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Hot and Badgered

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Member Reviews

ARC - I voluntarily offered to review this book with no obligations and my opinions are honest
I love, love the MacKilligan sisters.
They crack me up.
Stevie is totally Kyle # 2. That is why they get along so well.
( They do not understand their geniuses! )
Max is Olivia # 2. However, Olivia will definitely claw me for saying that.
Charlie, sweet Charlie, until you threaten her sisters. Then watch out!
( Just ask Dee Ann )
I hope that Max + Stevie get their own books.
I can't wait to meet their mates.
I loved the storytelling + the characters
The storytelling + the character's build were awesome!

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I received an Advanced Reading Copy of Hot and Badgered from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. As always, the following review consists solely of my opinions and mine alone. I then reread the entire series so it was all nice and fresh before I dived into the ARC.
In Hot and Badgered, we meet a whole new set of shifters and see the return of some of our favourites as well. I was almost fooled by the prologue and was worried I wouldn't have any Blayne, Dee-Ann, or Livvy cameos in Hot and Badgered, but I shouldn't have doubted Shelly Laurenston to deliver. I'll never doubt you again, Ms Laurenston.
Hot and Badgered focuses on an ostracised branch of Livvy's family, the MacKilligan sisters. The oldest of three sisters, Charlie Taylor-MacKilligan is an anomaly. She and her youngest sister, Stevie, are only half honey badger which isn't a thing since HB genetics totally dominate in every other pairing with honey badgers involved. Together with their middle sister, Max, the MacKilligan sisters are on the run from the the first paragraph. Their guesses as to who's behind the hit squad after them varies from a Peruvian drug lord to government types, but one thing they know for sure is that it's definitely their no-good useless father's fault.
Charlie jumps off her hotel room's balcony and lands on Cooper Jean-Louise Parker's balcony (yes, the JLPs are baaaaack!) and Berg Dunn is Coop's bodyguard on duty. Berg and Charlie take on the black-ops types that crashed the party and while Berg has no idea who she is, he starts falling for Charlie then and there, even as she takes off again. She meets up with Max, and the two go to Switzerland to break their genius sister, Stevie, out of yet another 'mental health spa' and then they head to Manhattan and a Yang Family safe house (aka Livvy's house that is most decidedly not a Yang Family safe house).
Eventually Berg takes Charlie and her sisters to a place he knows will be perfect for the sisters to hideout until they figure things out. It doesn't hurt that it's a house in the same neighbourhood as the house Berg shares with the other members of his triplet set, Britta and Dag. The safest place he could think of was in a bear-only neighbourhood and as long as Max doesn't raid their hives and Charlie keeps stressbaking, everybear is more than happy to welcome the sisters to the neighbourhood.
It isn't until we're introduced to Dee-Ann's daughter that I realised that Hot and Badgered takes place at least 7 years after Livvy's story, Bite Me, which I wasn't too happy about. If you've read the entire series of Laurenston's from Eggie Ray's short story to Sara Morrighan's introduction to her true self to Mace Llewellyn's reuniting with his Bronx love to the mighty bearcat that is Novikov (who is not a serial killer), you've seen the craziness that I love and adore in Laurenston's books. And I was so upset that I missed the pregnancy crazies that I just know Dee-Ann and Blayne experienced through their pregnancies. I will literally get down on my hands and knees and beg Ms Laurenston for a book that has flashbacks (which I steadfastly despise) just so I can read how wild Blayne got or how terrifying Dee-Ann was during their pregnancy days.
Moving on before I start that wailing again (I get emotionally invested in my favourite books!).
Due to a few miscommunications (I totally blame Max's best friend), Dee-Ann and Cella (yes, the cat killer is back!) end up chasing Charlie and her sisters around Manhattan, including at the Sports Center where so many things I love happen and I can't tell you about them because it would spoil the story.
We get to see Sissy Mae and Mitch crash a house party, the sisters gain a Jean-Louise Parker prodigy roommate, Ric gets back in the kitchen (while Dee-Ann is teaching their daughter what her daddy taught her), Stevie faces her fear of bears in Shen Li, and Charlie gets a job to do what she does best that pays over $80K for a few days work. And we get a new shifter breed introduced! What else can I say to convince you that you need to read Hot and Badgered? There's moderate bloodshed, funny moments abound, and favourite characters return in cameos!
There are only a few things I disliked about Hot and Badgered. Mostly the fact that we skipped witnessing pregnant Dee-Ann and pregnant Blayne being in the same room. Because if you know Dee-Ann and Blayne, you know things happened. I'm not a fan of horrible fathers like Charlie, Max, and Stevie are cursed with but that's pretty much my daddy issues popping out of the closet to say howdy-do. But the likes by far outweigh the dislikes for me.
I love that the MacKilligan sisters are half-sisters (Charlie is half-wolf, Stevie is half-tiger, and Max is full honey badger) and they're all raised by one of the moms until they end up having to go live with Charlie's grandfather. Max is outright unstable but then you have Stevie who is heavily medicated for her anxiety issues and when she goes off-meds, she's just as unstable. When Stevie isn't hiding in trees from man-eating bears (don't judge), she's got her sisters' backs too. And then, there's Charlie, who's the one who always has her head on straight and always has several plans to keep her sisters safe. I love how Stevie and Max advise Berg on how to win over Charlie, "stray dog it!" is now a thing that shall live in infamy. Novikov trying to recruit the sisters repeatedly in the strangest moments.
If this book were human, I'd marry it. Therefore, I give Hot and Badgered 5 out of 5 stars (le gasp!) and a nice mellow 2 flames of sexytimes. Ms Laurenston focused on the storyline and didn't overindulge in the love scenes so I didn't feel like an unwilling voyeur reading through things. I wholeheartedly suggest y'all check it out.

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These books are always so much fun to read:) I love how she mixes her species up and comes out with some unexpected and funny hybrids. I also enjoyed so many of the previous characters showing back up. I always look forward to reading the next one; action, kick-ass females, hot males, shape shifters, humor, romance, hot sex. These books have it all, I just wish you could write faster;)

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Berg Dunn is a great at his job, in the personal protection agency his family runs, a family of grizzly shifters. While protecting a world renowned child prodigy, pianist, and shifter a naked woman lands on their hotel balcony. That is nothing new with woman throwing themselves at his charge but what is new is she is a shifter and being chased by a bunch of human assassins.

Honey badgers are a class unto themselves, fearless and ready to take on the world so when assassins kick in her door, Charlie does what she needs to do to survive. Even if it means falling out a window in a hotel. Little did she know she was going to end up with a fan of her own…a giant sized grizzly.

There are not many authors that can make me go from laughing hysterically to white knuckle reading all within a few minutes. Nor are there many authors that can write complete outlandish fictional characters and have you utter and complete submersed in those fictitious character’s lives…Shelly Laurenston does that and more.

Belly laughing, intense, romantic comedy that just puts a smile on your face.

I received this ARC copy of Hot and Badgered from Kensington Books. This is my honest and voluntary review. Hot and Badgered is set for publication March 27, 2018.

My Rating: 5 stars
Written by: Shelly Laurenston
Series: The Honey Badgers
Sequence in Series: Book 1
Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Kensington
Publication Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN-10: 1496714342
ISBN-13: 978-1496714343
Genre: Paranormal Romance | Fantasy | Shifter

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I LOVE this shifter world. I love it so freaking much. It is without a doubt my favorite PNR shifter world. This book is based in the same world that her Pride series is in. But with different people. Specifically honey badgers. YAY. If you read the Pride series then you know Liv.. and Liv was freaking hilarious. So I was so excited to start this series. And it did NOT disappoint.

Charlie is half honey badger and half wolf. She is kind of the mother hen of her two sisters. I kind of feel like you should go into this book not knowing anything specific about the sisters so I won't tell you about them but I will say that I loved them. Berg is a grizzly and omg have I said how much I love the bears in these books?! I could go on and on but I won't. I loved every single character in the book. I loved that we got little glimpses with some of the shifters from the Pride series. I loved how absolutely crazy and funny this book is.

I think I said loved 302 times but I don't care. It was fantastic and I am so excited for the next one!

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OMFG this book was hysterical! I love a good PNR story interwoven with fun, and this had it in spades!!! I loved seeing the gruesome threesome as kids and how they manipulated those around them, ensuring they were taken care of by a pack that essentially would have ostracised them.

When the main story starts we find our trio of hard hitting, slightly psychotic sisters are on the loose again! Charlie is left running for her life in her birthday suit when she runs into Berg's room. He is protecting a music prodigy at the time but is distracted by this shapely shifter! After giving her some clothing she runs off and Berg is resigned to never seeing her again.

But fate has finished with Charlie and Berg. After a mad dash across Europe which included shoehorning their baby sister from her break in a mental health facility, Charlie and Max are still covering their asses from however is after them...again. Cos this is not the first time the girls have been in trouble and usually their father is behind it!

Berg and his triplets end up being involved in the drama which follows the McKilligan girls and as the story progresses Berg realises that Charlie is the one for him, but with her so stressed and distracted protecting Stevie, can he get her to realise the same?

What a fantastic rampage! With a family that defines dysfunctional..they are not above clotheslining each other! Brings a whole new meaning to sibling relationships. But if you go against one sister, the other two will rip your face off! I loves that even though they are technically half-sisters, these girls are superglued together. Berg, Dag and Brita are kind of the same, less the bloody thirstyness! I was a bit put out that once again the Scots were the bad guys, but all is fogiven cos this book is stonkingly good!!!

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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.

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I very much liked this book. It was entertaining and funny and endeared the 3 sisters to me. I want to find out their stories and what happens with them in the future. Having said that, I thought that this was the first in a series, i.e a brand new series, but it actually is set in the "Pride" universe. When I was reading it - before I knew that - I found that I was reading a book where I was expected to know characters in it already. I thought that those characters had been underdeveloped or something but it turns out that they had been in another series. I think that if I had read the other books then this one would have been a 5 star book but I had to take a star off for the fact that I got confused in places due to the fact that I didn't already know the other characters in the story.

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What a fantastic new series. I love this author. This book made me laugh so many times. I love these three sisters and I really loved their take no prisoners attitude. I can't wait to see what type of men Max and Stevie end up with. I really enjoyed all the cameos by characters from other books too. This author is an automatic buy when she releases a shifter book.

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"Hot and Badgered" is not just a return to the world of Shelly Laurenston's "Pride" series, it feels like a return to form. Laurenston makes it clear that this is a separate series from the "Pride" series (which wrapped up nicely in 2014 release "Bite Me") by introducing a whole host of new characters, while giving us a glimpse into the lives of some of the stars of previous books. While characters like Dee-Ann Smith, Cella Malone, and my favorite Jean-Louis Parkers play a major role, this book and series are all about the Honey Badgers.

The MacKilligan sisters--our heroine Charlie and her half sisters, Max and Stevie--get a great introduction, as does our hero Berg Dunn, who comes with a fun pair of siblings of his own. Add in a dysfunctional father, an all bear-shifter neighborhood, and, of course, honey badgers, and as a reader, you're in for a wild ride. "Hot and Badgered" is everything long-time readers love and expect in Laurenston's work: over-the-top ridiculousness that'll have you laughing out loud, an admittedly high body count, and distinctly loony but lovable characters, not to mention a sweet romance.

This is a super fun beginning to The Honey Badgers series, and I can't wait to read more!

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Charlie will be the first one to tell you that being a MacKilligan is a bit of curse, but you're definitely cursed when your father is Freddy MacKilligan. Charlie and her sisters have learned that the only way to survive and stay out of jail is to take care of each other. Now their father has done something even stupider than usual, and the stakes are higher than ever.

Berg Dunn doesn't know why there's a woman on the run from trained killers, but that isn't going to stop him from helping her and neither will getting stabbed or shot himself. He doesn't regret the incident even if it does make his job protecting Cooper Jean-Louise Parker more difficult, he just wishes he was going to get to see her again.

Charlie and her sisters are not used to getting help from anyone but each other. Charlie definitely can't believe someone as attractive as Berg Dunn is willing to get involved in the craziness of her life and bring the Curse of the MacKilligans on himself by helping her. And yet, he keeps helping her at every turn. He keeps not running away screaming from her family, and there's just only so long a girl can resist.

"Hot and Badgered" is the first in a new series for Shelly Laurenston that’s related to her Pride series. I was looking forward to "seeing a few familiar faces" from the Pride series over the course of the book, much like you occasionally hear tell of or run into characters from the Magnus Pack Series in the Pride books. Not only was I not disappointed in the appearances of “old” characters, but I was also thrilled with how much this book related back to the Pride series. The timeline is about 10 or so years after the Pride series ended (give or take a couple of years) as Kyle Jean-Louise Parker is now almost an adult (though still fully obnoxious) and it’s tied closely to many of the characters I loved. I won't ruin all the surprises, but I will say get ready to have some fun if you're a fan of the Pride series.

This book can be read without reading the Pride series first, though I highly recommend reading that series in general because it's one of my favorites and I revisit it often. People who are new to this "world" may find it a little overwhelming just how many characters there are that are tied to one another at first, but I think the story is woven together nicely and the line between introducing a new reader and reminding a veteran is well-balanced.

This story is definitely typical Laurenston: funny, sexy, action-packed, and absolutely absurd. Get ready for a great ride.

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Well the new series based on the Honey Badgers is here and it was like reading a cross between Dragonkin and Pride series (since you will see several characters from that series in this book).

As you would expect there is a ton of insanity and mayhem, I loved every page of it. The sisters are possibly the baddest things on the planet when together and not far from it going solo.

The plot is too convoluted to even try to explain but there is almost non-stop action and humor on every page and so you don't forget it is actually a series there are a few dangling threads that will be continued in the next book.

I could keep writing but to be honest if you have read either of the 2 series I mentioned above you already know what to expect and throw in a bit of sexy but slow romance and you have a winning if chaotic combination.

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If I could give this 10 stars, I would! I absolutely loved this book. I don't think I have laughed so hard as I did with these characters. As crazy as the antics these ladies got themselves into, I never felt like the humor was too much. Yes, it was silly but in the best way possible. There are so many quotes I would love to display in my review but then I would be copying pretty much the whole book. Shelly Laurenston is my kind of humor!

Hot and Badgered is Charlie and Berg's story but it felt like it was also Stevie, Max, Dag and Britta's book. And maybe Dutch and Kyle's. For having so many people in this book, I did not get lost at all. I loved every character and what they brought to this story.

I know some of these side characters are from previous books. I'm fairly new to this author so I haven't read them yet, but I never felt like I needed to read any of them first. What this book did was make me want to go immediately buy every book Shelly has published. This was fantastic and I can't recommend it enough for readers who love comedy and paranormal romance books. You won't find anything better.

I will leave you with one quote that is in the beginning of the book to give you a taste of what Charlie and her sisters are like.

"If you lose your legs I'll get you a wheelchair with a Ferrari motor that goes from zero to sixty in 4 seconds. Wouldn't that be great?"

"I'd rather have my legs still attached to my body"

"That's such a narrow view. What about bionic legs? Bionic legs would be so cool."

ARC provided by NetGalley.

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Hot and Badgered by Shelly Laurenston
The Honey Badgers #1

I loved the first chapter of this book and thought that it had so much potential. I even liked the first part of chapter two where Berg meets Charlie but from that point on the story, to me, became rather chaotic. There were so many names that even writing them down to keep track didn’t help much and there were so many things taking place it felt like everything but the kitchen sink had been thrown in. The sisters seemed so close in chapter one and also very together for children but they did not carry that through as adults.

So, the story is about three “sisters” with honey badger blood. They are not all from the same mother and father but are raised together. We are introduced to them when they show up on their grandfather’s doorstep at ages 8, 11 and 12 and then we don’t see them again till they are full grown and in action mode. There is someone out to get them, people to thwart, fights at the drop of a hat, mental institutions, panic attacks, personal attacks, a bit of romance, shapeshifting, heists, robbing, family unknown unearthed, chases, killing, maiming and more. I think the main thing is that I just could not relate to many if any of the characters.

I think this is a series that is not my cup of tea but I would like to thank NetGalley and Kensington Books for the ARC – This is my honest review.

2-3 Stars

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It’s been four years since Laurenston’s last shifter book Bite Me and it seems much longer. I was so disappointed when I heard she was not writing anymore books in the Pride series. Make no mistake, I love her dragons and crows, but I ADORE her shifters. This new book is listed as the first in a new series, but it is actually connected to the Pride series which makes it even better.

The best I can tell, Hot and Badgered takes place about seven or eight years after Bite Me. Several characters from the Pride series show up in this book and others are mentioned. As I say time and again, yes, you can read these books as stand alones, but I don’t recommend it. That goes for this book as well. There are plot points that just will not have as much impact if you don’t know the history of the characters.

Having said all that, Hot and Badgered, is wonderful. I had a hard time keeping the sisters straight at the beginning, but they have distinctive personalities and shifter traits. There was one aspect about their shifted forms that bothered me because it contradicted the earlier books, but it was explained later on and actually supported a major thread of the story. It’s so hard to talk about the best parts of the book because of spoilers.

Charlie Taylor-MacKilligan is a wolf/honey badger hybrid. She is far too laid back for anyone to believe she is a badger until she’s not. Don’t piss her off. She and her sisters are dangerous.
Berg is a grizzly and all bear. He’s protective and seems more stable to me than other grizzly shifters. His personality seems more polar than grizzly. And you can tell I am a fan of these stories because that actually makes sense to me. And let me tell you, Charlie needs someone stable in her life.

I can’t really recommend this book if you are not already a Pride series reader. I think you will lose so much of the story if you don’t already understand the shifters’ world. If you are a fan, I don’t have to recommend it. I know any reader of Laurenston will be at the bookstore when they open to get this next installment in her world of shifters.

Now, when is the next book due out?

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Having read everything that Shelly Laurenston has written this novel continues on in the same vein as her previous ones. It is snarky, crazy, and totally fun. Having been very sad when Ms. Laurenston said she was done with her Pride series I was very happy when several characters from that series made appearances in this book.

The lead characters are Berg a grizzly bear , and Charlie a wolf/honey-badger hybrid. Charlie has 2 half sisters, and between the 3 girls, chaos ensues. There is not one dull moment in this entire book. The humor and wit are throughout the entire book, and yes it is laugh-out-loud funny. Berg and Charlie's romance is and sweet and funny, Her sisters are insane.

The shifter world that Ms. Laurenston has created is on long crazy ride and so much fun.

Received as an ARC from Netgalley for an honest review.

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One of the funnest reads I've enjoyed so far this year. I love a good paranormal romance and when the author can entertain you with laughter too, that's worthy of another star! Though this book centers mostly around Charlie MacKilligan, it's definitely as much about her sisters and her love for them.

Laurenstein infuses her characters with the animal traits of their shifter animal and they are above awesome and fascinating. This book had a lot of characters in it that I'm sure were from her earlier Pride series (which I have not read but will definitely dig out now) but it in no way lessened my enjoyment of this fabulous cast of shifter characters.

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This was a really fun shifter book. Plenty of action, a surprisingly sweet romance, and a lot of humor. I wasn't expecting this, but I really enjoyed it!

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***5 ‘Stray-Dog This’ Stars***

Two things before I start the review: 1) This is the first time I’ve read anything to do with this world, not the first time I’ve read the author because I’ve gone down the rabbit hole with The Call of Crows & Dragon Kin Series (G.A. Aiken) and loved every second. 2) I know that these books are under the PNR umbrella, but I tend to view them as more UF with some romance.

So with that out of the way….

OMG SO. MUCH. CRAZY. GOODNESS!!

Am I kicking my own ass for not diving into this world when my bookwhorebestie told me to?
Yes.
But, I’m all about making more room in my comfy little rabbit hole for this world.

I adored Berg and Charlie. It was hard not to adore them. While they have different boiling/I’m going to lose my shit points, they’re amazingly calm and logical and when it comes to their siblings they are all in. They will do anything for them, even if it means giving them a good smack upside the head...or more (it’s all situational and the recipients of such treatment typically deserve it), but they just flowed well with each other and worked in the end.

But what I really enjoed were the characters as a whole. They are all so unique with their own quirks and psychosis’ that the need to get to know them better and see what they do next becomes an addiction because you KNOW something else will happen, it’s just a matter of when. There are many OTT moments that had me not only laughing out loud (and sometimes snort/laughing) but rolling my eyes because there was just no way to stop it from happening.

A lot went down in this one and as only one situation was resolved there is much more to come from the honey badgers and I for one cannot wait to see how everything unfolds. I loved Mia and Stevie, Charlie’s sisters, and am quite curious to see who will be ‘man’ enough to take on these two, as well as how they deal with those they call family and friends!

~ Copy provided from the publisher via NetGalley & voluntarily reviewed ~

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Errata:
"Max opened ajar of honey-covered peanuts" should be "a jar"
"I don't have a million pounds just lying around to fix my father's fuckup." - The amount is a hundred million pounds, so I don't know if this is in error or just a character misspeaking.
"she wouldn't upset Stevie by killing him." - the phrase should, I believe, be precisely the opposite: she would upset Stevie by killing him.
"I'm going to crack his jackal bones like kindle." should read " I'm going to crack his jackal bones like kindling." Let's not give Amazon's crappy app any more due than it's worth, which isn't much! Now if it had read "I'm going to crack his jackal bones like a Kindle device," I would have found that funny!
There was a section that read (in part) "...last few months, but they’re already booked through the first of the year.” that was all in Italics. I think the first word of that section, 'is', was intended to be in italics, but the rest of it was not.
There was a merged paragraph where the second person's speech ran into the first person's without having a paragraph break between them so it read, “Out.” “Fine.”
There was also a sentence which began with Or, and which should have had a question mark after it but didn't. I was too tired to copy & paste it at the time and when I tried to find that in Amazon's crappy Kindle app, I discovered that their crappy search engine isn't case specific so when I searched for "Or" it found a bizillion of them including examples such as 'door', 'before', 'woodworking', 'disorder, and on and on. It should be easy to find it in a word processor.
One last one I noticed which may or may not be a mistake. At one point there was mentioned a "duffel Dbag." I have no idea what this is. I've never heard of a duffel Dbag before, so I wonder if it might be a mistake?

This is from an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.

So this hilarious story is about the MacKilligan sisters: Charlie, Max, and Stevie. They all have the same father, but each a different mother. They're all honey badger hybrid shifters, and all are dangerous and violent, or at least paranoid when off their meds - which at least two of them are taking. I had the opportunity to read a sneak preview back in September 2017, which turned out to be the prologue of this book. Normally I don't read prologues because they're useless and antiquated, but that was all I got back then, so I read it and I really liked the idea and the story.

I'm not a fan of urban fantasy stories or of series and this was both - at least I assume it's volume one in a series - and this is the first such volume I've read in a long time where I'd actually welcome a volume two. That's very high praise from me! For me in general, it's tedious to read stories of endless werewolves and vampires all looking the same, behaving the same, doing the same things over and over. It goes completely against my grain to read a paranormal romance - which are beyond tedious and well into laughable. This book skillfully avoided that trap and instead went for the humor and the action, and especially for the out-of-left-field off-the-wall situations and it was right up my alley. I would love to see a movie of this.

The market is glutted with bad paranormal and urban fantasy stores, most of which are boring cookie-cutter vomit, and few writers seem to have the smarts or the ability to move on and write something different. This author is definitely not in that category. I don't usually have much interest in shifter stories, but the idea of reading about honey badgers was very appealing to me. I was thrilled to get a chance to read the whole novel (minus the prologue!) and I enjoyed this one thoroughly because it was so different from the run of the mill uninventive werewolf and vampire romances. This one actually had a story! it also had a romance but thankfully that was not the point of the story and it was well written.

I have to say I am not a fan of prologues or epilogues and this book had both. I honestly do not get why authors don't simply label them chapter one and Chapter whatever-the-last-chapter-number-is. The very word 'epilogue' puts me to sleep. But I read this one and it was, in effect, the prologue to volume two. Please no more epilogues and prologues! But please, volume two!

Anyway...the MacKilligan trio's father is a shiftless shifter, a worthless piece of non-human trash, and no one knows it better than the MacKilligans themselves. When they learn that he's dead, they're thrilled by the prospect of identifying the body, but you know how this is going to turn out, right? He's alive, he has absconded with a hundred millions pounds from his Scots relatives, and they are after him, and after the MacKilligan sisters to find their father. Other people are also after them, either to recruit them because they're so violent and deadly, or to kill them because...they're so violent and deadly.

This is the world we're in and oh my, there are lions, and tigers, and bears! The MacKilligans are semi-adopted by the bears who provide some protection, but this doesn't protect them from the machinations of their father, who is as sneaky as he is dishonest, and the kind of man who would be willing even to sell his children if he thought he could come out ahead on the deal. But to put that in perspective, the MacKilligan family is widespread and not altogether properly hinged. And that's the nicest thing you can say about many of them; then there's the wedding...and cousin Dutch.

Fortunately, theres also Charlie Taylor-MacKilligan, who is equal to any challenge. And her half-sister Max, who is barely shy of psychotic, and who regularly has knock-down-drag-out fights with kid half-sister Stevie, a bona-fide genius who is completely paranoid. Especially of bears. But they're sisters, and no one better try to mess with them.

This was a really beautifully-realized world, populated with interesting individuals. Even the bad guys were fascinating and nuanced. If I had any complaints, I have to say the story was a little bit on the long side and I was somewhat disappointed it wasn't nicely wrapped-up after this volume. Also there seemed to be far too many shifters for the human population not to be completely aware of them. And I won't get into the biological issues of inter-species mating (if two animals - or plants! - can successfully mate, they're the same species!). The definition of a species is that it can't mate outside it's own species. Since this is paranormal, pretty much anything goes, but I always think it would be nice to have some sort of rationale behind it, no matter how hazy!

Like I said, not a fan of series, but I'd read volume two and follow this series if it maintained (as opposed to tainted) the high standards set in this novel. I'd even buy this volume in hardback just to have it on my shelf, so hopefully I don't have to spell out that I fully recommend this. It's one of the best books I've ever read and unquestionably the best novel I've read this year.

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