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

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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 .

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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 1^st 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