My reaction once I saw the title for this book and knew it was about HONEY BADGERS:



via GIPHY

This might be one of the ways I imagine our favorite honey badgers:



via GIPHY

But I am torn on how to review this because I loved it so much and don't want to even partially spoil anything so...  it is LIST TIME!!!

Why do I love this book so much?  Well..

We get to see HONEY BADGERS...  I mean come on now who wouldn't love it just for this alone.
A certain character I love gets their ass kicked and... also gets what's coming to them from another source as well.  When a mama says "I hope you have a kid just like you", pray this doesn't happen.
Bo!!!!!  Yes Bo is back in all his OCD glory.
Kyle!!!!!  We gets lots of psycho Kyle and man oh man did I miss him.
The sisters are divine!
Lock makes a fun appearance.
A certain overly focused older genius makes an appearance.
I really hope that one of the sisters ends up with my favorite panda.
We get another species that I didn't expect but should've cause he's just priceless and I can't wait to see more of him in future books.
Another bear shifter so you know what he's especially good at *waggles eyebrows*
A love story that makes sense even as the world around them goes crazy they just work...
Now on to my warnings..

Read this ONLY with people around you that won't get distracted by snort laughing as you hit some of the funniest parts.

Don't read this while DRINKING ANYTHING...  Yes I do mean DRINKING ANYTHING...  You will spit take a few times if you do and there is a distinct possibility of laughing hard enough where it will come out your nose.

Be prepared to want MORE NOW as this book reminds you of why you love this series so much and so badly missed the world that Shelly has built for us.

So.... just go ahead..  buy it and prepare to not get anything else done until you've read it.  Also...  I might be a WEE bit excited that Shelly will be the keynote speaker at a RWA luncheon this summer.  I will try to contain my fangirling but...  yeah...  I WILL BE IN THE SAME ROOM AS SHELLY... *hyperventilates* I'm cool...  I'm cool...  I'll be cool....

I have long been a Shelly Laurenston fan. I read the preview for Hot and Badgered a couple of months ago and couldn't wait to read it. I devoured it in one sitting! Fantastic job!

The romance gets lost in the huge amount of characters that I didn't know that are apparently from earlier books? I must say, a cast of characters in the front of this book would have been more welcome. I like the sense of humor in the book, as always, but found myself completely lost in the huge number of characters. Overwhelming. More of Berg & Charlie would have been nice.

Honey badgers are one of my favorite characters in Shelly Laurenston's shifter series. This new series is about hybrid honey badgers, which means they're even more over the top than the regular honey badgers.

I admittedly struggled through the first 25% of the book. It was disjointed, with a lot of chaos and confusion. If I hadn't read Laurenston before, I might have given up. The story really doesn't start coming together until about 30% through, which is probably typical for new series, but seemed weird given that this wasn't a new world, but a new spinoff in an old one.

The thing that makes Laurenston books different from the vast majority of paranormal romances out there is how the women are portrayed. There are no passive women waiting for their "fated" mates. Every single one is a warrior, and most are actually considered more dangerous than the men. That is the case with this book.

What I also love about Laurenston heroines is that just because they are badass, it doesn't mean they eschew things that are considered "girly" or feminine. Charlie bakes when upset or stressed (something I loved, because I am totally a stress baker). New here, but greatly appreciated, is the matter of the fact way that medication for mental health is dealt with. It's just a fact. Like taking a vitamin. It was simply discussed like any other health condition, which I liked and which made me realize how little we see of that in fiction.

I think this book needed an outside eye, someone who maybe hasn't read all of her books twenty times, because there is a ton of back story and world building that is just assumed here. There are also some incredibly brief cameos that won't make any sense unless you've read her other books. Don't start with this book if you're new to Laurenston!

More disappointing was the lack of heat between Charlie and Berg. It may have been me, but there was zero sexual tension here. It may also have been that most of the book is about the sisters and their antics, so the romance takes second (or even third) place in the narrative. At any rate, it felt like the author was far more interested in the caper aspects and sisterhood aspects than the romance. I really liked Berg, liked Charlie, and liked their slow slide into a relationship, but I wanted more desire.

I love the pride series and this off branch will be as promising as the original. Same characters but now the very noisy honey badgers will get their own series. I can’t wait for more. This one gave me what I wanted and more. I’m not spoiling it for no one :p.

I got an ARC of this book.

The cover just looks damn awkward. The pose makes that guy seem like his neck is broken. That's what I am really stuck on. 

But on to the actual book. I was unable to tell the characters apart until about half way through the book. Then it was only because they were constantly refereed to as their main character traits. There was the mentally unstable genius, the one who couldn't shift, and the violent one. I could not tell them apart and if you ask me in two days what their names were I wouldn't be able to tell you. So the character development was pretty weak, but the characters were fun. Even if I couldn't tell them apart I enjoyed reading their interactions. 

The dialogue was pretty close to perfect. It was sassy, it was deep, it was near the end really funny. Though, again, I couldn't tell the characters apart so the jokes I saw may or may not have been real jokes. I could have really mangled the story in my head. I even had a cheat sheet that told me who was who since they were impossible for me to keep straight. 

The plot itself was really annoying. It was slow and agonizing to get through. It did set up for a series of books, but it also alienated me. I couldn't care less about international issues with honey badger families. I wanted a romance. The romance was so secondary it hurt. There were two sex scenes, the first appeared 75% of the way through the book. Then there was a rather short one not too long later. Then again total international honey badger politics again. This is not a romance novel that I enjoyed because if I blinked I would not have gotten romance. Instead if this was marketed as a werebadger novel, then I might have gone into it with different expectations and actually cared about the larger plot. 

Honestly, if you enjoy fluff don't read this. If you enjoyed the third book in the Twilight series, then this book might be for you. I did like the writing. It drew me in again and again, despite me disliking anything else. I will try this author again, but I probably will avoid this series.

This new spin off badger sister series is jaw dropping. I had to reread this book twice in order to fully digest all that happens. I love these shifter books.

No one does humor and sexy the way Laurenston does. No one. I loved this book and can not wait for the next one. Seeing characters from her other book was wonderful. Bring back the Shaw boys!

This is my first book by this author and I loved it. It is the story of three sisters who after a loss decide it is them against the world, which is demonstrated in the prologue and is the perfect set up for this story.

The sisters are Charlie, Max and Stevie. Each is a shifter with special talents. The story focuses more on Charlie but it is really about all three of them. All honey badger, these women kick butt and get it done while maintaining a sense of humor and sibling rivalry. There are quite of few characters introduced throughout but each is a welcome addition to this tale. Berg is a grizzly shifter. He assists Charlie early in the story and when she and her sisters find themselves in New York he once again offers to help. Berg enlists his brother Dag and sister Britta as well as other bears to help the sisters stay safe, as their father has gotten himself into trouble once again putting their lives in danger.

This story has it all. there is action, romance, shifter politics, nosy neighbors, family drama and a group of assassins. There is a part with a rocket launcher and a mental hospital that I found extremely entertaining. One thing that does bother me about this book is that there is a man on the cover. I understand that it is a romance and that a little skin on a cover doesn’t hurt sales but there is so much more going in this book than the romance. I am definitely looking forward to the next book.

This book was a love for me. Charlie and her sisters were amazing, lovable and hilarious. Berg and his siblings were pretty funny too. I loved the scenes with previous characters. This book was great can't wait for the next one.

(Before I get started, I want to quickly apologize to those who were depending on me writing my review. Due to some unforeseeable health issues, I have been physically unable to do anything for almost a month. But, I am back now..)

I received a free, advance copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased review. ***Received March 26, 2018 Finished March 29, 2018***

I don't give 5 star reviews out very easily. So, it must say a hell of a lot about me doing it for this book by Shelly Laurenston. And let me just say, this book SO deserves it!!! I had read the other 10 books in this series called the Pride Series and while reading this book, it sure brought back memories of all the other characters, and what a treat! It helped that a few of the characters from the other books make an appearance in this one. And DAMN! I sure have missed them. Guess time to reread the entire series over again!!!! Okay, enough about that, let's get into my review on this one.....

It starts out with a woman dropping naked onto the balcony of a hotel room with blood on her and masked men chasing her, well shooting AT her is more accurate. The room of the balcany she drops into has 2 men in it. Shifters to be exact. One is a Grizzly and the other a Jackal. She doesn't have time for them because, like I said, men in masks are chasing her with guns. The masked gun-wielding men charge into the room to get to the female and startled the Grizzly shifter when they shot him as well. Uhhhhh startling a grizzly is bad enough, but to shoot one? So, Hell rained down on those men! As the woman goes to leave the room, the grizzly shifter reminds her she is naked and hands her a t-shirt that he realizes too late, was his favorite. This is a hell of a start to a book, right? Well, it keeps on going! It never slows down in suspense, excitement, action and so much freaking humor!!!!! I could explain more about how there are 3 sisters that are on the constant run because their father is a worthless shifter that only cares about himself which in turn causes those that he pissed off, to chase and kill/try to kill, his daughters in hope of reeling in their father. Problem is, well, one of them, is that the father could care less. At least the girls claim this. The other problem is that these girls are far from easy to kill.

I'd love to go into more details on this book, but half the fun of enjoying a book is learning things yourself from reading it. I know I mentioned that this book has some of the other characters from the other books in this series. It is not needed to read all of those to understand this one. However, with that said, I would recommend you read them anyway. Not only do you get to understand a little bit more of the dynamics of some of the things mentioned in this one, but you get to learn a little bit more about the other shifters and people and what they are about, but you also get to laugh your butt off in the process. You won't be sorry you did it!

As for recommending this, it's an absolute, without a doubt, HELL YES!! I cannot wait for her next one to come out and I have no doubt you will feel the same. Happy reading!

This was so AWESOME on many levels, the stories were ever evolving but never out of control. The writing was funny, witty, great detail, and well developed characters that just made it a page turner.

HONEY BADGERS DON'T CARE IF YOU MAKE POOR LIFE DECSIONS!

Well except for Charlie, who is determined to make sure she keeps her sisters alive and out of jail.

Interestingly this was far less romance-y than previous volumes in the world and I wonder if that's partially because it has an over-arching plot that connects it (instead of being a bunch of connected world stories).

As always the humor is on point here and I loved the dynamic between Charlie, Max and Stevie. And between Dag, Berg and Britta.

Siblings and family ruled this story. For good and ill

Hot and Badgered might be the first book in a story arc but it is all part of the same shifter world created by Shelly Laurenston so be ready to spend time with some old friends…and enemies.

In Hot and Badgered we meet three half-sisters, Charlie, Max and Stevie, three daughters of a honey badger named Freddy “the fuck up” MacKilligan. Their father is a major screw up and a thief, but not even a good thief. Whatever he steals, he loses. Which only makes things worse for Charlie, Max and Stevie, because whoever Freddy’s screws over usually tries to take it out on his daughters. Or, let’s not forget the time he sold his youngest daughter Stevie, the prodigy, to a Columbian drug lord to make designer meth for him. Freddy is all about stealing a buck and doesn’t worry about the destruction (or the daughters) he leaves behind.

When Freddy steals over a million pounds sterling from his own, not very legal, businessman brother, it once again puts the girls running from another group of hired mercenies. Well, really they only run as far as they need to in order to get those thugs into their own trap. The MacKilligans are honey badgers. Not only are honey badgers hard to kill, but after years of dealing with their father’s B.S., they know how to get real mean.

But this last screw up also put Charlie in the path of one sweet grizzly bear, who is more of a teddy bear, and no matter how much Charlie protests that Berg doesn’t want to get involved in the MacKilligan curse, she simply can’t shoo him away. And she is starting to realize, she just doesn’t want to.

In a series full of different types of wolves, lions, tigers, bears, jackels, and wolverines, it is the honey badger that everyone fears. They are the most vicious and the hardest to kill. Charles even takes on Dee Ann Smith and comes out on top!

I find in this series that the more antisocial the character, the more I love them. Livy from Bite Me and Bo Novikov from Beast Behaving Badly are at the top of my list. They are just outragous which makes it so funny.

But I have to admit, as much as I enjoy Shelly Laurenston’s (and alter ego G.G. Aiken) stories while I am reading them, I don’t feel the need to play catch up on the books that I missed or feel the desire to do a series re-read. They are fun stories, but they never call to me to come back again even on my favorite characters.

I really like how Shelly Laurenston combines paranormal romance with humor at times. An interesting storyline that kept me hooked. Enjoyed

I absolutely loved this book! It was hilarious. I wasn't sure how honey badgers would work out but it so did. I read a lot of shifter books so am used to powerful creatures, majestic ones but these were even better. There was romance thrown into the mix but also a lot of familial relationships and friendship too. I loved the sisters at the core of the book, it made me wish I had two sisters to watch my back no matter what. I can't wait for more honey badgers!

HOT AND BADGERED introduces the Honey Badger Chronicles series, a new venture set in the Pride universe. For those of you who aren’t in the know, the Pride universe features shifters of all kinds – bears, lions, jackals, you name it – who live among humans but have their own complex social and political structures. Although this series does feature characters from the original Pride series, it stands on its own, meaning that new readers can experience the wild ride that is a Shelly Laurenston story.

Charlie MacKilligan, a wolf/honey badger hybrid, has spent her entire life trying to protect her younger sisters Max and Stevie. But that’s a big ask, what with Max’s criminal schemes and Stevie’s incredible and unstable genius…and the MacKilligan curse, of course. That curse? Their father, Freddy MacKilligan. He’s gotten them in deep trouble before, but this time the sisters are going to need outside help to weather the storm he’s brought down on their heads.

Enter Berg Dunn, a securities expert and bear shifter. Berg and his siblings will work with the MacKilligan sisters to bring their father to justice, and keep the girls alive. Not that they need help taking out their enemies, but the three sisters have been shut out of shifter culture and they’re liable to cross lines that can’t be uncrossed without someone to teach them. Berg is a total sweetheart and Charlie’s an anxious, overprotective, violent terror. Needless to say, they make a pretty cute pair.

The MacKilligan sisters are by far the strongest part of HOT AND BADGERED, as their admittedly larger-than-life personalities get the most page-time. As much as I like Charlie, I confess that I’m dying to read about Max and Stevie. They’re completely nuts (in a good way) and I can’t wait to see who Laurenston pairs them up with, especially after getting a few chapters from their POVs. All the setting and POV changes feel a little chaotic at times, and I think that will be especially true for readers who are new to the Pride universe. But if you’re able to stick it out, that chaos is part of the appeal of Laurenston’s books. Her stories and characters are over-the-top whacky and some are borderline insane…and it’s just a ton of fun to read about.

Though I really enjoyed the story, it was funny and great it was hard to realize we had jumped so far ahead in the story - With past characters all of a sudden having children that are several years old when I didn't know going in that we were jumping that far ahead. That really bugged me to learn halfway through the book. However the overall story was great and I really enjoyed it.

I requested the book because of the author. I have adored Shelly Laurenston for an eon and all her books are fabulously funny. She writes ridiculously out there heroines who are brimming with snark and, although they can be silly, the books have never failed to make me laugh.

This book focuses on three criminal, honey-badger sisters who are trying to survive whatever ridiculous situation their dead-beat father throws their way. Their family doesn’t accept them due to their hybrid natures, their community struggle with them as honey-badger hybrids had never been seen before so they had only each other to rely on.

This book centers around Charlie, the big sister with the responsibilities of protecting her genius sister from the world and protecting the world from her sociopath sister. Throughout the book, she has to navigate these duties whilst protecting them all from their awful Father (he really is awful). There is a whole heap of world-building to do setting up the back story of these sisters, which means, unfortunately, the romance content is limited however it does mean this book is absolutely amazing. I really enjoyed dipping into the bear/honey-badger world – and it’s always fun to see familiar favorites (Cella and Dee-Ann are in here – I love these two!).

The male protagonist in this book is Berg, the bear shifter. A triplet, he is used to being around siblings, so he is the perfect mate for Charlie who is heavily attached to her siblings (they are a package deal). Charlie drops in his lap (naked) and he can’t stop thinking about her after that. He is deceptively easygoing but that all stops when it comes to protecting Charlie! I loved how perceptive he was when he came to her and her needs. Berg is a fabulous beta hero and I adored him.

The only thing that was a little disappointing was the romance. There just wasn’t enough space for everything in the book and this was the thing that got cut. It did leave more space for the fantastic female friendships in there though so I can’t complain too much!

I really enjoyed this book! It was bonkers but I feel, as the series has continued, the characters have become fully fleshed and more relatable. I loved the new world but, secretly, I also loved seeing the old faces in a new setting (Kyle!). I can’t wait to read more!

I loved this book. The characters and the world created were fun and creative. The plot was imaginative and well-paced. The character of the father was a brilliant touch. I'm looking forward to the next one in the series.
My thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.