Format: ebook
Source: purchased
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Date read: January 5, 2026
The Honey Badger Chronicles
1. Hot and Badgered
2. In a Badger Way
3. Badger to the Bone
4. Breaking Badger
5. Born to Be Badger
6. To Kill a Badger - Paperback | Kindle
Shelly Laurenston
| Website | Amazon |
Synopsis (Goodreads):
Nelle Zhao is a social media maven who knows what matters. And the only thing that matters right now is survival. Not easy, though, when her honey badger teammates attract trouble the way she attracts attention. She didn’t know when it became her job to protect the ones she cares about from themselves, but even she has to admit…she’s really good at it. Too bad some people don’t appreciate when she’s being helpful. Especially Keane Malone, who doesn’t know how to accept a friendly paw. But Nelle excels at helping! And at ignoring other people’s irrational demands, such as doing it all alone. Keane, poor pretty kitty, doesn’t understand the kind of assistance a shit-starting honey badger like Nelle can truly offer . . .Thoughts on To Kill a Badger: Honey badgers, man. It doesn't matter their age, they are all a little unhinged. Nelle and her teammates might not even be the most unhinged of the bunch. That title miiiiight belong to Tracey Rutowski and her band of middle aged miscreants. That group of badgers DOES NOT know how to do anything subtly. At all.
Keane knows two things—he doesn’t like other people, and he is going to crush the de Medicis, an evil coalition of male lion shifters who are not only snatching innocent humans for fun and profit, but also killed his father. And for once, he may not be able to fight this fight alone, forcing him to let long-legged, jet-setting Nelle join the fight. And getting close to Nelle is suddenly bringing out his roar . . .
But let's not worry about Tracey and her crew (as an aside: you should absolutely ALWAYS worry about Tracey and her crew). This is Nelle and Keane's story (mostly) and THESE TWO. Nelle is one who doesn't ask for permission. She just steps up and does what needs to be done. This ranges from keeping Charlie out of the loop when it comes to what Max is about to crash into the middle of to decorating Mads house (complete with a half-court and wine cellar) without any input from Mads. So when Tracey tells her she needs to go to overseas to get the European honey badgers to help with their current problem, Nelle...actually Nelle digs in her heels. They don't need help. Nelle and her teammates can take care of whatever is going on themselves. Except the alternative is that TRACEY goes to Europe and the lady is a walking diplomatic disaster. So Nelle digs in her heels, but ultimately takes on the task set to her for the good of everyone. Also, there's a slight possibility doing this will get her out of her sister's wedding. Which Nelle REALLY does not want to be involved with.
While Nelle is moving and shaking the world's chessboard to her liking, Keane is sort of roped into joining her. Not because he cares what happens to anyone (excluding his own family, he absolutely does NOT care), but because Nelle just sort of keeps dragging him along. As her bodyguard. Which she doesn't need. But grouchy Keane maybe doesn't find Nelle nearly as irritating as most everyone else, so he follows along. He scowls. He roars when he gets upset. He does his big cat thing and pounces before playing with his food (not that he EATS people or anything. Mostly.) to keep Nelle out of trouble.
A whole lot of familiar faces (so many! *heart eyes*), an unholy amount of barely controlled rage (honey badgers, man!), Stevie accidentally stumbling over very dangerous things, bears, baking, a tiger that doesn't like anyone (until he does!), and a honey badger who can get herself into (and out of) some dangerous situations. I'm talking about Nelle with that last part. Although, that really applies to pretty much ALL the honey badgers. GOOD TIMES!
