Breaking Badger by Shelly Laurenston

 

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 set 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…

 

Breaking Badger (The Honey Badger Chronicles, book four) by Shelly Laurenston

Start date: September 20, 2021

End date: September 26, 2021

Rating: 4 ½ out of 5 stars

Trigger warning: graphic violence

I have been patiently awaiting the release of this book ever since I saw the teaser for it. I was a little nervous to see how Laurenston would continue the series considering the youngest MacKilligan sister is the 17-year-old Natalie Malone. Imagine my happiness when I realized the book followed one of Max MacKilligan’s basketball teammates instead. While waiting for this book to come out, I read the rest of the Pride series, so I was ready for those characters to make appearances in this book (which they did!).

Claimed by Rebecca Zanetti

A DARING RESCUE

Emma Paulsen is a geneticist driven by science. But she’s also a psychic, so when a dark, good-hearted vampire frees her from the clutches of the evil Kurjans, she realizes he must be the man who’s been haunting her dreams. But with a virus threatening vampires’ mates, Emma may discover a whole new meaning of “lovesick”. . .

A DEADLY DECISION

As King of the Realm, Dage Kayrs has learned to practice diplomacy. Still, it’s taken three hundred years to find his mate, so he’ll stop at nothing to protect her—even if it means turning his back on his own kind…

 

Claimed (Dark Protectors, book two) by Rebecca Zanetti

Start date: September 15, 2021

End date: September 19, 2021

Rating: 2 ½ out of 5 stars

Trigger warning: intimate partner violence, child abuse

            I liked that this book had an actual plot unlike the last book in the series. Emma Paulsen and Cara Kayrs were captured by the Kurjans at the end of Fated. Cara is rescued, and then Emma is rescued offscreen. Claimed starts by showing what happened offscreen. Emma has been whisked off in a helicopter on her way to a Kurjan named Franco who wants to force her to be his mate. Dage teleports (because that’s a power that some vampires have in this series apparently) to Emma’s location and kills the Kurjans in the helicopter before teleporting again with Emma to an area not far from the helicopter crash site. From there, Emma is reunited with her sister and introduced to her new in-laws.

Shadowed Steel by Chloe Neill

 

In the newest installment of the USA Today bestselling Heirs of Chicagoland series, the vampires in Elisa Sullivan’s world are out for blood.

 

Elisa Sullivan is the only vampire ever born, and she bears a heavy legacy. After a sojourn with the North American Central Pack of shifters in the wilderness—where she turned a young woman into a vampire to save her life—Elisa returns to Chicago.

But no good deed goes unpunished. The ruling body of vampires, the Assembly of American Masters, is furious that Elisa turned someone without their permission, and they want her punished. When an AAM vampire is found dead, Elisa is the prime suspect. Someone else is stalking Chicago—and Elisa. She’ll need to keep a clear head, and a sharp blade, to survive all the supernatural strife.

 

Shadowed Steel (Heirs of Chicagoland, book three) by Chloe Neill

Start date: September 3, 2021

End date: September 6, 2021

Rating: 4 ½ out of 5 stars

Elisa’s actions in Wicked Hour have come to bite her in the butt in Shadowed Steel. Someone has turned Elisa into the Assembly of American Masters, the governing body for vampires, for the woman she changed into a vampire in Minnesota, Carlie. The AAM has devised the punishment for the crime of turning someone without that person’s permission (and without their permission) is to force Elisa to join a House and submit to Testing.

Fated by Rebecca Zanetti

 

MARRY ME

Cara Paulsen does not give up easily. A scientist and a single mother, she’s used to fighting for what she wants, keeping a cool head, and doing whatever it takes to protect her daughter Janie. But “whatever it takes” has never before included a shotgun wedding to a dangerous-looking stranger with an attitude problem…

OR ELSE

Sure, the mysterious Talen says that he’s there to protect Cara and Janie. He also says he’s a three-hundred-year-old vampire. Of course, the way he touches her, Cara might actually believe he’s had that long to practice…

 

Fated (Dark Protectors, book one) by Rebecca Zanetti

Start date: August 30, 2021

End date: September 1, 2021

Rating: 2 ½ out of 5 stars

Trigger warning: unhealthy representation of BDSM

I knew from the first scene that I wasn’t going to like this book very much. The story opens with Cara Paulsen being forced to flee her home by a stranger. Janie, Cara’s four-year-old daughter, wakes her up crying that “the bad men” are coming, and Cara’s reaction is to comfort her daughter who clearly had a nightmare. Then Cara hears noises in her house and immediately believes it’s the evil people. For being a scientist, Cara doesn’t think like one. If you hear hooves, think horses, not zebras. She doesn’t believe she’s being robbed or any other explanation for why someone might be in her house. Her immediate reaction is to run into the bathroom and try to escape through the window, which is at least logical. When the intruder bursts into the bathroom, what she has to say isn’t logical:

“You have the wrong house.” (Zanetti 3)

            I’ll let that reaction rub you, dear reader, the wrong way like it did me.

Wicked Hour by Chloe Neill

In the second pulse-pounding novel in the USA Today bestselling Heirs of Chicagoland series, vampire Elisa Sullivan gets drawn into the shifting sands of Pack politics.

 

Vampires were made, not born—until Elisa Sullivan came along. As the only vampire child in existence, she grew up with a heavy legacy, and tried to flee her past. When circumstances drew her back to Chicago, she stayed to keep it safe. With shifter Connor Keene, the only son of Pack Apex Gabriel Keene, at her side, she faced down a supernatural evil that threatened to destroy Chicago forever.

Now that the dust from the attack has settled, Elisa is surprised when Connor invites her to a usually private Pack event in the North Woods of Minnesota, and by the warm welcome she receives from some of Connor’s family, even though she’s a vampire. But the peaceful trip is soon interrupted. The shifters tell tales of a monster in the woods, and when the celebration is marred by death, Elisa and Connor find themselves in the middle of a struggle for control that forces Elisa to face her true self—fangs and all.

 

Wicked Hour (Heirs of Chicagoland, book two) by Chloe Neill

Start date: August 26, 2021

End date: August 28, 2021

Rating: 4 ½ out of 5 stars

 

This book starts off by answering the question of what happened after the events of the last book. Faithful readers will remember that Elisa Sullivan was left stranded in Chicago by the vampires of Maison Dumas when things got all murder-y at the peace talks. Following that, Elisa was essentially let go from her job with them and got one working for the Ombudsman office in Chicago. Elisa and Connor Keene shared a spicy (and confusing) kiss after saving everyone from the evil fairies, and it seems like they’re stayed in touch while they went about their respective businesses, Elisa in Chicago, and Connor in the Midwest. In the previous book, Lulu Bell was working on a mural at the North American Central Pack headquarters, and when this book opens, it’s the unveiling night.

Wild Hunger by Chloe Neill

 

In the first thrilling installment of Chloe Neill’s spin-off to the New York Times bestselling Chicagoland Vampires series, a new vampire will find out just how deep blood ties run.

Some believed that Elisa Sullivan, as the only vampire child ever born, had all the luck. But the magic that helped bring her into the world left her with a dark secret. Shifter Conner Keene, the lone son of North American Central Pack Apex Gabriel Keene, is the only one she trusts with it. But she’s a vampire and the daughter of a Master and a Sentinel, and he’s prince of the Pack and its future king….

When the assassination of a diplomat brings old feuds to the fore again, Elisa and Connor must choose between love and family, and between honor and obligation, before Chicago disappears forever.

Wild Hunger (Heirs of Chicagoland, book one) by Chloe Neill

Start date: August 18, 2021

End date: August 19, 2021

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I really thought I was going to dislike this book. I put off reading the spin-off to the Chicagoland Vampires series because I was disappointed that that series ended. I didn’t want to read about the child of Merit and Ethan Sullivan (that should not have existed!). I wanted more stories with Merit and the gang. I grew to love her character, and I didn’t see how I could enjoy a story that took place in her world but didn’t involve her.

After reading quite a few not-so-great paranormal romance/urban fantasy books, I felt like I needed a palate cleanser. Enter Wild Hunger. I already liked one series by the author, so I figured I’d finally give the spin-off a try. At the very least, if I didn’t like it, I would have other books on my reading challenge list to give a chance to.

Nightshifted by Cassie Alexander

 

Welcome to the secret wing of County Hospital—where vampires get transfusions, werewolves have silver allergies, and one nurse is in way over her head…

Nursing school prepared Edie Spence for a lot of things. Burn victims? No problem. Severed limbs? Piece of cake. Vampires? No way in hell. But as the newest nurse on Y4, the secret ward hidden in the bowels of County Hospital, Edie has her hands full with every paranormal patient you can imagine—from vamps and were-things to zombies and beyond…

Edie’s just trying to learn the ropes so she can get through her latest shift unscathed. But when a vampire servant turns to dust under her watch, all hell breaks loose. Now she’s haunted by the man’s dying words—Save Anna—and before she knows it, she’s on a mission to rescue some poor girl from the undead. Which involves crashing a vampire den, falling for a zombie, and fighting for her soul. Grey’s Anatomy was never like this…

Nightshifted (Edie Spence, book one) by Cassie Alexander

Start date: August 3, 2021

End date: August 4, 2021

Rating: 3 ½ out of 5 stars

Content warning: child abuse, sex, offensive language

Edith “Edie” Spence is a newly minted registered nurse working at Providence General Hospital. After her brother, Jake, overdoses one too many times on heroin, Edie is offered an extraordinary deal from a mysterious stranger: if she works for County Hospital on Floor Y4, the powers that be will make sure Jake stays clean. Without fully understanding what she’s agreeing to, Edie signs the paperwork. That’s when her life goes sideways—Y4 isn’t any old floor at County. It’s where firefighting zombies recuperate, syphilitic dragons get treatment, and vampire baby showers are performed.