Category: Fantasy mystery thriller. Fantasy romance mystery

Review: Breaking Badger (Honey Badger Chronicles, #4) by Shelly Laurenston

Rating: 4.5⭐️

Books 4 through 6 (to date) focus in on Max’s childhood friends and basketball teammates. These females are also dangerous honey badgers and have been a part of a tight knit group of friends that have run their own small time operations since their school days. It been Max, Streep, Mads, Nelle, and Tock. Through crime and punishment (often with Charlie as backup and safety for the younger girls). 

This is Mads book, and along with the other teammates, get hooked up with the Malone brothers, Keane, Finn, and Shay ,Siberian Tigers, who are searching for the people who killed their father. These Tiger shifters are also related to Max, Stevie and Charlie  as Nat, their younger sister turns out to be half honey badger and a half McKilligan.  Complicated relationships introduced as well as some awkward dynamics  during the last fantastic story .

Laurenston weaves tightly packed, violent action scenes and densely layered storylines into developing new found family bonds and growing group relationships. The “Black Malones” tigers start out emotionally stunted and reactive yet during intense interactions and small one to one conversations, each Malone exhibits surprising emotions and hidden depths. 

And while the focus is on Mads, and her interactions with her awful family and the growing one with Finn, the strengths of this series, the MacKilligan sisters (Charlie, Max and Stevie) still have impactful moments and roles to play here. 

As do others. So many new and familiar characters here , beautifully detailed and engaging in their own personalities. It just one more reason I can’t get enough of this series. 

There’s an overall plot and mystery that seems to be going through the next section of books. It’s a really great one. I can’t wait to see how it’s explained. 

Remember these books are gory, violent and murderous. Blood and body parts everywhere. FYI.

Highly recommended. 

I really like the covers for the series. Great work. Eye catching and character related. 

Honey Badger Chronicles:

  • Hot and Badgered #1
  • In A Badger Way #2
  • Badger to the Bone #3
  • Breaking Badger #4
  • Born to Be Badger #5
  • To Kill a Badger #6

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 Book 4 of 6: The Honey Badger Chronicles 

Blurb 

It’s instinct that drives Finn Malone to rescue a bunch of hard battling honey badgers. The Siberian tiger shifter just can’t bear to see his fellow shifters harmed. But no way can Finn have a houseful of honey badgers when he also has two brothers with no patience. Things just go from bad to worse when the badgers rudely ejected from his home turn out to be the only ones who can help him solve a family tragedy. He’s just not sure he can even get back into the badgers’ good graces. Since badgers lack graces of any kind . . .

Mads knows her teammates aren’t about to forgive the cats that were so rude to them, but moody Finn isn’t so bad. And he’s cute! The badger part of her understands Finn’s burning need to avenge his father’s death—after all, vengeance is her favorite pastime. So Mads sets about helping Finn settle his family’s score, which has its perks, since she gets to avoid her own family drama. Besides, fighting side by side with Finn is her kind of fun—especially when she can get in a hot and heavy snuggle with her very own growling, eye-rolling, and utterly irresistible kitty-cat . . .

“Filled with high-octane action, some serious snark, and a plethora of humor.. the resulting madcap adventures are sure to please series fans.”

—Publishers Weekly 

  • Publisher: Kensington Books
  • Accessibility: Learn more
  • Publication date: August 31, 2021
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 370 pages
  • Book 4 of 6: The Honey Badger Chronicles

Review:  Badger to the Bone (Honey Badger Chronicles, #3) by Shelly Laurenston

Rating: 4.5⭐️

Badger to the Bone, the 3rd in the MacKilligan sisters “group” of this series. Now we get to Max, the middle sister and the only full blooded honey badger of the three sisters. 

Max “Kill It Again” MacKilligan’s Asian honey badger mother is in prison doing hard time for robbery after their father left her and others caught in Russia after the theft went wrong. She’s been with Charlie since she was young. 

Her personality has been described as family first and psychopathically dangerous. 

She smiles a lot. Apparently that goes with her being a honey badger. They are a violent, vicious breed despite their size.

This takes Max on quite the journey, one that sees her saving someone unexpectedly, taking on a new albeit temporary career, and chasing down criminals, her father and family alike with vicious zest and a ton of weaponry. 

Max is unapologetically who she is. Violent, often aggressive, naked and even murderous. And the author has created her in such a way that it meshes absolutely perfectly with her animal instincts and shifter side. She is a honey badger, no matter what form she is in.  She’s not human and that realistically tracks here. 

And while her other two sisters might be ambivalent at times about parts of their own shifter instincts and abilities, Max has none of those here.

I absolutely howled in parts at certain scenes, and they were both when Max was all honestly and truly honey badger. And deadly. 

The next story starts with side characters and they are great. I’m sure I’ll enjoy those greatly. But Max? She’s fantastic.  And I look forward to seeing her and Zé Vargas, the cat shifter again in upcoming novels. 

Another winner!

I really like the covers for the series. Great work. 

Honey Badger Chronicles:

  • Hot and Badgered #1
  • In A Badger Way #2
  • Badger to the Bone #3
  • Breaking Badger #4
  • Born to Be Badger #5
  • To Kill a Badger #6

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        Badger to the Bone (The Honey Badger Chronicles Book 3)

    

Blurb 

She’s the woman he’s been hired to kidnap. But ZeZé Vargas has other ideas . . . like getting them both out of this nightmare alive. Just one problem. She’s crazy. Certifiably. Because while he’s plotting their escape, the petite Asian beauty is plotting something much more deadly . . .

Max “Kill It Again” MacKilligan has no idea what one of her own is doing with all these criminal humans until she realizes that Zé has no idea who or what he is. Or exactly how much power he truly has.

But Max is more than happy to bring this handsome jaguar shifter into her world and show him everything he’s been missing out on. A move that might be the dumbest thing she’s ever done once she realizes how far her enemies will go to wipe her out. Too bad for them Zé is willing to do whatever it takes to keep her alive . . . and honey badgers are just so damn hard to kill!

  • Publisher: Kensington Books
  • Publication date: March 31, 2020
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 418 pages
  • Book 3 of 6: The Honey Badger Chronicles

Review:  In A Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles, #2) by Shelly Laurenston

Rating: 4.5⭐️

A 6 book series, stories 1 through 3 focus on the foundation family of the three MacKilligan sisters.  All three have the same criminal loser and absentee father a honey badger shifter who goes finds female companions like he does trouble, often leaving behind his children (from different mothers). Who then have to deal with his problems as adults. 

The first book centers around the oldest, Charlie Taylor-MacKilligan, a wolf/honey badger shifter who has been the caretaker for her sisters since her mother died.  Now they’ve settled into a sort of normality (for them) in a bear shifter neighborhood in a rental house. And Charlie’s got a bonded relationship with a grizzly bear shifter. 

But all the events in that book sets off a ripple effect that continues here in Stevie’s story. Stevie is the youngest, and the one who has the most issues. She’s brilliant, a certified genius. She’s got mental health issues, starting with extreme anxiety and depression that can cause her to spiral and lose control of her shift.  A concern when she’s a honey badger/tiger shifter hybrid.  The weird mixture of her father’s genes adds to her ability to do some pretty spectacular stuff. 

And for , honestly , some of the best scenes in the book, as well as in the last. 

Laurenston plays with the juxtaposition of how superficially Stevie’s perceived against the reality of what Stevie actually is. Or is capable of. This happens over and over. With multiple people. And I love it. That expectations are often wrong when taken on a simplistic level. 

Of course, this is the MacKilligan sisters, so we get all three and their often hilarious dynamics, fast paced and brutal action, and powerful scenes with full on snarky, clever, and often engaging dialogue. 

Shen, the Panda bodyguard who’s the love interest is vastly different and great in his unique role. He grows throughout the book and into the next. 

If I had an issue, it’s that Stevie kept making excuses for the father, a vile being.  I hope it doesn’t take six books to bring him down. 

This is a definite pleasure to read. And one I’m happy to share. 

Honey Badger Chronicles:

Hot and Badgered #1

In A Badger Way #2

Badger to the Bone #3

Breaking Badger #4

Born to Be Badger #5

To Kill a Badger #6

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        In a Badger Way: A Honey Badger Shifter Romance (The Honey Badger Chronicles Book 2)

    

Blurb 

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

  • Publisher: Kensington Books
  • Accessibility: Learn more
  • Publication date: March 26, 2019
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 418 pages
  • Book 2 of 6: The Honey Badger Chronicles

Review:  Little Bo Sneak (Once Upon A Rhyme, #2) by Abigail Manning 

Rating: 4.5⭐️

Abigail Manning continues her excellent fantasy series with Little Bo Sneak, a tweak of an old classic nursery rhyme with a touch of an undercover spy thriller combined with a fairytale storyline. 

It works surprisingly well. Especially as it continues from the first tale, and reveals a new overall series thread that’s concerned with magic stones and sinister black markets within the Kingdom to obtain them.

It started with the first novel and how Lucy’s father was framed for the theft of several of important magical stones. And then she was subsequently cursed by one. That was  The Itsy Bitsy Liar. 

In Little Bo Sneak, Lady “Evie”Genevieve Rayelle Palleep, Lucy’s mistress and friend, is the main character here.  She’s also a very good spy. 

When some dangerous magical cloaks need to be traced and the culprits identified, Evie’s handlers decide she needs a partner. 

It’s a romantic thriller,a magical romp, and an all-around heroine to the rescue in another fabulous nursery rhyme tweaked for a new trope and grand adventure. 

I can’t recommend this and the series enough. Inventive, characters with depth and humor, and dialogue that conveys emotions and intelligence. 

Adore it.  And each story is interwoven into the next.

Beautiful lush covers are everything! Here’s another in a fabulous line of them. Each is from an important scene in the book. 

 Cover design by Karri Klawitter

Once Upon a Rhythm:

The Itsy Bitsy Liar #1

Little Bo Sneak #2

Hush A Bye Lady #3

Do You Know The Muffin Scam? #4

Baa Baa Black Market #5

Twinkle Twinkle Little Scars #6 – Sept 26,2025

Buy link:

        Little Bo Sneak (Once Upon A Rhyme)

    

Blurb 

What if Little Bo Peep, had a skill for catching crooks?

Lady Genevieve Rayelle Palleep loves to point out what no one else notices, which makes it a tad difficult to get along with most suitors. While tracking down details may not be beneficial for her life as a lady, it certainly has uses in her more secretive life. Since being recruited as a crown agent as a child, Evie’s talents have never failed to hunt down black market goods, runaway convicts, or anything else one could imagine… That is, until her next mission bears an interesting request.

When eight magic-fused wool cloaks go missing from the black market, the agency doesn’t feel that Evie can handle the task alone. Much to Evie’s regret, she’s assigned her very first partner, an obnoxiously attractive agent by the name of Shepherd. He wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t have to go undercover as courting lovers… or if he wasn’t so perfect.

With her new partner in tow, and a mysterious stack of cloaks ready to be found, Evie is determined to prove she never needed Shep’s help from the start. She’s worked too hard to let another man drag her around like a wandering sheep. Will Evie be able to track down the missing wools? Or will her distrust of her partner leave them both lost?

Once Upon A Rhyme is a collection of clean, intercepting stories, best enjoyed when read as a series.

  • Publication date: July 11, 2023
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 339 pages
  • Book 2 of 6: Once Upon A Rhyme

Review: Brew Diligence (Maya’s Blog’s Book 2) by Lara McKenzie

Rating: 5⭐️+

“I’ve had some revelations since moving into my own place: 

-Living alone means no witnesses to my weirdness, which is empowering until you accidentally flood the kitchen while making noodles.  Fairy lights are an emotional support infrastructure.  -There is no middle ground between I am thriving and I just organised my socks by emotional damage level.  -There is no such thing as too many mugs.”

From Maya’s Blog, readership is now climbing up to the millions. 

When we last saw Maya, she’d left her abusive family and finally gotten the one room apartment that she had wanted, decorated with fairy lights and a coffee mug. Safe. But Gary the Grim Reaper who had helped saved her from the serial killer was missing, presumably because he violated his own laws. 

Brew Diligence, a book of endless quotable sentences and incredibly moving moments, follows the same perfect format and flow of the first book. Maya, our brave woman barista continues to blog about her experiences to her followers who became her friends and family. 

From 5 to millions, chapters of her moving forward, overcoming some huge challenges with hilarious stories and enormous amounts of pain and anxiety. And bravery. 

Now she and her friends who are also her colleagues are in the midst of the fight to free Gary the Grim Reaper from his prison sentence for helping her escape from the serial killer. 

Gary, another fabulous character, is missing not from the story but from the hole he left behind in the close relationships he formed. Plus his ghost cat, too, who left behind, is ruling the apartment at Maya’s. 

There’s so much trauma and emotional scars here in this story. It’s balanced by the author’s carefully crafted humor and sensitivity to the subject matter and scenes.  Hilarity and horror. Love and hate. Death and rebirth.  

Despair and hope.  It’s brilliant and brutal that all these things exist within this universe, these characters and their stories. 

Is this really only the second book? Surely not.  I’m astonished at the fact that this is so amazing on every level of excellence. 

Yes, highly recommended. If I had more stars in the rating, they’d be there. So many stars!

Love this so much! Including the covers. 

Cover Illustration Main image by Manuka Madushan, Digital Illustrator.

MAYA’S BLOGS:

Espresso Yourself #1

Brew Diligence #2

Uncharted Grounds #3

Flat White Flag #4

Little Bean #5 (coming soon)

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        Brew Diligence: A Paranormal Comedy with Heart (Maya’s Blogs Book 2)

    

Blurb 

Just as Maya thinks she can relax into recovery and a budding romance with a demon general, the afterlife throws her a curveball.

The Grim Reaper who saved her wasn’t just locked away—he was erased from existence.

What starts as a rescue mission quickly becomes a masterclass in magical bureaucracy, inter-realm politics, and one seriously unhinged plot twist.

Join Maya as she blogs her way through enough supernatural shenanigans to short-circuit reality.

  • Publication date: June 23, 2025
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 304 pages
  • Book 2 of 4: Maya’s Blogs

Review:  Of Owls and Oolong (Owls, Tea Shops, and Other Magical Nuisances, Book One) by Shari L. Tapscott

Rating: 3.5⭐️

Of Owls and Oolong, the first in the Owls, Tea Shops, and Other Magical Nuisances series by Shari L. Tapscott, is an enjoyable fantasy tale.  Tapscott’s story encapsulates everything from cozy mysteries, fantastical creatures and mythical places, to slow burn romances with elements of magic and darkness. 

I be honest, I don’t understand book descriptions that I feel misrepresent the story. Nothing about this story reads “rom-com”.  Sad, poignant, hopeful, and new beginnings. But rom-com? I don’t see it. 

Kit is a summer Pixie who inherited her great aunt’s old cottage and tea shop in a magical tourist town across the country from her home and family in Washington state. 

Moss Hollow, Vermont caters to the human tourist industry while hiding the fact that it’s a paranormal community that exists along side them.  No cars inside the township, just carriages and buggies pulled by animals. Part of the charm during the many festivals. 

The author builds a believable small town dynamic with all the various kinds of shops and shopkeepers of differing species, each with their own backstories. 

It’s Kit, Rowan the Owl who’s not an owl she inherits along with the house and shop, along with Ash, her reserved neighbor and Council member, that’s the most of the main focus here. 

I appreciate the world building, and the way Tapscott wove some of the darker elements of Kit’s background into the story. But that also works against it as well, because it’s so tragic and threatening that to have that aspect of the story be a part of the bigger plot at this point feels like it doesn’t have any foundation laid out for it. 

The relationships between Kit and Ash, or Kit and Rowen aren’t really there yet. It’s a beginning but not established. So the ending feels rushed. 

I’m looking forward to seeing more of the characters and series to see how the author develops them. 

No spice, mystery, and fantasy. 

Entertaining and very enjoyable. 

Love that cover!

Cover Design by Covers by Juan

Owls, Tea Shops, and Other Magical Nuisances:

Of Owls and Oolong #1

Of Pixies and Pekoe #2 – Jan 2,2026

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 Book 1 of 2: Owls, Tea Shops, and Other Magical Nuisances 

Blurb 

The author of A Vampire’s Guide to Gardening and Obsidian Queen brings you a lighthearted fantasy full of humor and romance, set in a cozy contemporary fae town. Welcome to Moss Hollow.

There are three things you need to know about my great aunt—she’s eccentric, she’s rich, and she’s dead. No, make that four things. She also named me as the sole beneficiary of her fortune. There are, however, a few stipulations.

1. I must move into her cottage in Moss Hollow, Vermont—a magical community that values tradition and tourists.

2. I must keep her beloved tea shop open and running for at least three years.

3. I must take care of her tiny owl, a prickly creature by the name of Rowan. He’s moody, opinionated, and he used to be a mage.

He doesn’t like me, he doesn’t like my dog, and he really doesn’t like the handsome fae councilman who starts hanging around as soon as I arrive in town.

But for a small fortune, Rowan and I are going to learn to coexist long enough for me to figure out how to turn him back into his normal self with my “cute and worthless” pixie magic—preferably before he ruins my dating life or drives me insane.

Owls, Tea Shops, and Other Magical Nuisances is a rom-com style contemporary fantasy. The perfect lighthearted escape, this story is sure to delight readers who enjoy cozy magic and humor.

The books in this series feature smoldering-but-sweet, closed-door romance. (Passionate kisses and some innuendo, but no spicy scenes.)

Review: The Wolf Vs The Dragon: The Hidden City Supernatural Sleuth #7) by Lauretta Hignett 

Rating: 3⭐️

This is yet another review I found myself editing due to my exasperation with the main character, particularly how, at the penultimate book in this series, the author is still continuing to have Daphne’s character remain in the same place as it was at the beginning of the series. 

Hignett has previously promised some growth for Daphne, especially with her annoyed “2 personality” inner dialogue, an element of the story and character that was highlighted prior as an issue. 

Those constant ongoing conversations between violent‘brain Daphne’ and the other kind, naive and frankly, TSTL Daphne are an element that are repetitive, slow down the narrative, and honestly, irritating at this point. I thought the two halves were reconciled but ,no ,here we are, still with the same ongoing arguments that were old several books ago.  

Brain Daphne: let me stab whoever. Emotional Daphne: No it’s wrong. Brain: stabby Stab! 

ED: no, we must carry on with our internal dialogue while there’s some poor soul watching us stand here. 

Just no. At 23 percent. Well the entirety of the book. Then it gets worse when one part of her calls the other part an idiot. And I’m agreeing. 

Myf, the tortured alcoholic dragon shifter is now an enemy. Guess who is whining about that betrayal after Myf stayed locked in cabinets, soused after drinking binges with Dwayne, for ages, while Daphne deals with other drama? Daphne. SMH. 

There’s multiple side storylines. The ones with Dwayne , which I’m sure will have ramifications in the finale, still feel like literal fluff. 

By the end of the story, while there’s some good stuff here with Myf’s rescue, and a revelation, Daphne’s still such an oblivious, whiny character that I just can’t care about her anymore. 

Daphne has gotten to be unreadable. Dwayne,her companion Chaos god, as well.  

I’ll probably get the last one just to see what happens. But characters like Daphne? Are only interesting to me when they evolve and develop as the series progresses. By book 7, she shouldn’t be the same person as she was in the first novel. Now she’s just one more uninteresting trope.

Too bad because there is interesting mythology and world building going on, and some fascinating concepts here. Those got the rating points. 

Book Cover by Atra Luna Graphic Design

Hidden City Supernatural Sleuth:

The Wolf Vs The Vampire #1

The Wolf Vs The Warlock #2

The Wolf Vs The Shifter #3

The Wolf Vs The Witch #4

The Wolf Vs The Monster #5 

The Wolf Vs The Shadow Fae #6 

The Wolf Vs The Dragon #7

The Wolf Vs The World #8 – Nov 15,2025 – finale 

The Wolf Vs Santa: A Little Christmas Mystery

Buy link 

        The Wolf Vs The Dragon: The Hidden City Supernatural Sleuth

    

Blurb 

I don’t want to hurt her… but she definitely wants to hurt me.

Betrayal doesn’t sting. It hurts worse than that; it feels like a rake over coals, a disembowling, a slow, agonizing stretch on the torture rack.

Myf is hurt, and she’s found someone to blame. She’s focused all her pain on one target.

Me.

The Wolf Vs The Dragon is book seven in the Hidden City Supernatural Sleuth, a hot new Urban Fantasy series by bestselling author Lauretta Hignett.

Review:  Hot and Badgered (Honey Badger Chronicles, #1) by Shelly Laurenston

Rating: 4.75⭐️

“‘So let me sum up-we’ve got one vote for total annihilation and one vote for forcing them to join the hockey team. Am I correct?’ “Yes, “ both females replied.”

Author Shelly Laurenston, who’s quoted above from this hilarious and highly entertaining book, has written many popular novels and series, none of which I’ve read until now. After reading this, I’m going to start through this writer’s inventory like a cat in a catnip patch.  I’m mean there’s a porcupine scene that can have me giggling in crowded places just thinking about it. 

You don’t have to have read any preceding books or series to understand what this is about. It’s so great, the characters are so vividly written, the plotting and locations are written with detail and a eye for creativity that makes this a book that you can’t put down and full of characters that are rich in family love while being absolutely crazy and dangerous. 

I’m talking about the MacKilligan shifter family of honey badgers, which spans the world. From their base in Scotland to the USA where the MacKilligan sisters are, and further out, this wild, often criminal family is the most enduring, entertaining and enterprising group of shifters I’ve met in a long time. 

The core group is the three sisters of the MacKilligan family, oldest Charlie Taylor-MacKilligan who is a honey badger/wolf hybrid, then followed by Max “Kill It Again” MacKilligan who is all honey badger and perhaps psychopathic killer, and finally the younger sister, the unstable uber brilliant genius who has certain mental health issues, Stevie. Stevie who’s honey badger and tiger.  A found family with an absent loser criminal father who has repeatedly gotten them into deep debt and international criminal troubles and with their hybrid status a lack of respect and support elsewhere. 

They have been brought up learning to take care of themselves, fighting for their lives in every way possible. I’m talking arsenals. 

They, due to criminal shenanigans by their father once again, end up meeting with a grizzly bear shifter family. The Dunns, a triplet set of siblings into protecting and honey. 

Honestly, it’s fabulous. There’s an entire bear shifter town that’s amazing. I want to go there.  There’s jackals, a shady wolverine pal sort of, and more relatives than anything. 

It’s hilarious, imaginative, the action sequences and battles are fierce! Bloody fun and paranormal wild in the extreme. 

But the core family love is locked in, the family dynamic is believable and compelling. And the dialogue is sparking intelligent and downright entertaining while also making the reader understand the characters and what’s driving them emotionally. 

Honestly, why am I so late to all this? 

Another 3am in the morning read and fabulous finish. Highly recommended! 

Honey Badger Chronicles:

Hot and Badgered #1

In A Badger Way #2

Badger to the Bone #3

Breaking Badger #4

Born to Be Badger #5

To Kill a Badger #6

Buy link

        Hot and Badgered: A Honey Badger Shifter Romance (The Honey Badger Chronicles Book 1)

    

Blurb 

The “hot and humorous” debut of the action-packed shapeshifter series from the New York Times bestselling author of the Pride novels (USAToday.com).

It’s not every day that a beautiful naked woman falls out of the sky and lands face-first on grizzly shifter Berg Dunn’s hotel balcony. Definitely they don’t usually hop up and demand his best gun. Berg gives the lady a grizzly-sized t-shirt and his cell phone, too, just on style points. And then she’s gone, taking his XXXL heart with her. By the time he figures out she’s a honey badger shifter, it’s too late.

Honey badgers are survivors. Brutal, vicious, ill-tempered survivors. Or maybe Charlie Taylor-MacKilligan is just pissed that her useless father is trying to get them all killed again—and won’t even tell her how. Protecting her little sisters has always been her job, and she’s not about to let some pesky giant grizzly protection specialist with a network of every shifter in Manhattan get in her way. Wait. He’s trying to help? Why would he want to do that? He’s cute enough that she just might let him tag along—that is, if he can keep up . . .

  • Publisher: Kensington Books
  • Publication date: March 27, 2018
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 434 pages
  • Book 1 of 6: The Honey Badger Chronicles

Review: License to Curse (The Merlin Mysteries, Book One) by Kim Richardson 

Rating: 3⭐️

I have written and rewritten this review several times.  And finally decided to try and keep it as concise as possible. 

This was a DNF multiple times for me for many reasons but ultimately I finished it and enjoyed it. But I won’t be going further with this series. 

Main issues revolve around the characterization and plot issues. Things and elements that repeatedly occur throughout the story or seem to be a part of the main character makeup which makes any credibility of a magical law enforcement officer impossible. 

Arcane witch Rhea Morven is a newly credited Merlin. That’s a Magical Enforcement Response League Intelligence Network. Basically they’re the magical law enforcement agents who police the paranormal world. Rhea’s got a sketchy family history and wildcard powers. And she’s a newbie. But still an agent with a badge. 

And she’s sent out to an equally sketchy town, Gallows Gate, where a fellow agent disappeared and 3 teenagers have gone missing. 

Should be a great mystery and law enforcement storyline. 

However, author Kim Richardson gives little insight or foundation into the political structure or powers here. So instead of the Merlin coming into town as a powerful magical force or police officer, there’s nothing to this aspect of the plot. 

The agency has given no resources and dumped her. Might as well be a civilian. And she’s whiny. When the Council (and parents) blame her for certain crimes/events that have happened in her absence and without an investigation, she immediately agrees she’s a failure. She’s been there one day. 

People refuse to listen or talk to her. Fine. Off she goes. No procedure. What training? Zero credibility as a Merlin for me as a reader. 

Rhea’s personality too is lacking. Absolutely gullible as written, especially for a trained agent and magically powerful person. Rhea who listens to the person who’s got “big bad Villain“ stamped on their forehead while suspecting the person who’s saved her repeatedly and reeks of ancient great being.  Let’s do that. 

While there are some funny moments and engaging characters, like the ghost who’s attached to the dilapidated house that called the local Merlin office/ home, they’re swamped by scenarios and situations that are frankly eye-rolling. 

The narrative continues to grow less credible as events unfold that the reader recognizes aren’t well developed mysteries but rather easily explained events.  But the author keeps insisting that Morven can’t have the intelligence to guess immediately who and what is going on. 

Example: The previous Merlin who was investigating several cases disappeared ten days ago. Now a new body of a man has been discovered. Looks like he’s been there a while. Week, maybe ten days . Oh no! Whoever could it be? Not like there’s a missing person or something. SMH. 

Then in the dramatic climax and battle, a character turns into a well used trope. Why not. No foundation laid but ok. 

For me this became a kitchen sink paranormal narrative, with little cohesion thrown together with some likable characters but not enough to make me go forward. 

Read it if you’re a fan of this author. 

Cover design by Kim Richardson

The Merlin Mysteries:

License to Curse #1

Witch on Probation #2 – Oct 31,2025

Magical Misconduct #3 – Nov 30,2025

Buy link:

 Book 1 of 3: The Merlin Mysteries 

Blurb 

First day on the job? Missing teens. Dangerous magic. Zero backup.

I’m Rhea Morven, rookie Merlin agent, walking magical anomaly, and proud owner of a cursed bloodline no one trusts.

My first case dumps me in Gallows Gate, a hidden town full of secrets, politics, and creatures that bite. The assignment? Find three missing paranormals before the town tears itself apart. The twist? They’re not just anyone. They’re the children of the ruling council.

Now I’m stuck navigating vampire egos, witch rivalries, and suspicious council members who’d rather see me fail.

Good thing I’ve got a sharp tongue, a dangerous kind of magic, and a very low tolerance for bullsh*t.

Also, there’s a broody shifter with eyes like gold and a tendency to save my life. Not helpful for focus.

They sent me here to fail, but I’m not leaving without a fight.

Love found-family, magical suspense, and snarky witches who bite back? Welcome to The Merlin Mysteries, where a cursed bloodline meets a case from hell.

  • Publication date: July 22, 2025
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 281 pages
  • Book 1 of 3: The Merlin Mysteries

Review:  Shift of Morals (Shifter Lords Book 2) by S.E. Babin

Rating: 4.5⭐️

Shift of Morals was another good story, fast paced and action packed. There are new terrific characters, added fascinating story threads, and further exploration of this character’s back history and traumatic experiences that led to this situation and her evolving physical status, whatever it may be. 

I liked Shift of Morals better than Shift of Heart. Evie is growing more multi dimensional and relatable as she faces ever greater challenges and personal dangers. Especially when her worst enemy comes to town. 

Highlights are scenes that include Seymour, the sentient venomous flycatcher plant with major personality, and more fantastic magical powerful elements, especially those of plants where they exhibit the ability to move and think for themselves. Toxic plants are everything!

I’m still not sold on shifter lord, Caelan. He’s still a bit problematic, especially when the author has such other strong good male characters available. Caelan is still being reactive, obsessed, secretive, non communicative, violent. And a bit dimwitted at the end. 

Sigh. Why, why do authors love to write these main characters so much?SMH. 

Still, so terrific writing and elements here. Heading forward! 

Check it out! Especially if urban fantasy or paranormal romance is your thing.

Cover design by Covers by Christian

Shifter Lords :

Shift of Heart #1

Shift of Morals #2

Power Shift #3 – Oct 26,2025

Shifting Winds #4 – Feb 10,2026

Shifting Resolve #5 – March 31,2026

Shift of Rule #6 – May 26,2026

Shift of the Wild #7 – July 28,2026

Buy link

 Book 2 of 7: Shifter Lords 

Blurb 

What do you get when you mix one hot shifter, one angry god, and an absolutely zero chance of keeping things low-key? 

A whole bunch of trouble, that’s what.

Life was so much simpler when Evie’s problems consisted of picking the perfect peony. Now she’s got the gods on her tail and shifters trying to sniff out her secrets.

Then there’s the smoking hot Shifter Lord who has never once thrown a party, hiring her for all kinds of pack events and doing his best to convince her to trust him. But he has an agenda of his own, and Evie is far too smart to let her guard down.

On top of that, there’s a new god in town, one who’s way too good at identifying bloodlines and scenting out lies. She’ll have to dig deep and muster up some of her rusty acting skills to escape his notice, while trying to keep her identity hidden from the rest of the world so intent on finding her.

And if that wasn’t enough, someone is trying to kill her, and they’re getting close to succeeding.

Surviving will require placing her trust in the unlikeliest of allies and deciding just how long she can keep pretending she’s only a demure little florist who has an unfortunate black thumb for drama.

Evie is still a florist. Still a fraud. And still trying to pretend she’s not falling in love.

  • Publisher: Oliver Heber Books
  • Publication date: September 2, 2025
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 256 pages
  • Book 2 of 7: Shifter Lords