In a Badger Way

The Honey Badgers Chronicles, Book 2

By: Shelly Laurenston

Narrated by: Charlotte Kane

Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's Summary

Petite, kind, brilliant, and young, Stevie is nothing like the usual women in whom bodyguard Shen Li is interested. 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, you 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.  

Contains mature themes.

©2019 Shelly Laurenston (P)2019 Tantor

Charlotte Kane is back! Yay!

It was quite jarring after having had Charlotte Kane for all of the Pride books to suddenly have a new narrator for the first spin-off Badger book. While the new narrator wasn't bad per say, aside from it just not being the character voices we loved already, there were things like characters speaking with Russian accents when they shouldn't etc. since the new narrator didn't know any of the peripheral characters as Charlotte does. So having her back is a huge win! Sorry it disappointed someone else apparently, but those of us who have been listening to the Pride books for years are breathing much easier now.

Thanks for listening to your listeners!

I am Blaine-excited that the publishers heard the comments for the audio version of "Hot and Badgered" and bought back Charlotte Kane to narrate Stevie and Shen's story! For loyal readers/listeners of Laurenston's shifter series, it's like time just fast-tracked and we are revisiting old friends and meeting new ones. I am thoroughly enjoying my listen to this book!

Never wanted it to end!

I love this author! This series is so funny, I look like a lunatic whenever I spontaneously start loling. Icing on the cake is having Charlotte Kane narrate this. She makes it even more enjoyable. 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽

Love it.

I love Shelly Laurenston. Her books are always hilarious and highly entertaining. And they keep getting better. I love how all the favorite characters are included in each new installment.

Another winner

I wasn't sure if I would like this one. The first badger spin-off was not my favorite. I loved this story. Had me laughing out loud it was so funny. I also loved revisiting past characters hearing about their lives.

There were a few parts that had me wondering. The romance was sudden and almost nonexistent until much later in the story.

Thank you for getting the original narrator. Awesome as usual.

A laugh out loud great story!

What a thoroughly entertaining read with enough action, drama, and a bit of romance that held my attention to the point of not being able to stop listening . The narrator, Charlotte Kane , is one of my favorite narrators and helps to bring this story to life for me. Well done Shelly Laurenston!

Stevie’s neurosis overpowers the story some.

I have enjoyed Shelly Laurenston books in the past, but her badger series is not as good as her other series. I feel like every time she writes a book she is trying to outdo her characters in how bad ass they are and it become more like bulling than sexy hard ass. I’m not saying I didn’t like the book and that I won’t get the 3rd sisters’ book when it comes out, but it just isn’t drawing me in like the other books. I will admit the part with Blaine was hilarious and would have enjoyed more moments like that, instead of Stevie’s neurosis. As always love the narrator.

loved it

Just finished Stevie's book and i already can't wait for Max's to come out! The sense of humour is always top notch, both twisted and hysterical, making me laugh out loud and cringe at the same time. I love this author, series, performance, absolutely everything!

I loved this book!

This book was funny, action filled and just the right amount of sexy. I love the characters and the writing. I cannot wait for the next book in the series. If you liked any of the previous books in the Magnus, or Pride series you will really enjoy hearing from some of the previous characters.

Strong females!

Finally!! An author that can write women that are more than just damsels in distress!! They’re quirky and neurotic and kick-ass!! Love it! I also like the narrator of this book. I think she was original to the books and so much better than the one from book 1 in this series!

This series continues to by very very funny

When you have a series about a family and the people they are friends or associate with the second book is always more plot orientated than the first. We are introduced to everyone in the first book. We understand the family structure, the personalities of the people involved and the world building is already established. This means the book can be about things other than the set up.

This book is about Stevie, the youngest of the MacKilligan sisters. Stevie is a former child prodigy who suffers from a panic disorder. She is also a tiger/honey badger hybrid that turns into a 2 ton giant tiger striped honey badger. When she panics, she shifts and she is met with horror and disgust amongst her community. She has often wished she could be different. Other than her enormous alter ego she is a sweet and kind woman and incredibly brilliant. She was a music prodigy but she felt too pressured as a child by her fame so she left the music industry and became an equally brilliant physicist.

Since she has been back in America with her sisters, Stevie has started relaxing a little and even started writing music again. She has also decided that she likes cuddling Shen Li, a giant panda shifter who her friend Kyle’s bodyguard. There’s not much to do whilst guarding Kyle, so he finds himself being drawn into more of Stevie’s schemes as she tries to get a handle on her panic disorder and find out who is murdering hybrid shifters, without involving her sisters. Shen finds himself becoming more drawn to Stevie as each day goes by, despite her unusual ways and her high maintenance family.

As with the first book in the series this story was hilarious. The author’s writing is fluid and natural and the narrator delivers very well. The only reason I didn’t give the narration 5 stars is because of the dodgy Scottish accents. I thought with a change in narrator from the first in the series, the accents might improve, but I think it’s an American failing that their Scottish accents always drift into Irish ones. Apart from the accents, the narrator delivers the personalities of all the characters flawlessly. I’ll definitely look out for other books read by her.

The plot was intriguing and complex with many different strands to the story. There are a lot of characters in the book and if you hadn’t read the first book recently the reader may find the book confusing. I read the books quite closely to each other so I had no problem keeping track, so that wasn’t a detriment to me. It’s just something to bear in mind.

It was also nice to see how the other two sisters were doing in this book. There is character development within the family as a whole as well as only focusing on Stevie, which I really enjoyed.

I really look forward the third book being released next year. I may have to re-listen to really enjoy the next one!

Funny and so enjoyable

Another great episode in the life of the awesome Mackilligan sisters. Funny, fast paced and thoroughly enjoyable.

Must read series.

One of the funniest books I've listened to in a long time. The narrator is great too. I've come across her narrating SPI files under a different name. The change in narrator from the first book is a little disjointing but after a chapter, I got over that.

A fun story, but...

I enjoy this author but she gets so wrapped up in including characters from previous books that the main characters often ended up pushed aside or forgotton about completely. The main threat to this couple was pushed aside for another threat that was largely forgotten about for most of this book.

Individually I liked all the characters and enjoyed how they interacted with each other but this was billed as Stevie and Shen's story and this was not it.

The narrator did a good job but she really cannot do a Scottish accent and it needed to stop!

great listen

great narrator. excellent story can't get enough of the hunny badgers. make sure you are some where you can laugh out loud when you listen to this .

Great book

Really liked this book. The characters are all quirky and the plot is fun to fallow.

Meandering mess

I remember liking the first book in this series, though I mentioned in my review of that book (when I read it recently to remind myself) that it got a bit lost at times. This book was way worse in that respect. I can’t even count how many points of view there were. It read like an extended epilogue catching up with random characters from a tonne of other series the author has written, but at the cost of the actual plot of this book. I didn’t feel the connection between the couple either. The first book was hilarious but I didn’t feel that so much this time either. So much potential with this author, but I think they need to work with a good editor to direct their obvious talent and humour in the right direction to make a book stand alone in its own right. Other reviewers seem to love this book, but they also mention that they loved catching up with other characters, but Audible doesn’t have these series so I’m missing out on that experience. I’m left feeling like it was a missed opportunity.