In a Badger Way

3.5 Not my favorite, but it had some fun parts. i do love the Panda shifters

I’m so glad to be back in this world of wackiness and mayhem that is so freakin’ hilarious!!!
Book two focuses on Stevie and Shen and I will admit that I thought the “romance” part was very, very slow burn, again due to all the craziness that was going on around them. It certainly didn’t lower my rating at all but for those who enjoy an inst-love story, this one isn’t that!
I did love Shen and Stevie together, I wouldn’t say there were fire works to begin with and really there was hardly any sex scenes (totally fine) but I absolutely loved Shen and how he was and how he treated Stevie. I thoroughly enjoyed their journey to “I love you’s” and HEA.
Stevie certainly is a special kind of crazy, well medicated for it and I love how this author doesn’t shy away from the sisters getting help for their unique brand of needs. I think what made Stevie so likable was the fact that while she certainly had the arrogance for a genius prodigy she also had some humility and a caring nature. She wanted to help those around her. Her fear of bears cracked me up (considering what she can turn into herself) but I love that she thinks Shen is cute!
The relationship and banter these three sister’s have is so funny and I had some laugh out loud moments for sure. I love how they always have each others back and take no crap from anyone!
I really recommend reading this authors Pride and also Magnus Pack series so that you can truly appreciate ALL the characters that make an appearance because there certainly are a lot. So many and I loved every mention of them all (as I miss these characters and their brand of craziness) so I wasn’t at all left wondering who was who!
The plot certainly continued from book one to this one and will conclude with Max’s story. While I wouldn’t call it a cliff hanger, it certainly leads onto the next one and if you havn’t read the first one yet, I’d recommend reading it before this one.
Overall another AMAZING addition to the Honey Badgers series and I eagerly await the next installment, I have no doubts it will be equally amazing!!!!!

Loved these characters. So much personality.

It was hilarious and completely off the charts. Very, very entertaining.

Well worth the wait
Just loved the whole story, thoroughly entertaining read once again by this talented author.
It carries on from book one without pause and gives us once again a load of action and entertainment.
Great having all these wonderful characters interacting and we get a partial answer to what is going on with the hybrids.
The dynamics between these three sisters, their outrageously crazy family and the people around them is so entertaining and humorous.
Loved that Gwen, Novikov and Blayne were taken along with Stevie. Pity Blayne didn’t get to have any fun but Stevie is all that seems to be needed.
My only big no no is the use of one specific word starting cu** that makes me cringe.

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 brings 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.
This has been a review by http://www.onceuponatimeireadabook.com , tune into my website for more weirdness every other day!

Shelly Laurenston’s humor never fails me. Yet again, I was laughing out loud at the antics of her characters. Shifters, romance, action, and humor… what else could you want?

The Mackilligan sisters are back. This is Stevie’s story. She is a genius in both science and music but has many mental health issues which are addressed within the story. She gets panic attacks when bears are near but is not afraid of Shen Li who is a giant panda, they are cuddly. Shen Li is the bodyguard for Kyle Jean-Louis Parker who is also a prodigy. The story opens with a funeral for an Uncle they have never met. Of course, there are shenanigans when the whole Mackilligan clan arrives for the funeral. After Stevie flips out and shifts from a surprise hug by Blayne, destroying part of the house the Jean-Louis Parkers have rented, she makes a deal with a rival scientist, Irene Conridge, to go undercover to find out who is experimenting and killing hybrids, of which Stevie is one.
Where do I begin? I laughed throughout this story. I love Stevie. She is the youngest of the Mackilligan sisters and is always protected by her sisters Charlie and Max. When approached by Dr. Conridge and the Van Holtz members to help find out who is killing hybrids, Stevie is blackmailed into helping. They feel she would be an asset because she previously had dated the suspected killer. As she tries to find out what is going on, she drags Shen Li along with her. The main story revolves around finding out who is experimenting on and killing hybrids, but you know when the Mackilligans are involved… Throughout the story we encounter some familiar people from the past books including Dee-Ann Smith, the Van Holtzs, Blyne, Bo Novikov and the Wild Dogs among others. Shen Li’s family also become involved in solving the killings and we have more involvement with Kyle’s family as well. Two very funny events that stand out for me in this book, Wild Dog Night and Max releasing her anal glands when she was attacked by a covert group. Stevie agrees to participate in Wild Dog Night and bring Charlie and Max with her, but has no idea what it is, and when Dee-Ann and her group investigate Max’s attack, they start to pass out from the smell, not Dee-Ann, hysterical. The other sub-story is Stevie and Shen’s blossoming romance. Poor Shen doesn’t know what hit him. I also like how Ms Laurenston does not shy away from the characters’ mental health issues. She sends us the message that it is ok to get help and talk about your issues with no shame attached. Well done. I really enjoyed this book and couldn’t put it down. I can’t wait for Max’s book.

IN A BADGER WAY is the second instalment in Shelly Laurenston’s fun and fabulous contemporary, adult HONEY BADGER CHRONICLES paranormal, romance series-a spin-off from the author’s PRIDE and PACK series. This is prodigal genius and badger hybrid Stevie Stasiuk-MacKilligan, and security specialist/panda shifter Shen Li’s story line. IN A BADGER WAY can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story line is revealed where necessary.

Told from several third person perspectives including Shen and Stevie IN A BADGER WAY follows several paths but continues to focus on the MacKilligan half-sisters: badger/ wolf Charlie; honey badger Maxie, and our heroine badger/ tiger Stevie MacKilligan. Stevie is a prodigal, a genius but suffers from severe anxiety, panic attacks and depression that when provoked or threatened, her self preservation instincts result in a beast that no one is able to control. Currently housing another child prodigy, Kyle Jean-Louis Parker, and his security guard Shen Li, Stevie struggles with demons from the past including a father and uncle who may or may not be threatening the people she loves. When a number of hybrid shifters are found dead, Stevie is contracted by Dr. Irene Conridge, to go in search of the people responsible in an effort to protect shifters like herself. With Shen Li at her side, Stevie will face down her demons, the Bears, the Wild Dog Nights, and possibility of losing herself in the name of science. What ensues is the building romance and relationships between Stevie and Shen, and the potential fall-out as Stevie is targeted by a man desperate to eradicate the impure shifters.

IN A BADGER WAY has all the requisite snark, humor, fun, and over the top craziness expected from Shelly Laurenston’s shifters. The MacKilligan sisters are over protective, fiercely loyal, and when threatened are a force unto themselves. Feared by other shifters, the sister’s reputations as hybrids of unknown consequences places everyone on alert when the proverbial sh*t hits the fan-Stevie is no match for the strongest and biggest shifters, or science, itself.

Once again, there is a large ensemble cast of secondary and supporting characters including some very familiar shifters (Dee-Ann and Ric; Niles Van Holtz and his human wife Irene Conlan, Bo and Blayne, Loch and Gwen, and Marcella Malone), the Berg triplets Berg, Dag and Britta Dunn, Kyle Jean-Louis Parker and his sister Oriana as well as Maxie’s best friend, wolverine shifter Dutch Alexander.

A fantastic story teller, Shelly Laurenston brings her imagination to life blending animal characteristics with a human mind set ensuring no character is entirely free from one or the other. A spirited, energetic and animated series The Honey Badger Chronicles, and thusly the Pride and Pack series are a definite must read.

This is a preview of the first chapters and I was so disappointed! It wasn’t long enough and it’s going to be a fantastic book! Now I have to wait forever to get the rest of it. This is Stevie and Shen’s book and it’s going to be so funny. There’s not a lot to say about it since it was just a few chapters but now comes the wait. I highly recommend you getting it if you want to read a funny book. I voluntarily read and reviewed this preview that I received from Netgalley.