Review: Hedging His Bets by Celia Kyle and Mina Carter (2013)

Honey and Fur, Book #1

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At first, I thought this was going to be a fabulously entertaining story about a hedgehog shifter. Because WHAT?! (Holly found it for me because of course she did.)

It is, but unfortunately the hedgehog has an incredibly serious case of toxic masculinity, and since the book is only about 100 pages, that doesn’t get resolved. 

Here are the ridiculous things:

1. Blake is a hedgehog shifter.
2. Blake is a biker dude who rips tables and chairs apart with his shifter powers.
3. Honey’s name is Honey.
4. Blake shifts to wheedle his way into Honey’s house with her other three pet hedgehogs.
5. Blake and Honey are fated mates (Because aren’t fated mates always a little bit ridiculous?)

Here are the toxic things:

1. Blake is so possessive that he uses the tables and chairs he rips apart to beat up other men he perceives to be hitting on Honey. At the bar that she owns.
2. Blake is embarrassed that he’s a hedgehog because hedgehogs aren’t manly like wolves or cats or even bears. 
3. Blake won’t take “No” for an answer. To the point that he shifts, gets himself injured intentionally, gets adopted as a hedgehog by Honey, and then sleeps in her bed with her as a hedgehog. And then not as a hedgehog.

Now, Honey is a big woman. In this book the authors use the term “fluffy” which is not my favorite, but I guess each big woman can choose what she likes. Because Honey is a big woman, she assumes that there’s no way Blake could possibly actually be interested in her, so of course he’s making fun of her when he makes advances. I find this incredibly obnoxious when characters are written as big women. I understand the sentiment to a degree, because weight+attractiveness is a tough thing to accept about oneself. But I also kind of don’t get it because I think if I were in that situation and a guy (any guy, really, not only a really hot one) were coming on to me, I would want to see how that played out. It feels like a go-to attitude for authors that big women in romance automatically think that there’s no way a man could realistically be interested in them, even if he is not being subtle about his interest. As a percent of the total number of books written, I almost never see that written about women who are not big.

Anyway, Honey isn’t letting Blake anywhere near her, so what is he supposed to do? Technically, he’s supposed to take “No” for an answer and lay off. But this is a romance novel and they’re fated mates, so that’s not going to work. Basically, the only way for this to work out in a not skeezy way would be for Blake to have a personality transplant or some sort of redemptive awakening that would at least double the length of this book. What does happen is he does a number of extremely shady (EXTREMELY SHADY) things and for some reason Honey decides she’s okay with it. Really, Honey? I’m concerned. 

Based on the sex, I’d say this is a one-handed read, but I was pretty turned off by Blake’s behavior by the time they got around to the kinky bits.

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Buy Now: Amazon

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Similar books, except not with hedgehogs. (Sorry. If there’s more were-hedgehog romance out there that we’ve missed PLEASE let us know. For science.)

Other Shifters Who Are Sadly Not Were-Hedgehogs

Lady Bosses

We are DESTINED to be together