BREAKING BADGER is the fourth book in Shelly Laurenston’s “Honey Badger Chronicles”. This book, like others in this series, will appeal to romance fans and those who wouldn’t normally pick up a romance alike. Unlike the previous three books in this series, which were centered around the MacKilligan sisters, BREAKING BADGER focuses on Max MacKilligan’s basketball teammates (and BFFs) – specifically her friend Mads. All the MacKilligan sisters and the basketball friends are at least part honey badger shifter. The honey badger lineage, the MacKilligan connection, and the Malone’s quest for vengeance, all make for an epic good time.

The Malone brothers - Siberian tiger shifters all – are a force to be reckoned with. Like something out of a classic Toshiro Mifune film, or out of a Shakespearian tale, the brothers are united in their desire to find out who killed their father and satisfy their need for revenge as well as simply getting much-needed answers. The other thing they’re in agreement about, despite their brotherly spats, is that they should always look out for their half-sister (and half MacKilligan honey badger) Natalie. Mads and her basketball BFFs are thrown into the path of the Malone brothers. Mads has her own family drama to sort out in BREAKING BADGER. In addition to being half honey badger, Mads is also half Hyena. Her mother and maternal grandmother are jerks who have tormented Mads to varying degrees until she was able to break away from them. Now, rather than be allowed to grieve over the loss of her beloved but tough great-grandmother, prepare for basketball finals, and just generally live her life, she must deal with attacks from the maternal side of her family as well as random craziness from associating with the daughter of trillion time loser Freddy MacKilligan. I have to say, as much as I hate all the trouble Freddy makes for everybody, especially his daughters, it draws them closer together having to deal with the fallout. The romance element of this story kind of sneaks up on you. There is so much going on in BREAKING BADGER – all of it wildly entertaining as expected – that the romance that develops between Finn Malone and Mads is not the focus. Rather than an insta-attraction from the very beginning, an attraction slowly builds as this couple ends up hanging out and killing baddies together. Normally, I prefer for a romance to be the focus in a story, but everything is so well-choreographed, the storytelling is amazing, and it’s just so much fun that it all works beautifully the way it is.

BREAKING BADGER is a mix of manga-style crazy fantabulous, a wild west vengeance tale, a compelling tale of sisterhood in all forms, with a fun romance as a cherry on the sundae. I hope to hear more about the Malone brothers and their vengeance quest in future books. Yay! I eagerly await Shelly Laurenston’s next shifter epic extravaganza.