ARC Review – Bite Me (Pride #9) by Shelly Laurenston

The offbeat scenarios, the lighthearted love scenes, and the improbable antics of the characters make this a total joy and a grand addition to the author’s work. ~ Shadow, Guilty Pleasures

Description:
Livy Kowalski has no time for idiots. When you shapeshift into a honey badger, getting through life’s irritants is a finely honed skill. Until she gets stuck housing her nutso cousin and dealing with her dad’s untimely and unexplained demise.

That’s where Vic Barinov comes in—or his house does. Vic can’t step outside without coming back to find Livy devouring his honey stash and getting the TV remote sticky. It gets his animal instincts all riled up. But he’ll have to woo her at high speed: all hell is breaking loose, and Livy is leading the charge…

 

 

 

 

Review copy provided for an honest review

How do you describe a Shelly Laurenston novel without sounding insane? As usual with this talented author, her heroine is smart, snarky, brave, and is a loyal friend and devastating enemy. Her chosen mate is loving, protective and hot.

Olivia Kowalski is a honey badger shifter. She has been friends with Victor Barinov, a hybrid tiger-bear shifter, but when her father dies, Vic starts seeing her in a new light and the friendship turns into something much more. But then Livy discovers her father was actually hunted and stuffed and decides something needs to be done about it. Before she can formulate plans, she is attacked and nearly killed by several Russian bear shifters. But her honey badger genes give her the strength to not only survive the attack, but to take out the bears. She the rallies her family-and Vic’s- to take out not only the full human responsible but the Russian mobster, who is also a bear-shifter, that is protecting him.

In the meantime, we get to enjoy Laurenston’s brand of wacky humor. Try to explain to someone that you are reading about a honey badger shifter who is jousting with shifter cats at a Renaissance Fair! Or why a naked Livy keeps hiding out naked in Vic’s cupboards eating his honey. Her family, a vast clan of thieves and miscreants, leads to lots of laughter, as does her friend Toni’s family. Victor and his family add to the fun.

Basically, I loved this book. I laughed out loud in several places and was bubbling with humor through the rest of it. The offbeat scenarios, the lighthearted love scenes, and the improbable antics of the characters make this a total joy and a grand addition to the author’s work.