Breaking Badger

July 26, 2021
Laurenston’s fourth Honey Badger Chronicles romance (after Badger to the Bone) delights with characteristic charm, wit, and an action-filled plot. Mads Galendotter is part hyena shifter, and part Viking—but she’s a honey badger shifter first and foremost. She’s also got an undying passion for basketball that’s shared by her four best friends, fellow shifters and a team both on and off the court. While she and her teammates are in the midst of some action-packed, weapon-loaded supernatural drama, they run into the Malone brothers, tiger shifters all, kicking the story into gear as Mads and co. agree to help the brothers discover who murdered their father. Filled with high-octane action, some serious snark, and a plethora of humor, the novel leans more into the urban fantasy genre than it does traditional romance, but there’s still plenty of heat between Mads and Finn Malone as they work together to keep her teammates from killing his brothers over interspecies tensions. Add in Finn’s younger half sister, Nat, and some familiar faces from previous installments, and the resulting madcap adventures are sure to please series fans. Agent: Ethan Ellenberg, Ethan Ellenberg Literary.

July 30, 2021

Mads Galendotter focuses on one thing: Basketball. As a honey badger/hyena hybrid, she had her WNBA dreams crushed because she's too good to play alongside full humans. So she plays in the shifter basketball league instead and, in her spare time, goes on undercover missions with her teammates, including Max "Kill It Again" MacKilligan. During their latest mission, they cross paths with the tiger shifter brothers known as the Black Malones, and before Mads knows it, she has Finn Malone sniffing around her. Finn knows his oldest brother messed up when he angered Max, but he's hoping Mads will help the brothers get back into Max's good graces; the Malones need Mad and Max's assistance in tracking down their father's murderer. Unfortunately, Max has no good graces, Mads is focused on getting into the championships, and Finn is finding her more fascinating by the minute. VERDICT Laurenston expands her "Honey Badger Chronicles" series to the friends of the MacKilligan sisters with her trademark snark and over-the-top humor. Fans will be screaming to read this entry, but it's not a good jumping-on point for new readers due to the overwhelming number of characters involved; readers will need to know some of the backstory to fully enjoy it. However, Laurenston should be a required purchase for public libraries.--Melanie C. Duncan, Washington Memorial Lib., Macon, GA

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