Tag: Shelly Laurenston

Guest Review: In a Badger Way by Shelly Laurenston

Posted April 24, 2019 by Jen in Reviews | 0 Comments

Guest Review: In a Badger Way by Shelly LaurenstonReviewer: Jen
In a Badger Way by Shelly Laurenston, Charlotte Kane
Series: Honey Badger Chronicles #2
Also in this series: Hot and Badgered (Honey Badgers Chronicles #1), Hot and Badgered (Honey Badger Chronicles, #1)
Publisher: Kensington
Publication Date: March 26, 2019
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Genres: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 410
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
three-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

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.

More honey badgers! That should honestly be the tag line for this book, because anyone who glimpsed the MacKilligan sisters in Hot and Badgered should pretty much know what that means: lots of fighting and violent but devoted sisterly love.

This book is about Stevie MacKilligan. Stevie is the genius in the family, the one who is both a world-class scientist and a world-class musician (so far). She also has some pretty severe anxiety problems and turns into a giant raving hybrid monster when provoked. You know, as you do. There are some more fishy things happening to hybrid shifters in the world, and Stevie has to help put a stop to it. Luckily, she has Shen to help her. Shen is a panda shifter who likes his life filled with quiet and all the bamboo he can eat. The more time he spends with Stevie, though, the more he realizes he may be ok with a little disruption.

Stevie isn’t my favorite MacKilligan sister. I wasn’t that interested in her in the first book, and I still wasn’t that interested in her after her own book. It’s not that I didn’t like her, but I did think she was a bit immature. Her romance with Shen didn’t have much substance to it either. Laurenston’s books do share focus between plot and romance in largely equal measures, and this book follows that pattern. The problem was, I didn’t really see a huge connection between Stevie and Shen. Shen seemed too old, too mature for Stevie, and I didn’t really see where they could go by the end.

The plot, though, was fun. The villain is pretty cartoon evil, and it’s always fun to see Laurenston’s villains get their comeuppance. I really enjoyed Stevie’s friendship with Kyle, too. He’s another prodigy, and a very obnoxious one at that, but he actually had some personal growth in this book. He and Stevie were odd friends but they somehow worked, and it was fun to read about. I also loved seeing more of the MacKilligan sisters and glimpses of past couples from Laurenston’s other series.

There is a lot of talk about mental health because Stevie has some serious issues. The book makes a big deal about how she gets treatment, both therapy, and medication. Even her sisters seek some treatment in this book, and that’s not something you normally see in a wacky paranormal romance. It normalizes seeking help, which I like. If those topics are triggering for you, though, you may want to steer clear of the Honey Badger books.

Even my least favorite Laurenston books are always a good time. I’ll just keep waiting anxiously for the next book.

Grade: 3.5 out of 5

Honey Badger Chronicles

three-half-stars

0 Comments

Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

Guest Review: Hot and Badgered by Shelly Laurenston

Posted August 23, 2018 by Jen in Reviews | 0 Comments

Guest Review: Hot and Badgered by Shelly LaurenstonReviewer: Jen
Hot and Badgered (Honey Badger Chronicles, #1) by Shelly Laurenston
Series: Honey Badger Chronicles, #1
Also in this series: Hot and Badgered (Honey Badgers Chronicles #1), In a Badger Way
Publisher: Kensington
Publication Date: March 27, 2018
Format: eARC
Point-of-View: Third Person
Genres: Paranormal Romance
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-half-stars

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 . . .

A series featuring honey badger shifter sisters? YES PLEASE!

This is yet another spin-off from Laurenston’s eternally growing shifter books, and it is a great addition to the world. The series centers on the three MacKilligan half sisters: Max, Stevie, and Charlie, the heroine of this first book. The women have a crappy father who takes “deadbeat” to a whole new level. They’ve basically spent their entire lives trying to extricate themselves from their dad’s schemes and the incredible danger he constantly puts them in. (And let’s face it, they are constantly making their own enemies too!) In this book, their lives are once again in danger thanks to their dad, and they come to the attention of the secret shifter organization we’ve see in the other books, called The Group. Charlie also meets Berg, a large and sweet bear shifter. When Berg takes a liking to Charlie, he starts to help them and quickly gets himself and his two siblings sucked into the MacKilligan’s bananas world.

I love these sisters! Charlie, Max, and Stevie are all messed up in their own ways, but they never fail to support each other. They argue and give each other a hard time, but they always have each other’s back. This is some fierce female love right here. (Figurative and literally fierce–these ladies are violent and aggressive, as you would expect from honey badgers!) I also love Berg and his siblings. They are triplets, and while they are infinitely more well-adjusted than the MacKilligan sisters, they are just as devoted to each other. I know it’s rare in real life to have sibling relationships like these, but I love the fantasy in my books.

Charlie is an excellent character, too. She is an organizer, a manager, and a people handler. She’s the one who often talks them out of the messes her sisters and her dad get them into. Her talents aren’t as flashy, or scary, as her sisters’, but she’s really the glue that keeps them all together and functioning. In a way she reminded me of Toni Jean-Louis Parker from Laurenston’s Wolf with Benefits (and we see a bit of Toni in this book too), but without so much of the type-A arrogance that makes Toni a bit off-putting at times. Berg is a great match for Charlie as well. He’s a quiet, strong support for her and does so without dampening her strengths or trying to get between her and her sisters. You can tell Berg is the first person who’s simply supported Charlie without any expectation of something in return, and it takes Charlie a while to figure out what to do with that kind of love. Once she does, though, it’s adorable.

This book is very much in the vein of Laurenston’s other shifter books, but I do think the MacKilligan sisters are some of her most interesting and fun characters so far. I loved this book and can’t wait to read more.

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

 

four-half-stars

0 Comments

Tagged: , , , , , ,

Guest Review: Hot and Badgered by Shelly Laurenston

Posted April 13, 2018 by Tracy in Reviews | 2 Comments

Guest Review: Hot and Badgered by Shelly LaurenstonReviewer: Tracy
Hot and Badgered (Honey Badgers Chronicles #1) by Shelly Laurenston
Publisher: Kensington
Publication Date: March 27th 2018
Format: eARC
Genres: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 400
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-stars

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 . . .

Charlie, Max and Stevie are all half-sisters.  They all have the same no good, thieving, idiot father who is constantly getting himself into trouble.  The problem with that is that people think they can get to their father through his daughters.  Not!  Charlie, Max and Stevie were all raised first by Charlie’s mother and then when she died, by Charlie’s grandfather in a wolf pack.  Charlie is half honey badger and half wolf.  Max is all honey badger and Stevie is half honey badger, half tiger.  They’re all incredibly dangerous and can take anyone who comes after them.  That doesn’t mean they want to.

When the girls’ father once again gets them into the middle of things, Charlie, Max and Stevie take help from an unlikely source.  Berg is a bear shifter and completely smitten with Charlie.  He offers to help house them and they end up renting a house in an all bear neighborhood. Berg just happens to live across the street so this is convenient for him to be near Charlie as much as possible.

When the girls finally figure out what they father has done to get people after them they try to remedy the situation, but a wedding their not invited to, twin aunts who have no idea they’re shifters and a psychopathic cousin make this incredibly difficult.  With help from a bunch of unlikely sources the girls try to make their lives as normal as possible.

I love honey badgers. LOL  They are tough and don’t take anyone’s shit.  They can fight anyone and probably win and have a blasé attitude while doing it.  This particular group of honey badgers made me laugh constantly.  I love the way that Laurenston writes and her characters are always so alive and so incredibly irreverent.

This was Charlie and Berg’s romance but their relationship was so entwined into the story that it was more about everything else going on.  That actually worked for me.  There was SO much going on in this book that to add more of the romance wouldn’t have felt right.

I adored Charlie, Max and Stevie’s relationship. They were constantly at war with each other, yet they loved each other dearly and would have each other’s back in a hot minute.  Charlie was very protective of her sisters and especially Stevie as she kind of had her head in the clouds.  She’s a complete genius and was in her head a bit more than she was in reality.  When people try to take Stevie for her big brain Charlie does everything she can to stop it.  The girls may not hug each other on a regular basis but I could feel the love between the three.

I can’t tell you all the little bits of this book because A) there are a lot of bits! And B) you need to read it for yourself in order to get what’s going on.  This was a fun and crazy book and I really enjoyed it.  A great start to a new series that still includes people from other series that we already know and love.

Rating: 4 out of 5

four-stars

2 Comments

Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Guest Review: The Unyielding by Shelly Laurenston

Posted March 30, 2017 by Jen in Reviews | 1 Comment

Guest Review: The Unyielding by Shelly LaurenstonReviewer: Jen
The Unyielding by Shelly Laurenston
Series: Call of Crows #3
Also in this series: The Undoing
Publisher: Kensington
Publication Date: March 28th 2017
Pages: 400
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

Stieg Engstrom, Angriest Viking Ever, has got big problems. The human Viking Clans of earth are in danger of being obliterated—along with the rest of the world—and the only one who may be able to save them is a super pain-in-the-ass Crow. Most people annoy Stieg, but this is the one woman he really can’t stand…

Erin Amsel loves being a Crow! Why wouldn’t she when the other Viking Clans are so hilariously arrogant and humorless? She’s not about to let all that come to an end! She just didn’t expect to be shoulder to shoulder in battle with Stieg. Then again, he’s so easy to torment—and also kind of cute.

With the future of the world riding on them, Stieg knows he’ll have to put aside his desperate need to kiss the smirk right off Erin’s face. Wait. What? He didn’t mean that—did he? No! They have one goal: To conquer the idiots. Because nothing bugs Stieg more than when idiots win. If only he can keep himself from suddenly acting like one….

Another Call of Crows book, and another review from me gushing about how much I love this series!

We finally get Erin Amsel’s book! For those who’ve haven’t been reading along I won’t waste time with too much summary, but the very abbreviated version is that the Viking Clans, who are each in service to a different Nordic god/goddess, have to work together to stop the rogue goddess Gullveig from bringing about Ragnarok (the Viking end of the world). It turns out that the only one who even might be able to stop her is Erin, and she has to go on a quest to get the tools she needs to do it. She’s aided by Stieg Engstrom, a grumpy, fierce Viking who REALLY doesn’t like Erin (or at least that’s what he thinks). Erin and Stieg have to journey to the very edge of hell while the Crows and the rest of the Clans have to prepare for a battle to save the world.

Erin, as we are repeatedly told by literally everyone in this series including Erin herself, is a dick. She loves to stir the pot, never hesitates to speak her mind, and has basically little filter between her brain and her mouth. She isn’t  exactly malicious, but nor does she particularly care if what she says or does hurts anyone’s feelings. It has ensured nearly every other Clan can’t stand Erin, and even her Sister Crows want to murder her more often than not. (Don’t be alarmed though–pretty much everyone wants to, or explicitly tries to, murder someone else in these books at some point! These are violent, crazy fairytales!) I have totally enjoyed Erin right from the start, and it was great to see her own story. She is just so damn hilarious.

The things that I loved about the first two books in the series were what I loved most about this one, too. First and foremost, the female friendships are SO AWESOME. These women have each other’s backs no matter what. I especially liked that it’s clear by this book that the three heroines of the series (Kera, Jace, and Erin) have a particular bond, and watching them try to protect and support each other was so great. I also love the Norse mythology of the series. Probably my favorite is when we get to “meet” the gods and goddesses, like Odin and Tyr. They are so self-absorbed and ridiculous–Laurenston has taken all the outrageous behaviors from the myths and imagined the kind of being that would do such things. It is a total riot and so clever. The secondary cast of characters is also pretty amazing and add so much richness and comedy to the story.

And yet…there were a few things that bothered me. First, I wanted to learn a bit more about Erin. I wanted to know WHY she’s such a dick. We hear a little about her family and her death, but there’s just not much explanation. I know, it’s probably unfair of me to start wishing for more depth, because that’s not what this series is about. I just found Erin so fascinating and fun that it was hard not to want more. I also didn’t really understand Stieg. Frankly he was kind of forgettable even in the earlier books, and I still felt that way about him by the end of this one. Erin does certainly soften towards him in her own Erin-way, but I wanted a touch more to the romance, even though I know that’s not really what these books do.

Despite wanting a bit more from this book, I still had an amazingly good time reading it. It is funny, clever, and exciting, and I never regret spending time in the world of the Crows.

Grade: 4 out of 5

*I received a review copy of this book from the publisher.

four-stars

1 Comment

Tagged: , , , , , ,

Guest Review: The Undoing by Shelly Laurenston

Posted April 7, 2016 by Jen in Reviews | 0 Comments

Guest Review: The Undoing by Shelly LaurenstonReviewer: Jen
The Undoing by Shelly Laurenston
Series: Call of Crows #2
Also in this series: The Unyielding
Publisher: Kensington
Publication Date: March 29, 2016
Pages: 400
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

A risk worth taking…

No one would ever accuse Jace Berisha of having an easy life—considering her husband…you know…killed her. But that was then! Now she fights for mighty Viking gods with the spectacular and vicious Crows.

But things are turning very bad, very quickly because a vengeful, ancient goddess has come into the world with just one thing on her mind—ending it. And the only way they can hope to stop her is if the Crows join forces with their one-time enemies, the Protectors. A Viking Clan created to do nothing but kill every Crow they see.

Thankfully, Protector Ski Eriksen is a peace loving kind of guy. Because the woman he is desperately trying to get close to is the beautiful and not-very-chatty Jace. Battling Nordic clans? Unkillable goddesses? Jace’s mean-spirited dog? None of these things would ever get in the way of a true Viking!

The second in the Call of Crows series, The Undoing, was as much fun as I was hoping it would be!

This book takes us back to the world of the Crows, an all-female bunch of murderous assassins brought back to life to serve the goddess Skuld. The heroine this time is Jace, the Crows’ resident berserker who becomes uncontrollable when a rage takes hold, but is painfully quiet and introverted the rest of the time. When Danski “Ski” Eriksen hires her for some translation work, it’s no hardship as he is intrigued by and attracted to her. Ski is from the Viking Protector clan. The Protectors are basically the librarians and archivists and nerdy weirdos of the Nordic world, and Jace is totally down with that! Unlike her sister Crows, the Protectors are quiet and revere books and learning (though they can still kick ass in a fight!). Jace and her puppy immediately fit in with the Protectors, and the job gives Jace a new purpose. Unfortunately, strange things start happening in the world, and it becomes clear that the evil Gullveig the Crows thought they defeated in Book 1 is still there and plotting to end the world. It looks like the clans are going to have to work together to end the threat.

Jace is such a great heroine. She HATES commotion and constant chatter, so living in a giant house full of the loudest, chatteriest women around is not easy for her. It was so adorable to see her fit in with the Protectors, who could happily sit reading all day long in silence. During one scene that had me cry-laughing, Jace actually jumps out of a moving car just to avoid small talk with Ski! Now THAT’S introverted. When she opens up to Ski about her life before the Crows, you realize how horrible her history is and why it would make her the way she is, though. She has a hidden strength that even her sister Crows don’t all recognize.

And let’s talk about Ski, because he’s pretty yummy too. Unlike his fellow Protectors, he actually has to get out of the house and deal with others, so he’s developed way more people and life skills than any of them. But he still can comfortably communicate with his introverted, quiet, nerdy brothers, which is what makes him the perfect match for Jace. He doesn’t talk down to her or patronize her–he too loves talking about books and history and all kinds of trivia, and he uses that as a bridge to make her more comfortable. Plus he wears glasses and has hot Viking sexxxing abilities. What’s not to love? As in Book 1, the romance is not the focus–it shares billing with a bunch of other storylines. Because of Jace’s past and because of her introversion, she and Ski move a little slow at first, but once they get together they are such a lovely team. 

The larger story arc about Gullveig and her attempts to bring Ragnarok are exciting and I am 100% hooked. (There’s no cliffhanger, but the larger storyline is not resolved yet.) We actually get to meet some of the gods here and it’s hilarious, like Odin (who has a thing for strippers with huge boobs) and Thor (who is a whiny, insecure manchild). I love Laurenston’s take on these familiar characters.

This was a very funny and very enjoyable read.

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

Reading Order:

The Unleashing
The Undoing

four-half-stars

0 Comments

Tagged: , , , , , , ,