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sabine_cat's review against another edition
5.0
5 freak stars
Loved it, it was hilarious and unhinged.
We're still following the MacKilligan sisters' mayhem, destruction and utter insanity. Stevie the prodigy is the main focus in this book. But where Stevie is Charlie and Max are not far away. In the previous book Stevie advised Berg to stray dog it with Charlie. Here, Stevie, the half Siberian tiger, stray cat it with Shen, the very laid back (and often very confused) panda and it was hilarious.
Once again it's more funny urban fantasy than romance.
Loved it, it was hilarious and unhinged.
We're still following the MacKilligan sisters' mayhem, destruction and utter insanity. Stevie the prodigy is the main focus in this book. But where Stevie is Charlie and Max are not far away. In the previous book Stevie advised Berg to stray dog it with Charlie. Here, Stevie, the half Siberian tiger, stray cat it with Shen, the very laid back (and often very confused) panda and it was hilarious.
Once again it's more funny urban fantasy than romance.
jennkei's review against another edition
3.0
Pretty sure I've read this before but since it wasn't recorded then, here it is.
Stevie and Shen are cute but that cover is not how I imagine Shen to look..^^"
Stevie and Shen are cute but that cover is not how I imagine Shen to look..^^"
lyndz_'s review against another edition
adventurous
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
kathydavie's review against another edition
3.0
Second in The Honey Badger Chronicles paranormal romance series set in New York City, a spin-off from the Magnus/Pride universe, and revolving around those crazy honey badgers and their family and friends. The couple focus is on Dr Stevie MacKilligan and Shen Li.
My Take
I'm warnin' ya...this whole series is a snarkfest! And I love it. I absolutely love how invincible these girls are! Laurenston really amps it up with their out-of-control personalities and the myriad conflicts that surround them, from governments out to get them, their father trying to scam them, to the domineering yet clueless Matt and James Wells.
Stevie both makes me nuts and makes me laugh. She's so out of control with her fears — especially that of the bears!?! — that I wanna smack her. And yet, she surprised the heck out of me with her skill at assessing a situation and turning it on its head. You go, girl!
It's James and their mother whose attitudes about shifters who aren't just one breed that exemplifies the bigoted part of the series arc. And it's Blayne who provides the biggest switch-up at the end, highlighting how bigotry evaporates with knowledge...so there, jaguar boy!
A major contribution to the series is supportive family and friends, although there are definitely friends and family who are not...just like real life *grin*
Shen Li's bamboo obsession and how the resulting sounds affect the others cracks. Me. Up.
I do love the Jean-Louis Parkers! God knows why, but they do make me laugh with their outright rude comments and condescension.
Kiki is going to be an interesting character with all that honesty flowing out of her. And I was shocked at her assessment of Oriana. Who'd've thought Oriana could be so different from Kyle?
Stevie absolutely, passionately hates the cold, heartless Irene Conridge. Then you'll read Stevie's description of an ex-flame. Hoo-boy! Oh, lord, and then Berg and Dag's reactions to the cheesesteak in the SUV. LOLOLOL. It ties right in with those bears and their obsession about food, and I LOVE how Laurenston gets this across...a beautiful bit of show, lol!
Those shrinks are doing a great job on Stevie. She actually starts to make friends. With Oriana no less over a shared love of robotics and AI. Then there's the invitation from Coop and his sister Cherise. Yep, and it's all gonna lead to Charlie finding out how terrified her sisters are of her.
Their father. Freddy. How anyone can be as stupid as he is, has me totally gobsmacked. The whole funeral scene...there are no words... And the nerve of that idiot afterward???? Yep, I sure understand that "collective sigh" outside the church.
How can ya not love these three girls, if only for the totally unexpected actions (and reactions), lolololol. They're like superheroes in that they will take on anyone and anything...and they. Will. Win. Want an SUV buried? Call the MacKilligan sisters, *laughing* Oooh, *lots more laughing*, then Stevie gives it to the Barettis! Oh, yeah, baby!!
On the negative side, I had so looked forward to Shen's story, and I was disappointed. Oh, it's all hilariously funny, but I didn't buy Shen's reactions to Stevie. They weren't the same as in Hot and Badgered, 1.
Still, Laurenston does write a crazy whacked-out story you'll be laughing at all the way through with lots and lots of action with the craziest characters whom you'll adore. And. Ya know. The absolute worst part of this? It comes to an end!!! I really, really, really don't wanna wait *she says laughing*
It's also about acceptance...and Shen's comment: "I know I don't say this enough but...you have the best family." Sums it up for me.
The Story
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, of anything that might startle her. 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 trouble is eager to find Stevie, whether it's our own or a foreign government who wants her brain, going undercover to suss out a scientist experimenting on other shifters, or simply surviving her fears from day to day.
The Characters
A full character list is in my review on my website, KD Did It.
The very self-aware and extravagantly moral Dr Stevie Stasiuk-MacKilligan, a skinny white girl, is brilliant. With a panic disorder that causes her to freak out at the drop of a hat, seeing danger everywhere. Maxine MacKilligan is the Oriental middle sister who can slice and dice like an old-school butcher. Charlie Taylor-MacKilligan, half-honey badger and half-wolf and all black, is the oldest sister with a penchant for firearms and holds it all together. To relieve stress, Charlie bakes...and the bears in her neighborhood LOVE it.
Uncle Will is an uncle from whom Freddy embezzled. Dougie is Will's oldest son and the smartest. Will's brothers (and Freddy's half-brothers) include Samson. Mairi MacKilligan is Samson's daughter. Aunt Bernice is Freddy's sister. Kenzie MacKilligan is another cousin. Livy Kowalski, a honey badger, is mated to Victor Barinov.
Freddy MacKilligan is their effed-up father. He's working with Caterina and Celestina Guerra, twins out of Italy and Freddy's half-sisters.
Berg Dunn is with Charlie, a grizzly bear who is a triplet with Dag and Britta. Benny is their dog; Artemis is the rescue adopted to keep Benny company.
Charles Taylor is the girls' grandfather who lives in Wisconsin. Peter MacKilligan is the girls' great-uncle who lives in New Jersey; Doreen is his scared, sixth wife.
A bodyguard hired by the Jean-Louis-Parkers to protect Kyle who prefers to hang with Stevie, Shen Li is the most sweet-natured giant panda who has a passion for bamboo shoots and hanging upside down. The influential Kiki Wen Li, the editor-in-chief of a fashion magazine, and Zhen Li are his sisters.
The Jean-Louis Parker family are...
...jackals and renting the house from the Wild Dogs. Kyle, a narcissist, considers himself the world's greatest artist. He's seventeen. Oriana, a ballerina prodigy at five who does advanced engineering as a hobby. Cooper "Coop" is a world-renowned pianist. Jacqueline is their suffering mother whose best friend is Irene Conridge.
The Wild Dogs are...
...the Kuznetsov Pack led by Jessie Ann Ward who is mated to Bobby Ray Smith, wolf alpha of the New York Smith Pack. Sabina is Jessie's second-in-charge who is married to Phil. John DeSerio, an orphaned wolf taken in by the wild dogs as a teen, is a violin prodigy and friends with Coop.
Bo Novikov, a hybrid polar bear-lion who is also a descendant of Genghis Khan, is a homicidal hockey player and OCD about organization. He's mated to Blayne "Lame" Thorne, a wolf-wild dog hybrid, with a passion for indiscriminate hugging. Gwenie, a tigon, is Blayne's partner and best friend; she's mated to Lochlan "Lock" MacRyrie, who is known for his fine carpentry. Lock's uncle Duff owns the bar. Uncle Hamish is worried about the peanuts. Mitch Shaw is a lion who loves karaoke night; he's mated to Sissy Mae, Bobby Ray's sister.
Dez McDermot is the full-human head of the NYPD's shifter unit. She's mated to Mace Llewellyn, a lion .
The Van Holtz pack has...
...a string of expensive restaurants. Niles Van Holtz, a.k.a., "Van" to his friends and "Holtz" to his wife, is married to the terrifying Dr Irene Conridge and is the alpha in charge of all those restaurants. Publicly. In private, he's also in charge of The Group. Edgar Van Holtz ensures the girls are safe from the government. Ulrich "Ric" Van Holtz is Van's younger cousin and mated to Dee-Ann Smith, one scary-ass Marine who shifts into a wolf. Dee-Ann's father, Eggie Smith, is even scarier.
Manhattan Behavioral Center
Dr Becca Morgan, a bear, is a psychiatrist who specializes in prodigies and geniuses. Dr Kelly Lewis, a wolf who likes weird, will see Charlie. Dr Deb Ortiz-Paredes, a jaguar, is a forensics psychologist who specializes in sociopaths and criminally violent schizophrenics and will be seeing Maxine.
The bigoted Brunetti Pride is...
...led by Mary Marie Brunetti. Denise is her sister.
The Group...
...takes care of shifter problems, including those of hybrids. Now. Dutch Alexander, a wolverine, is best friends with Max and works for The Group.
Katzenhaus is similar but focuses on cats with Cella "Bare Knuckles" Malone, a tiger and head of the Wet Works division, who is also coach of the New York Carnivores.
The Fuller-James Ballet Company of Manhattan
Svetlana Romanov is the prima ballerina in competition with Oriana. David Connelly is the music director. Ida Swan is the ballet master. Dominique Gagnon is Oriana's agent from Uniondale.
The Wells Pride is...
...led by Jennifer Wells, Matt and James' mother, who is a control freak. Dr Matt Wells is a socially clueless scientist working in biogenetics. James is a bigot who doesn't do well on his own.
The Cover and Title
The cover is unevenly split with a deep royal blue vertical band on the left serving as a background for the vertically positioned info blurb in a pale blue on the far left, the author's name in a bright yellow, and the title in a white script. A pale blue line is slightly to the left of the divide. At the very top, horizontally, is a pale yellow silhouette of a badger crossing a horizontal rule with the series information below that in pale yellow followed by another pale blue horizontal band beneath that. The wider right panel features a short-haired Oriental Shen in a forbidding pose, his well-muscled naked chest and right arm, his blue jeans sitting very low on his hips, and his head cocked to the left with an overscaled fur tiger print in the background. A testimonial in white is at the bottom left of this right panel.
The title is all about those MacKilligans and how they handle it all In a Badger Way.
My Take
I'm warnin' ya...this whole series is a snarkfest! And I love it. I absolutely love how invincible these girls are! Laurenston really amps it up with their out-of-control personalities and the myriad conflicts that surround them, from governments out to get them, their father trying to scam them, to the domineering yet clueless Matt and James Wells.
Stevie both makes me nuts and makes me laugh. She's so out of control with her fears — especially that of the bears!?! — that I wanna smack her. And yet, she surprised the heck out of me with her skill at assessing a situation and turning it on its head. You go, girl!
"Physics. Once you understand physics, you can do pretty much anything."It's Matt's misogynistic attitude that makes me wanna smack him upside the head for his lousy attitude about women, especially Stevie, and yet he brags about her to make himself look good. Jerk. A nice bit of show that highlights one of the subthemes in the series arc.
It's James and their mother whose attitudes about shifters who aren't just one breed that exemplifies the bigoted part of the series arc. And it's Blayne who provides the biggest switch-up at the end, highlighting how bigotry evaporates with knowledge...so there, jaguar boy!
A major contribution to the series is supportive family and friends, although there are definitely friends and family who are not...just like real life *grin*
Shen Li's bamboo obsession and how the resulting sounds affect the others cracks. Me. Up.
I do love the Jean-Louis Parkers! God knows why, but they do make me laugh with their outright rude comments and condescension.
Kyle...KYLE!...actually understands what Kiki is telling him! This I gotta see 'cause Kyle is a total jerk with no thought for anyone...for him to get emotions...?? Dang, now I gotta wait a year for the next installment. I hate that! And it throws a completely different light on Shen's actions, lol."'You two do know I can hear you, right?'
'But do we care that you can hear us?' Kyle asked."
Kiki is going to be an interesting character with all that honesty flowing out of her. And I was shocked at her assessment of Oriana. Who'd've thought Oriana could be so different from Kyle?
Stevie absolutely, passionately hates the cold, heartless Irene Conridge. Then you'll read Stevie's description of an ex-flame. Hoo-boy! Oh, lord, and then Berg and Dag's reactions to the cheesesteak in the SUV. LOLOLOL. It ties right in with those bears and their obsession about food, and I LOVE how Laurenston gets this across...a beautiful bit of show, lol!
Those shrinks are doing a great job on Stevie. She actually starts to make friends. With Oriana no less over a shared love of robotics and AI. Then there's the invitation from Coop and his sister Cherise. Yep, and it's all gonna lead to Charlie finding out how terrified her sisters are of her.
Their father. Freddy. How anyone can be as stupid as he is, has me totally gobsmacked. The whole funeral scene...there are no words... And the nerve of that idiot afterward???? Yep, I sure understand that "collective sigh" outside the church.
It says everything that the girls all want to be cremated...so their father can't sell their remains for easy cash.Laurenston uses third person global subjective point-of-view, as we gain perspectives from a range of characters. Naturally, Stevie's and Shen's perspectives are primary.
How can ya not love these three girls, if only for the totally unexpected actions (and reactions), lolololol. They're like superheroes in that they will take on anyone and anything...and they. Will. Win. Want an SUV buried? Call the MacKilligan sisters, *laughing* Oooh, *lots more laughing*, then Stevie gives it to the Barettis! Oh, yeah, baby!!
On the negative side, I had so looked forward to Shen's story, and I was disappointed. Oh, it's all hilariously funny, but I didn't buy Shen's reactions to Stevie. They weren't the same as in Hot and Badgered, 1.
Still, Laurenston does write a crazy whacked-out story you'll be laughing at all the way through with lots and lots of action with the craziest characters whom you'll adore. And. Ya know. The absolute worst part of this? It comes to an end!!! I really, really, really don't wanna wait *she says laughing*
It's also about acceptance...and Shen's comment: "I know I don't say this enough but...you have the best family." Sums it up for me.
The Story
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, of anything that might startle her. 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 trouble is eager to find Stevie, whether it's our own or a foreign government who wants her brain, going undercover to suss out a scientist experimenting on other shifters, or simply surviving her fears from day to day.
The Characters
A full character list is in my review on my website, KD Did It.
The very self-aware and extravagantly moral Dr Stevie Stasiuk-MacKilligan, a skinny white girl, is brilliant. With a panic disorder that causes her to freak out at the drop of a hat, seeing danger everywhere. Maxine MacKilligan is the Oriental middle sister who can slice and dice like an old-school butcher. Charlie Taylor-MacKilligan, half-honey badger and half-wolf and all black, is the oldest sister with a penchant for firearms and holds it all together. To relieve stress, Charlie bakes...and the bears in her neighborhood LOVE it.
Uncle Will is an uncle from whom Freddy embezzled. Dougie is Will's oldest son and the smartest. Will's brothers (and Freddy's half-brothers) include Samson. Mairi MacKilligan is Samson's daughter. Aunt Bernice is Freddy's sister. Kenzie MacKilligan is another cousin. Livy Kowalski, a honey badger, is mated to Victor Barinov.
Freddy MacKilligan is their effed-up father. He's working with Caterina and Celestina Guerra, twins out of Italy and Freddy's half-sisters.
Berg Dunn is with Charlie, a grizzly bear who is a triplet with Dag and Britta. Benny is their dog; Artemis is the rescue adopted to keep Benny company.
Charles Taylor is the girls' grandfather who lives in Wisconsin. Peter MacKilligan is the girls' great-uncle who lives in New Jersey; Doreen is his scared, sixth wife.
A bodyguard hired by the Jean-Louis-Parkers to protect Kyle who prefers to hang with Stevie, Shen Li is the most sweet-natured giant panda who has a passion for bamboo shoots and hanging upside down. The influential Kiki Wen Li, the editor-in-chief of a fashion magazine, and Zhen Li are his sisters.
The Jean-Louis Parker family are...
...jackals and renting the house from the Wild Dogs. Kyle, a narcissist, considers himself the world's greatest artist. He's seventeen. Oriana, a ballerina prodigy at five who does advanced engineering as a hobby. Cooper "Coop" is a world-renowned pianist. Jacqueline is their suffering mother whose best friend is Irene Conridge.
The Wild Dogs are...
...the Kuznetsov Pack led by Jessie Ann Ward who is mated to Bobby Ray Smith, wolf alpha of the New York Smith Pack. Sabina is Jessie's second-in-charge who is married to Phil. John DeSerio, an orphaned wolf taken in by the wild dogs as a teen, is a violin prodigy and friends with Coop.
Bo Novikov, a hybrid polar bear-lion who is also a descendant of Genghis Khan, is a homicidal hockey player and OCD about organization. He's mated to Blayne "Lame" Thorne, a wolf-wild dog hybrid, with a passion for indiscriminate hugging. Gwenie, a tigon, is Blayne's partner and best friend; she's mated to Lochlan "Lock" MacRyrie, who is known for his fine carpentry. Lock's uncle Duff owns the bar. Uncle Hamish is worried about the peanuts. Mitch Shaw is a lion who loves karaoke night; he's mated to Sissy Mae, Bobby Ray's sister.
Dez McDermot is the full-human head of the NYPD's shifter unit. She's mated to Mace Llewellyn, a lion .
The Van Holtz pack has...
...a string of expensive restaurants. Niles Van Holtz, a.k.a., "Van" to his friends and "Holtz" to his wife, is married to the terrifying Dr Irene Conridge and is the alpha in charge of all those restaurants. Publicly. In private, he's also in charge of The Group. Edgar Van Holtz ensures the girls are safe from the government. Ulrich "Ric" Van Holtz is Van's younger cousin and mated to Dee-Ann Smith, one scary-ass Marine who shifts into a wolf. Dee-Ann's father, Eggie Smith, is even scarier.
Manhattan Behavioral Center
Dr Becca Morgan, a bear, is a psychiatrist who specializes in prodigies and geniuses. Dr Kelly Lewis, a wolf who likes weird, will see Charlie. Dr Deb Ortiz-Paredes, a jaguar, is a forensics psychologist who specializes in sociopaths and criminally violent schizophrenics and will be seeing Maxine.
The bigoted Brunetti Pride is...
...led by Mary Marie Brunetti. Denise is her sister.
The Group...
...takes care of shifter problems, including those of hybrids. Now. Dutch Alexander, a wolverine, is best friends with Max and works for The Group.
Katzenhaus is similar but focuses on cats with Cella "Bare Knuckles" Malone, a tiger and head of the Wet Works division, who is also coach of the New York Carnivores.
The Fuller-James Ballet Company of Manhattan
Svetlana Romanov is the prima ballerina in competition with Oriana. David Connelly is the music director. Ida Swan is the ballet master. Dominique Gagnon is Oriana's agent from Uniondale.
The Wells Pride is...
...led by Jennifer Wells, Matt and James' mother, who is a control freak. Dr Matt Wells is a socially clueless scientist working in biogenetics. James is a bigot who doesn't do well on his own.
The Cover and Title
The cover is unevenly split with a deep royal blue vertical band on the left serving as a background for the vertically positioned info blurb in a pale blue on the far left, the author's name in a bright yellow, and the title in a white script. A pale blue line is slightly to the left of the divide. At the very top, horizontally, is a pale yellow silhouette of a badger crossing a horizontal rule with the series information below that in pale yellow followed by another pale blue horizontal band beneath that. The wider right panel features a short-haired Oriental Shen in a forbidding pose, his well-muscled naked chest and right arm, his blue jeans sitting very low on his hips, and his head cocked to the left with an overscaled fur tiger print in the background. A testimonial in white is at the bottom left of this right panel.
The title is all about those MacKilligans and how they handle it all In a Badger Way.
bella613's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This was super cute. During the first book of the series I found myself more interested in Stevie and Shen than Charlie, so I was excited to read this one focusing on them. It didn't disappoint!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Car accident, and Violence
alicebme's review
4.0
So much fun. Seriously love that chemistry builds amid such a crazy ass story.
fmcfranny's review against another edition
5.0
I love Stevie and Shen. I enjoyed their interactions and getting insight into the panda's thought process. And Stevie acting like a house cat. And her and her sister's interactions and talk. It's wonderful. An excellent follow-up to book 1.
ketutar's review against another edition
3.0
Not as good as Hot and Badgered, but better than a lot of others in this series. Especially the wolf and the lion books.
I keep hopping over the sex scenes, so it's good Shelly makes it possible. Sex scenes are all about sex, a little about their relation and such, but one misses nothing if one hops over them. Except hot sex, of course :-D
I keep hopping over the sex scenes, so it's good Shelly makes it possible. Sex scenes are all about sex, a little about their relation and such, but one misses nothing if one hops over them. Except hot sex, of course :-D