I picked up Hot and Badgered solely because of the review by noodlestein’s danger tits, who admitted that she enjoyed it despite not being a fan of paranormal romance. I also tend to avoid that subgenre, but I figured this one might be would be worth a try. It was an interesting read – surprisingly light on the romance and what romance it did have leaned toward sweet rather than raunchy. Most of the story focused on the relationship between the three honey badger sisters, and they were a hoot and a half.
Hot and Badgered is about the three daughters of a shiftless, luckless, truly rotten honey badger shifter named Freddy MacKilligan. Charlie, the eldest, is half wolf. She has been responsible for her sisters since her mother died when she was a tween. Max, the middle one, is full honey badger. Stevie, the youngest, is half Siberian tiger. The hybrid status of the two daughters combined with the fact that they are Freddy’s girls means that they have always been outsiders and their allegiance is to one another.
The story starts with Charlie on the run from people trying to kill her, which is apparently not an uncommon thing in their lives. She drops, literally, into the life of Berg Dunn the grizzly, and he gives her an assist by stopping a few of her assailants and providing her with a shirt and a gun before she continues running for her life. She meets up with Max and they go to fetch Stevie from the ritzy mental health clinic into which she has checked herself – Stevie is a tad high strung – while continuing to evade the human tactical team that is hunting them.
The story mostly revolves around why the women are being hunted down and by whom. Charlie and Berg meet up again and fall for one another. Berg is himself a triplet so the relationship between Charlie and her sisters doesn’t completely baffle him. Along the way, we meet a huge roster of shifters and it was almost too much to keep straight but I did manage. Laurenston keeps things fun with silly touches like the bears who are obsessed with Charlie’s baking. By the time I finished, I was ready to pick up the next book so I have to say this book was a paranormal romance success for me.