Review of In a Badger Way by Shelly Laurenston
Friday, 12 April 2019
In a Badger Way by Shelly Laurenston
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.
I was among those lucky enough to receive an advanced
reader’s copy of In a Badger Way prior to release in order to provide a fair and
honest review. But having to say goodbye to Zeus put the brakes on life for a bit.
Clinical depression is a thing and I’m working on it. Now here I am, ready to dish
about the latest from Shelly Laurenston, the queen of my shifter-loving heart. Now,
y’all. I have so many notes in this book, you might want to go fix yourself some
tea and get yourself some place comfortable before you read on. Go on. I'll wait.
The MacKilligan sisters are back and as wild and unpredictable
as ever in In a Badger Way. Our couple for this instalment of the Honey Badger Chronicles is Shen Li
and Stevie MacKilligan. Shen is a Giant Panda shifter and Stevie
is a Honey Badger-Tiger hybrid shifter. Shen is actually Vic Barinov's
business partner but he's currently employed as bodyguard to Jackal
shifter, Kyle Jean-Louis Parker, Stevie's old friend and fellow prodigy.
Oh, what a tangled web Shelly Laurenston weaves for us, right? Somewhere along
the way, Stevie gets it into her mind that she likes Shen and they'd be good
together. We follow Stevie as she corrals bamboo-obsessed
Shen into a happily ever after all while dealing with the antics of her own unique
hybrid genetics, all of the MacKilligan family drama, and some under-the-radar sleuthing
for The Group. The level of crazy is through the roof with this one, y’all.
I adore Stevie, she's a multi-disciplined prodigy with
an extreme panic disorder and an abnormal shift as a honey badger-Siberian tiger
hybrid. Her responses to her triggers are varied but they’re always extreme. Whether
it be burrowing away from the situation through walls and floors or shifting and
making toys out of people, I’m totally here for that, just let me pop some popcorn.
Somewhere along the way, Stevie decides that Shen is the one for her and, come
hell or high water, that Giant Panda is going to live happily ever after with
her. And it’s hilarious because Shen Li is a bear and Stevie is terrified of bears but not Shen. Never Shen.
Shen is the yin to her yang and that dude is all hers.
Something I want to make note of here is that we
have good mental health care representation in this book. In this crazy-arsed
book with hijinks and antics that make you cackle, you will also find Stevie
heading to a psychiatrist and Stevie makes a point of saying
“Medication should
never be given without therapy…and if
you ever go to a doctor who tries to tell you otherwise…..get another doctor.”
THIS DESERVES
SO MUCH ATTENTION! Not only is Stevie actively seeking therapy, but she's making a point to explain that you shouldn't be taking medications for your head without talking with a therapist - and if your doctor is just handing you pills and seeing you to the door, you should get another one. This should be shouted from rooftops with the amount of doctors I've seen in my nearly thirty years of life and the percentage of them that were of the "here's your hat, what's your hurry variety" is proof of that. 2000 bonus points for this!
Among the hundred different things that happen in
this book, I have to tell you that Blayne Thorpe-Novikov is back and she is
still my favourite hyperkinetic hybrid wolf-wild dog. This brilliant woman continues to prove her father right by hugging some
random arsed shifter in someone else’s home and is surprised that it doesn’t
turn out to be cotton candy and rainbows. I love Blayne.
Also among our revisiting characters are the
Jean-Louis Parkers, Dr Irene Conridge, and Gwen - I’ve got to let y’all find
out some for yourselves, right? If you’ve not read a Shelly Laurenston Pride
world book before, you’re sure to find yourself falling in love with them
through this book as Ms Laurenston picked some of her best characters to pop in
for a visit in this new branch’s latest.
I know not everybody adores random violence in their
humour, but Ms Laurenston will make you laugh with the absurdity of her
characters’ antics. People can talk all they want about how they need
their paranormal romance/urban fantasy books to be believable, but y'all. We
are reading about human beings transforming themselves into another species and
maintaining their sentience. What part of that is believable? No,
really. I'll wait for that answer because I have a feeling it'd be more
entertaining/worrisome to hear than my schizophrenic brother when he has an
episode.
While you can technically read In a Badger Way as a standalone novel, I’d suggest you don’t as it
picks up where Hot & Badgered
leaves off. If I’m being honest, I’d suggest reading from the very beginning
for all the subtext and character info. But most folks don’t have that amount
of patience, granted they usually finish the one book they choose and decide to
do just that but stubborn is as stubborn does. I did it that way too at first.
Blayne’s book was my first, but it definitely was not my last, obviously.
Now, I have a bloody nose from my lovely allergies and I'm going wrap things up here so I can go stick some tampons up my nose. judge me. Overall, I'm giving In a Badger Way 5 stars because this made me laugh when I wanted to crawl into a hole and die.
Originally from Long Island, New York, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Shelly Laurenston has resigned herself to West Coast living which involves healthy food, mostly sunny days, and lots of guys not wearing shirts when they really should be. Shelly Laurenston is also The New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author G.A. Aiken, creator of the Dragon Kin series. For more info on G.A.’s dangerously and arrogantly sexy dragons, check out her website at www.gaaiken.com.
Books by Shelly Laurenston that I've Reviewed include ::
Well, that's it for today. I'm knackered and ready for bed (I woke up at midnight!). I've got a busy weekend planned, offline and here on the blog! This month's charity is Autistic Self Advocacy Network. Yeah, that's right. Not Autism Speaks which thinks shock therapy is okay for teach autistic kids how to act 'normal'. Until next time, have a happily ever after.
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