I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Bite Me
by
Shelly Laurenston
paranormal romance in a Kindle edition that was published by Kensington Books on March 25, 2014 and has 385 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon, Audibles.
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include The Mane Event, The Mane Event, The Mane Squeeze, The Mane Attraction, Beast Behaving Badly, Big Bad Beast, Here Kitty, Kitty!, Hunting Season, Pack Challenge, Go Fetch!, When He Was Bad, Everlasting Bad BoysS, Bear Meets Girl, Howl for It, Wolf with Benefits, The Unleashing, The Undoing, The Unyielding, Hot and Badgered, In a Badger Way, Badger to the Bone, Breaking Badger, The Undoing, Born to Be Badger
Ninth in the hilariously funny Pride paranormal romance series and revolving around a snarky group of assorted shifters. The couple focus is on Livy Kowalski, a honey badger photographer, and Vic Barinov, a hybrid operator.
My Take
Oh, man, those honey badgers know how to party. Snake, snake venom, way too much alcohol . . .
Conflict is the name of the game, especially with honey badgers. As Livy points out, honey badgers live to stir things up and get people fighting. Combine that with their love of money, and that initial conflict sets it off when the Kowalski family discovers Joan’s life insurance policy on Damon. Then Damon’s mistress shows up, then . . .
Livy is a walking conflict. She revels in being the most despised derby girl. She loves pissing off the derby fans. She lives to tick off her parents and family. Whole countries have banned her. Her concept of home is definitely whacked, let alone I’d never fit in upper cabinets. She can’t stand people. The honey, now . . . yum.
Ya gotta love, well, if you’re a woman, that “shifter males often respected their mates”, ahem, lol. Of course, then there’s Melly and her desperate attempts to catch the fiancé she wants to kill. Then there’s the tenacious Brittany who cannot take a “hint”, lol.
Vic cracks me up. He’s such a bad-ass in his line of work, a soft touch for Shen, and so unsure of himself when it comes to Livy. Just thinking of all those gift baskets is enough to crack me up. I love when Vic and Livy discover how well they suit — that Vic is adorable! And I adore his sister!
The snark! Omigod, the snark!!! Toni’s insults to Bland, er, Blayne. Anything Livy says or does to anyone. Novikov’s irritations with everyone. Blayne’s matchmaking. Honeyville! The jousting!! Ivan’s torturing of Toni. Van Holtz’s thoughts on adding snake to the menu . . . ick! Bo and his groomsmen!
Laurenston uses third person global subjective point-of-view from a number of perspectives, mostly Livy’s, then Vic’s. Others include Toni, Dee-Ann Smith, Dez, Balt, Joan, Allison, Frankie, and on and on. Nova’s thoughts on the honey badgers is quite unexpected. Nope, no perfection for Nova.
The pace is fast, the action and humor constant, and all driven by the characters. You’ll be LYAO.
The Story
From a desperate man-hunt to casual thought, Dee-Ann and Cella are ticked and wondering why the demand has died in the shifter search for Frankie Whitlan. Then Livy Kowalski discovers her father. The one they buried.
Frankie Whitlan hunted the wrong man. Never tick off a honey badger.
You never betray your own . . .
The Characters
Olivia “Livy” Kowalski, a.k.a. the Bringer of the Pain, a honey badger who’s gone against every philosophy of the Kowalskis, is an art photographer whose creativity has dried up, and she’s photographing sports players for a living.
Vic Barinov is a hybrid — half grizzly bear, half Siberian tiger — which gives him a fun extra, in Livy’s eyes. He used to work for the CIA and is now an independent. Irina “Ira” is Vic’s interested sister; she’s mated to the sort-of whipped Dan (grizzly), lol. They have a son, Igor, who gets to help in the kitchen. Their parents, Russian shifter diplomats, Semenova “Nova” Gribkova-Barinov, a Siberian tigress, and the sweet-talking Vladik Barinov, a grizzly bear, are hated by the Kowalskis and Yangs as they work with INTERPOL to capture criminals. Shen Li is a panda in the same field and a longtime colleague.
More Kowalskis
Honey badgers, a.k.a. ratel, are a little known and yet greatly feared species of shifter. They’re also, almost to a man, thieves — money is king!
Jake Kowalski is Livy’s cousin and Balt’s son. Damon is Livy’s dead father. Joan “Chuntao” Yang is her pain in the butt mother, who first divorced Damon when Livy was fifteen. Aunt Teddy is a paternal aunt. Another cousin, the hideous Melanie “Melly” Kowalski is a drunk-savant when it comes to paintings. More cousins include Jocelyn and Bronislaw who was put away. Great-aunt Li-Li is ancient but not the family matriarch; that title belongs to Li-Li’s mother. Aunt Kew thinks Livy is a horrible daughter. The uncles include Baltazar “Balt” Kowalski who’s had the hots for Joan for years, Kamil, Edmund, Gustav, Otto, and David.
The Jean-Louis Parkers are . . .
. . . incredibly gifted prodigies who happen to be jackal shifters. Antonella “Toni” is Livy’s best friend and superb at managing her family (mated to Ricki Lee Reed in Wolf with Benefits, 8), which makes her an excellent negotiator. Jackie, a violin prodigy, and Paul are the parents. Toni’s siblings include Cooper, a pianist, and Cherise, another brilliant musician, who are touring Europe. Sixteen-year-old Oriana is a ballerina who will soon perform with the Royal Ballet in England. Twelve-year-old Kyle is considered a great artist — in art and in destroying a person’s self-confidence and will to live. Ten-year-old Troy is getting his master’s in science. Or is it math? Eight-year-old Freddy is getting his bachelor’s in theoretical physics and creating seriously fun video games in his off time. Six-year-old Dennis is studying architecture. And the three-year-old twins, Zia and Zoe, are learning the many dialects of most of the world’s major languages. We ignore nineteen-year-old Delilah, currently running a cult (Wolf with Benefits, 8).
The Kuznetsov Wild Dog Pack owns . . .
. . . the house the Jean-Louis Parkers are renting. They’re led by Jessica Ann Ward-Smith, who’s mated to Bobby Ray Smith, the Alpha Male of the New York Smith Pack (The Beast in Him, Pride #2). Lissy is their very stubborn daughter. Sabina is Jessie’s Russian second-in-command. Johnny is Jessie’s adopted son, a violin prodigy, who’d been stalked by Jackie.
The Smith Pack is . . .
. . . feared by other shifters, especially Dee-Ann Smith and her father, Eggie. Darla Mae is Eggie’s beloved wife (Howl For It: “Like a Wolf With a Bone”, Pride 0.5). Ronnie Lee Reed is second-in-command to Dee-Ann and mated to Brendon, and they have a son, Reggie. Sissy Mae Smith is the Alpha Female of the New York Smith Pack and mated to Mitch (The Mane Attraction, 3). Ricky Lee is one of the three Reed Boys and mated to Toni. Rory Lee is the oldest and crankiest. Reece Lee is a Carnivore hockey player.
The Malones are . . .
. . . all tigers and descended from Irish Travelers and take over entire streets. Dr Jai Davis, a mountain lion, is the sports doctor at the Sports Center and Cella’s best friend. Jai knows the arrogant Dr Ford, a lion shifter and combat doctor. Barb Malone (Cella’s mother) is the wedding planner, determined to get every cent’s worth of work out of Livy.
The Sports Center is based below the human one. Marcella “Cella” Malone, a she-tiger who’s a KZS sharpshooter, is the coach for the New York Carnivores hockey team. The WAY OCD Bo “the Marauder” Novikov is a famous (infamous?) hockey player and polar bear-lion hybrid, who’s marrying Blayne (Beast Behaving Badly, Pride #5). Lachlan “Lock” MacRyrie, a grizzly who retired from the Marines, is another hockey player, and he’s marrying Gwen.
The cheery Blayne Thorpe, a wolfdog, and Gwen O’Neill (The Mane Squeeze, Pride #4), a tigon, are co-captains for the Babes derby team and best friends who also have a plumbing company, B&G Plumbing. Pop-A-Cherry is the old team captain who got pregnant. The opposing team in this is the Jamaica Me Howlers.
The Van Holtz Steak House in New York is a shifter-run organization catering to all species and breeds and is run by Ulrich “Ric” Van Holtz, who’s mated to Dee-Ann Smith (Big Bad Beast, Pride #6). Uncle Niles “Van” Van Holtz is the head of the Van Holtz Pack. Ulva is Van’s eldest child and only daughter.
Ivan Zubachev owns the Russian shifter hockey team, and he hates Novikov, which leads to all sorts of crazy demands (Wolf with Benefits, 8). Grigori Volkov, a Russian gangster based in New York, is a member of the Volkov Pack out of Moscow, a.k.a. the Smiths of Eastern Europe.
Lou Crushek, a polar bear, is a detective (mated to Cella; Bear Meets Girl, Pride, #7) and partnered with Dez MacDermott who’s mated to Mace, a lion shifter (Mane Event: Christmas Pride, Pride #1). The Kingston Arms hotel hosts humans AND shifters and is owned by Mitch Shaw and Brendon Shaw (mated to Ronnie Lee in Mane Event: Christmas Pride, Pride #1.5), both lions.
There are three major shifter organizations: the Group is an American shifter protection agency; Katzenhaus Securities (KZS) protects felines; and, the Bear Preservation Council (BPC) is a worldwide bear protection organization. Bayla Ben-Zeev, a former Israeli commander, is the new head of the BPC. Judith is her assistant.
Honeyville, Massachusetts, is . . .
. . . a bear-only town with a huge selection of honey. Vic finds it very comfortable. Deputy Mike just adores Livy. Rita Thompson, a sixty-year-old hippie grizzly, owns a honey shop and runs a B&B. She’s married to Ken, a polar bear. John Leary, a black bear, saw Livy heading across his territory.
Brittany is a she-lion neighbor desperate to snag Vic with her goodies. Mr Lawrence was Vic’s very concerned principal in high school. Mrs Webb had been Livy’s gym teacher who still managed to teach her something. Kiril is a young man at a Russian banya. Michael runs a gallery.
Frankie “the Rat” Whitlan (Wolf with Benefits, 8) is a full-human playing law enforcement off against each other and wanted by shifters. Allison Whitlan is his estranged daughter. Bohdan is an informer. John Lindow‘s company delivers shipments. Lyle Bennett has sent packages through AME Shipping Company. Rob Yardley is a gambler. The Russian Rotislav Chumakov, a Kamchatka grizzly, is seen by the public as an art patron and is on the BPC board. Stepka Chumakov is his son. Jasha is one of the gunmen, er, bears. Boris Krupin is a Russian guard. Grekina Renard is a go-between. Pierre-Phillipe Anwar is a Parisian art appraiser, one of the best.
The Cover and Title
The cover is a two-thirds – one-third vertical split. The left is a close-up of the face of a black and white tiger with a blue eye and the right is half of the blue-eyed Vic Barinov’s face with some facial hair. All the text is on the tiger’s side starting with a tiny info blurb in white below the tiger’s eye. Below it is the author’s name in a deep yellow. The author is below that in white. The series info is below that in a grayed turquoise. Beneath that is a testimonial in white.
The title is all Livy’s attitude: Bite Me.
