Review: Badger to the Bone (Honey Badger Chronicles Series Book 3) by Shelly Laurenston

Badger to the Bone by Shelly Laurenston
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’d probably give this book 4.5 stars if I could.

I love this series so hard. Shelly Laurenston is a brilliantly inventive comic writer. I read this on audio and I will repeat with this review, as I stated in other audio reviews of this series, whilst I really enjoy the narrator, she cannot carry off a Scottish accent to save her life. It drifts between Scotland and Ireland with alarming regularity. However, other than this one lack, her narration is excellent. Her differentiation between the numerous characters is very clear and her acting is very convincing. She’s excellent at drawing you into the plot and helping you bond with the characters.

Aside from the narration, this is a very well crafted story, as are all the others in the series. It’s got great pacing and plot twists galore. There are so many cameo appearances from characters that were in previous books in this universe you might get a little lost, but it’s all part of the charm of this series.

One of my favourite part of the Honey Badger Chronicles is that relationship between the sisters that veers between the homicidal to loyal to the core. The banter is hilarious as always, and the various romantic relationships aren’t a huge part of the story, with the exception of Max’s relationship with Ze, which is the new romantic focus of this book. I also like that the men in their lives know to stay well out of the way when the sisters begin arguing.

As always, the plot revolves around the mess that their father makes of the girls lives and it takes all their ruthless ingenuity to extricate themselves from his chaos. However, Ze and Max meet because of the mess Max’s mother made, this time. Max allows herself to be kidnapped in order to take out the person threatening her and Ze is an inside agent trying to take out the mercenary team that were hired to kidnap her. Max creates a bit of a mess when she decides she has to tell Ze that he’s actually a shifter and they end up killing everyone, not an uncommon event in the lives of these women. When Ze is injured Max decides to take him home, which requires crossing the Atlantic, and help him through his transition to shifter life and along the way their sociopathic tendencies seem to sync rather than clash. It’s a rather unusual romance, but it works for Max.

I would suggest that you do not read this book unless you’ve read the previous two in the Honey Badger Chronicles, if not The Pride and The Pack series, because the stories of these Honey Badger sisters is very tightly woven together and the richness of the story will be lost without all the background from the first two books.

This really is an excellent escapist novel and though it comes across as light there is very tight plotting and writing done in order to make it work. I highly recommend it.

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Review: A Pack of Blood and Lies (The Boulder Wolves Series Book 1) by Olivia Wildenstein

A Pack of Blood and Lies by Olivia Wildenstein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Werewolves in Boulder

Ness is nearly 18 and her mother died a few months ago. She’s been working several jobs to try and make ends meet as she continues to live in her old apartment with only her neighbour Evelyn to look out for her. She returns to her apartment and finds her uncle, aunt and cousin waiting for her, to take her back to the pack she was rejected from at age 11, after the death of her father. She was the only female wolf born to the pack in generations and was treated like an outcast.

The old alpha was pretty horrible, but now he is dead. There is to be a new alpha sworn in and there is no one contesting the old alpha’s son. Ness decides that she will contest the position in order to prove a point, that female wolves are a force to be reckoned with.

I feel like I should be raving about this book and I can’t work out why I’m not. It’s well constructed, the characters are interesting and believable and the world building is good. Somehow though, my heart isn’t engaged enough to rave about it. I don’t know why, I suppose sometimes you just don’t click with a character and that’s what I look for in a book. I want to really believe in the main character and really root for them to be happy and do well, the way I would a friend. However, I didn’t really click with Ness for some reason. I think it’s because she was so young and acted like it at times. I think if the book was about the same character in 5 years time I would find her much more interesting to me personally.

However, despite not clicking with main character, I did enjoy the book. It was well written and the world building was interesting. I think the next book will be worth reading too.

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Review: Rising West (Turner Artist Rocker Series Book 1) by Alyson Santos

Rising West by Alyson Santos
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Beautiful Rock Romance

I haven’t come across anything by this author before, but a Facebook ad really sucked me in. I knew I had to read this book because the premise sounded so different from the usual Rock Romance books you see.

Mason is a single Dad. His beautiful fiancee died a few months after giving birth to his gorgeous daughter Brooklyn. When she died he was 19 years old. He had to give up his fledgling rock career and get a job to pay for his little girl. For four years he’s been working construction and barely making ends meet, being helped out by Brooklyn’s grandparents and babysitters. He still plays the odd gig and is thinking about giving up the music forever because he’s just exhausted. Then he gets a booking, he thinks might be his last and plays his socks off. A manager is in the crowd and asks him to audition for an established rock band that’s lost it’s lead singer.

The reason this book is so different is that is really three love stories in one. Mason’s first love is and always will be his daughter. She is everything to him. The second love story is in the diary we read that his lost fiancee wrote about their relationship. The third love story is about Mason and Liberty and their shared passion for music.

This is a layered and subtle book that is moving and beautiful in equal parts. I was really blown away by the lyrics written for the songs that were intermingled with the dual points of view of Mason and Liberty.

I really loved this book. I now want to read all of this author’s other works because if they are as good as this one, I need to have them in my life. You need to read this if you love beautiful stories about vulnerable people trying to live the best lives they can.

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Review: Survivor; Planet Athion (Survivor's Heart Series Book 3) by Debbie Cassidy

Survivor; Planet Athion by Debbie Cassidy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Running The Gauntlet

Stuck on a space station, Rogue is hiding in their quarters as her men work around the clock to try and raise enough money to buy a ship and make a full escape from both the Trads and the Athions. Rogue knows there is no time to waste and feels that only she can move things forward as she isn’t afraid to fight dirty to survive. She’s probably not wrong.

Investigating during a brief window of being left alone she finds a series of fights that will earn them a reward and a ship to get away from the vulnerable station.

Once again the plot moves quickly, there is plenty of action and hot and steamy sex scenes and very little character development. This is pure escapism at it’s best.

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Review: Rebel; Planet Athion (Survivor's Heart Series Book 2) by Debbie Cassidy

Rebel; Planet Athion by Debbie Cassidy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Making A Choice

On their way to Athion, Rogue and Vex have no idea what lies in wait for them and Xavier is spending the journey back to try and convince the other two Athion’s that handing over Rogue to be experimented on is wrong. When he fails to make headway with them he hatches his own plans.

This series of books are like chapters of a serial rather than full books. The story is good and the pace is excellent, along with the sex scenes, however there is little information given out about the characters, they are simply sketches. However, I can’t stop reading. This is Debbi Cassidy’s superpower, she writes great stories, you can’t help but want to know what happens next.

I think if I didn’t have Kindle Unlimited I would have walked away from the series, because I’m not sure I would think the price worth the number of pages. However, as I do have KU, I’m happy to enjoy the pure escapism of this series.

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