. He’s protective, calm, and (yes) so cute that I could happily read about him all day (and totally wanted to see more of his panda side). A genius with an anxiety disorder and a roll-with-it panda? They’re a perfect match. I adored them together and thought they made an interesting, sweet, and sensual couple, which made it easy to become invested in their story. The one downside of In a Badger Way is that I felt like I didn’t get quite enough time with Stevie and Shen. There are so many characters and points of view that I felt parts of Stevie and Shen’s relationship development were sacrificed in favor of other plots and characters.

In a Badger Way has a lot going on, but Ms. Laurenston keeps all the balls spinning in a way that only a truly talented author can. Stevie’s personal journey and her romance with Shen were my favorite parts of the book. But there was also an intriguing plot involving someone experimenting on shifters that I would have loved to delve deeper into. Not to mention the overarching series storylines involving MacKilligan family dynamics, a truly menacing assassin, appearances from a boatload of secondary characters from Ms. Laurenston’s Pride series, and more. I haven’t yet read the Pride books, but I liked the characters I met well enough and am sure fans of that series will be thrilled to check in with some past heroes and heroines. You don’t have to have read the Pride books in order to follow along, but I do recommend reading Hot and Badgered before starting Stevie and Shen’s story.

In a Badger Way is funny, over-the-top, and highly entertaining. I loved Stevie and Shen together and I just can’t get enough of the MacKilligan sisters (I’m seriously excited to see what Ms. Laurenston has in store for Max). If you’re looking for a vibrant paranormal romance that’s out of the ordinary, you can’t go wrong with In a Badger Way.


FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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Review: Hot and Badgered by Shelly Laurenston

Hot and Badgered by Shelly Laurenston
Series: The Honey Badger Chronicles, Book 1
Publisher: Kensington
Genre: Paranormal Romance

ISBN: 9781496714343
Source: Publisher
Buy it here: Amazon | B&N

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…

Ever since her mother died, Charlie Taylor-MacKilligan’s biggest job has been to take care of her sisters. Easier said than done and that’s before you take into account the three sisters’ no-good father who is constantly screwing up their lives. Charlie has never been able to rely on anyone, but all that changes when she falls – literally – into Berg Dunn’s life. Berg is a grizzly with a heart of gold and it’s in his nature to protect. After their initial meeting, he can’t get the gorgeous woman with a gun out of his mind. Charlie doesn’t like accepting help, but to protect her sisters she’ll do anything and her father’s latest “scheme” has landed them in more danger than before. And though she believes her family is cursed and doesn’t want to bring that kind of disaster down on the seriously cute Berg, she’s about to learn that this determined grizzly will do anything to capture her heart.

Hot and Badgered is totally bonkers, and I mean that in the very best way. It’s bright, loud, and wholly unique with a ton of zany characters who practically jump off the page and a slow-burn romance that made me smile.

I absolutely loved Berg. He’s big, strong, and protective, but he’s also so damn gone over Charlie that he made me melt. As for Charlie, she’s equally strong and just a bit crazy (partly due to being half honey-badger, partly because…well, take a look at her family). I loved watching Charlie and Berg slowly fall in love. I sighed and smiled as Charlie learned she could lean on Berg, that he understood sibling love and loyalty (he’s a triplet), and that he and his family could take on the MacKilligan crazy and keep rolling. Charlie and Berg’s romance slowly built over the course of the story and it was lovely to watch unfold.

I loved every moment with Charlie and Berg, so for me the one downside of Hot and Badgered is that they did at times feel pushed out of their own story. Max and Stevie (Charlie’s sisters) are every bit as important to the story as Charlie. They’re wild, over the top, interesting characters and I can’t wait to read their books. Max and Stevie added a lot of humor to the story, but they were a whole lotta personality and they did sometimes seem to drown out Charlie and Berg, who were the relatively calm voices. And while Hot and Badgered is the first book in the Honey Badger Chronicles, this series is a spinoff of Shelly Laurenston’s Pride series. As I haven’t read that series, the sheer amount of Pride characters popping up pulled me out of the story a bit, especially when it felt like some cameos were shoehorned in. Perhaps if I had an emotional attachment to the characters I wouldn’t have felt that way, so if you’re a Pride fan you might feel differently than I.

The plot of Hot and Badgered is pretty much impossible to talk about because there are so many storylines and characters that there’s no real way to summarize it. Multiple storylines, at least one of which looks to be a series-long arc, action, danger, and a ton of colorful characters keep the book moving at a breakneck pace. In the hands of a lesser author, this book would have spun out of control, but Ms. Laurenston deftly juggles everything in a truly inspiring way. This was my first foray into Ms. Laurenston’s work and I will definitely be coming back for more. If you’re looking for a paranormal romance that’s unique, Hot and Badgered definitely fits the bill.


FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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