Breaking Badger by Shelly Laurenston Series: Honey Badger Chronicles #4
Published by Kensington Books on August 31, 2021
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Fantasy, Fiction / Romance / Multicultural & Interracial, Fiction / Romance / Paranormal / Shifters
Pages: 368
Format: eBook
Source: Library
Fans of Thea Harrison and Nalini Singh won’t want to miss this exciting, funny, and sexy novel in the mega-popular series.
“Shelly Laurenston’s shifter books are full of oddball characters, strong females with attitude and dialogue that can have you laughing out loud.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer
It’s instinct that drives Finn Malone to rescue a bunch of hard battling honey badgers. The Siberian tiger shifter just can’t bear to see his fellow shifters harmed. But no way can Finn have a houseful of honey badgers when he also has two brothers with no patience. Things just go from bad to worse when the badgers rudely ejected from his home turn out to be the only ones who can help him solve a family tragedy. He’s just not sure he can even get back into the badgers’ good graces. Since badgers lack graces of any kind . . .
Mads knows her teammates aren’t about to forgive the cats that were so rude to them, but moody Finn isn’t so bad. And he’s cute! The badger part of her understands Finn’s burning need to avenge his father’s death—after all, vengeance is her favorite pastime. So Mads sets about helping Finn settle his family’s score, which has its perks, since she gets to avoid her own family drama. Besides, fighting side by side with Finn is her kind of fun—especially when she can get in a hot and heavy snuggle with her very own growling, eye-rolling, and utterly irresistible kitty-cat . . .“Filled with high-octane action, some serious snark, and a plethora of humor.. the resulting madcap adventures are sure to please series fans.”
—Publishers Weekly
This has been my least favorite installment of the Honey Badger Chronicles. I don’t know if it’s because my tastes are changing or if this didn’t scratch the itch I had at the moment. I’m hoping it’s the latter.
I love reading Laurenston’s shifter books. They are brain candy, with tons of laughs and a fair amount of wincing when the violence comes into play. The Honey Badger Chronicles are no different. The pages fly by with non-stop action, banter, and ridiculous family drama. Mads is a law-abiding honey badger, only engaging in murder and mayhem with her teammates. Then: the team is left for dead, there’s a death in the family, a stolen family heirloom has her psychopathic family members (hyenas) calling, and she just wants to play basketball.
Finn Malone and fam spend their time investigating their father’s death but keep coming up with nothing to solve the mystery. It’s a good thing they have an “in” with the honey badgers’ information pipeline. Well, until the Danish Incident that is.
So why am I salty?
Breaking Badger is listed as paranormal romance. I checked. Twice! I was looking forward to laughs and a sweet romance, but the “romance” only happens over 30 pages? Maybe? I think that’s stretching it. Mads and Finn just sort of fell together and had a quick, mutually satisfying bang before heading off to participate in some more action sequences. Don’t get me wrong, there is something beautiful about an easy relationship. But… I want some passion! Not some afterthought shrug and shoe-horn a honey badger with a tiger shifter. After Max’s book with a similar romance, I had hoped for more. Mads and Finn deserved more page time! More tension! And another thing…
Move your pitchforks and torches away; I’m not saying it was a bad book. I simply wanted more time with the main characters. Tock is Mads “best teammate,” but we don’t have any examples of that. The MacKilligan sisters took center stage while the rest of the team faded into the back. I want everyone to have their moment!
I laughed a lot and enjoyed revisiting the world and the cameos of previous characters. There is comfort in knowing what to expect from Laurenston’s books. The Pride series is my favorite. I ADORE the honey badgers, but this series is starting to feel one-note. I wish the couples had more time together. I’m hoping we get a bit more romance in the future. Though, at this point, I’m guessing the badger books will focus on guts for garters and general mayhem.
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