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Bubba the Monster Hunter Seasons #4

Monsters, Magic, & Mayhem

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A giant redneck in Fairyland, what could possibly go wrong?
Everything. Absolutely everything.
Monsters, Magic, & Mayhem collects four novellas chronicling Bubba the Monster Hunter's trip through the lands of the Fae in search of his kidnapped sister. Yeah, he didn't know he had a sister, either. And that joke's old, man.

Into the Mystic
Bubba and his troupe of merry morons has to find their way to Fairyland to rescue his sister. It's not as easy as it sounds, and it involves Bubba learning a lot of uncomfortable truths about why his mother walked out and his maybe not-quite human heritage.

Cold as Ice
Bubba meets his grandmother, which should be great. Except she's the psychotic Queen of the Winter Court and wants to pretty much murder everyone. There's torture, tights, and Bubba dancing. Which is pretty much torture in tights. So lots of torture.

Hot Blooded
Bubba and co. travel to the Summer Court in their quest for his sister, only to find that his grandfather, while less abjectly psychopathic than his ex-wife, Mab, is still kind of a douche. And just when the team thought they were on the right track to finish their quest, there's a dragon. A dragon. This is not something growing up in Georgia prepares you for.

Shades of Grey
Bubba is closing in on his sister and her kidnapper, the Shakespearean trickster Puck. Except, he's not like hot Loki trickster. He's more like cut-your-throat-while-you-sleep-and-tell-you-a-knock-knock-joke-while-you're-bleeding-out trickster. Bubba has to battle his way through a horde of zombies just to get the opportunity to go on an old-fashioned dungeon crawl (with spiders, because...dungeon) to maybe finally confront Puck and save his sister.

Then they get home, and things get really screwed up!

414 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 9, 2018

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About the author

John G. Hartness

194 books597 followers
John G. Hartness is a teller of tales, a righter of wrong, defender of ladies’ virtues, and some people call him Maurice, for he speaks of the pompatus of love.

He is also the award-winning author of the urban fantasy series The Black Knight Chronicles (Bell Bridge Books), the Bubba the Monster Hunter comedic horror series, the Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter dark fantasy series, and many other projects.

In 2016, John teamed up with a pair of other publishing industry ne’er-do-wells and founded Falstaff Books, a small press dedicated to publishing the best of genre fictions “misfit toys.”
In his copious free time John enjoys long walks on the beach, rescuing kittens from trees and playing Magic: the Gathering.

For free short stories and to follow his activities and appearances on his newsletter, follow this link - http://eepurl.com/fV4In

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5 stars
142 (56%)
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84 (33%)
3 stars
25 (9%)
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
37 reviews
September 4, 2021
Fantastic story-telling but…

Hartness is a fantastic story-teller. The characters are colorful and entertaining, the pace is engaging, and is able invent a fresh approach to urban fantasy. The only thing that holds me back from a full 5 stars is the sloppy editing. In a world of spell-check and grammar-check the number of editing mistakes is inexcusable. Please do not let that discourage you from his books, however. They are tremendous fun!
Profile Image for Steven Latta.
83 reviews1 follower
September 22, 2018
Collection #4 of the Bubba the Monster Hunter series is a bit of a different beast on a couple of levels. First, like collection #3, this one is composed of 4 novellas. The difference is that the 4 that make up this one aren't merely linked, they are direct sequels to one another. Essentially, this is 4 novellas that tell one unified story.

That story finds Bubba and his crew (special agent Amy, Uncle Father Joe, Skeeter and Mama) travelling through the realms of faerie to rescue Bubba's half-sister, one he didn't know he had until recently. In many ways, that setup is the weakest of the series so far. The first two collections were very strongly focused on the family we have by blood. The third collection was very strongly centered on the family we choose, and who chooses us. This one, for me, just never found that same level of heart.

I don't know if it's because the sister is effectively a stranger to Bubba, and thus to us the readers, but I think that's the crux of it. Bubba has no emotional attachment the the person he's trying to rescue, and the person isn't in any of the scenes until the end and even then has a very minimal role to play. If the connections to the rest of the crew were strongly focused on, it might have mitigated that issue. Sadly, they are for the most part reduced to window dressing. Everyone gets a moment of glory or three, but the rest of the time, it seems they are there just to be threatened or otherwise dangled as the carrot to keep Bubba and the story moving forward. The stories themselves are good, but not the best of the series. The first one, "Into the Mystic" was probably the best of the bunch, with less emphasis on action and more on characters. Second, I would say is "Hot Blooded", which features a face off with a dragon and plenty of action. Third is "Cold as Ice", which had an interesting tournament motif but ran overly long and became very repetitive. Sadly, the book ended on a weak note with "Shades of Gray". Maybe it needed something closer to 50 shades of them to spice things up a bit, but as it was, it was relatively tedious affair with an utterly pointless zombie battle stuck in the middle and an unsatisfying conclusion. I really wish that final confrontation had ended in a more redemptive way. The epilogue has me looking forward to a change of pace with the next collection. I sincerely hope John will return the short story collection format of books 1 & 2, where there's room for some "side quests" and fun bits. The humor is still here, in heaping helpings, but that alone isn't what makes this series such a fun read. This is a good book, and mostly a fun read, but has some more rough edges than the earlier entries.

One other issue that bothered me the whole way through, and I realize how it might seem nitpicky, is how rudely Bubba acts towards the various faerie rulers he encounters. Characters like Mab, Titania, Puck and Oberon. All are written as being extremely powerful, if not omnipotent within their realms, and all fail to react to Bubba's intentionally goading rudeness in the manner in which they should - by squashing him as the inconsequential bug he would be to them. Granted, that would make for a much shorter collection, and put a crimp in future stories in the series, but it felt so out of place and wrong that it really impacted my ability to suspend disbelief. Yes, you read that right - in a literary universe where monsters and faerie beings are real and a 350 pound redneck can have a hot girlfriend - that was the breaking point for my ability to suspend disbelief. One of the issues of doing a series that ups the stakes with each entry is that, eventually, you either introduce challenges the hero can't reasonably handle and yet does anyway or you have to power up the hero to be able to overcome those challenges and risk moving into "Monty Haul" territory. This book is at that point for me. I'm hoping the next one dials back the power levels and the stakes.
Profile Image for Bonnie Dale Keck.
4,677 reviews59 followers
August 10, 2018
kindle unlimited, so odd to be 'fangirling' over a character, then again maybe not, used to be married to someone quite a bit like that, minus the monsters {as far as I know}

A giant redneck in Fairyland, what could possibly go wrong? Everything. Absolutely everything.

Monsters, Magic, & Mayhem collects four novella chronicling Bubba the Monster Hunter's trip through the lands of the Fae in search of his kidnapped sister. Yeah, he didn't know he had a sister, either. And that joke's old, man.

Into the Mystic - Bubba and his troupe of merry morons has to find their way to Fairyland to rescue his sister. It's not as easy as it sounds, and it involves Bubba learning a lot of uncomfortable truths about why his mother walked out, and his maybe not-quite human heritage.

Cold as Ice - Bubba meets his grandmother, which should be great. Except she's the psychotic Queen of the Winter Court and wants to pretty much murder everyone. There's torture, tights, and Bubba dancing. Which is pretty much torture in tights. So lots of torture.

Hot Blooded - Bubba and Co. travel to the Summer Court in their Quest for the Sister, only to find that his grandfather, while less abjectly psychopathic than his ex-wife Mab, is still kind of a douche. And just when the team thought they were on the right track to finish their quest, there's a dragon. A dragon. This is not something growing up in Georgia prepares you for.

Shades of Grey - Bubba is closing in on his sister and her kidnapper, the Shakespearean trickster Puck. Except, he's not like hot Loki trickster, he's more like cut your throat while you sleep and tell you a knock-knock joke while you're bleeding out trickster. Bubba has to battle his way through a horde of zombies just to get the opportunity to go on an old-fashioned dungeon crawl (with spiders, because…dungeon) to maybe finally confront Puck and save his sister.

Then they get home and things get REALLY screwed up!

Family Tradition - A Bubba the Monster Hunter Prequel
Scattered, Smothered and Chunked - Bubba the Monster Hunter Season 1
**Voodoo Children, Ballet of Blood, Ho-Ho-Homicide, Tassels of Terror, Cat Scratch Fever, Love Stinks, Hall & Goats, Footloose, Sixteens Tons, **Family Tradition PREQUEL** Final Countdown
Grits, Guns & Glory - Bubba the Monster Hunter Season 2
Grits, Guns & Glory - Bubba the Monster Hunter Season 2
*Included in this volume - UnHoly Night - Love Hurts - Dead Man's Hand - She's Got Legs - Howl - Double Trouble - Elf off the Shelf - Casket Case - Stone Cold Crazy - Rest High on that Mountain - Bad Moon Rising*
Wine, Women, & Song: Bubba the Monster Hunter Season 3
*collected edition including following four novellas: Moon over Bourbon Street - Night at the Museum - Midsummer - Oh Bubba, Where Art Thou?
Monsters, Magic, & Mayhem: Bubba the Monster Hunter Season 4

Books are available in above ways/sets as well as individually and in other types of collections from this writer, some compilations/'sets' not listed, just look under his name goodreads/amazon, some collections include some of the novellas as well as the 'season'
2 reviews
March 13, 2021
I will give this book 3 stars. There were only 3 glaring inconsistencies. First, what happened to Greg the ogre? He was a huge part of the first story and then nothing. Second, where did the magic book go that got stuck to Amy’s hand? And finally, Barry the Sasquatch has been long dead so I’m thinking it might be impossible for him to be knocking on the door at the end. I do realize people have returned from the dead in this series but only Bubba’s family.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Rachel Brune.
Author 33 books101 followers
April 30, 2021
When you blaze through and binge the series in a day or two, as I’ve done this week, yeah, you notice a few of the same inconsistencies other reviewers have pointed out. But honestly, they didn’t stop me from enjoying the hell out of this volume. Lots of action and adventure, high stakes and misdemeanors (and possibly a felony if they were in the human world), the book ends with a game changer that leaves me greatly looking forward to the next book in the series.
Profile Image for Mstay.
859 reviews1 follower
September 27, 2021
what an adventure

Well this season of Bubba was definitely one for the record books. Bubba and the gang traipsed all across Fairyland to save his sister. The action, Magic and magical creatures were even greater than you normally get with a Bubba book. Then they came home to some definite life changes. This leaves the reader excited to see how they deal with the changes in the next season.
Profile Image for April Schilling.
182 reviews16 followers
August 20, 2018
Once again, Bubba said "Get on over here and let's go" and I was in Fairieland with him and his crew. After his long lost mama showed up in the last book and told him he had a sister, Bubba is off to fairieland to save said sister. This book was no different than the rest of the Bubba series in that it grabbed me and wouldn't let go till I'd read the whole thing. I can't wait for the next one!
327 reviews3 followers
November 25, 2018
What do you get when you throw a 350 pound 6 foot tall redneck monster hunter into what amounts to a fairy battle royale... after he's tangled with an array of monsters in our world? Read this amazing book and find out. Season 4 is by far the most edge of your seat read yet. Funny, suspenseful, and at times heart wrenching.
432 reviews2 followers
July 17, 2019
Multiple short stories (novella's?) about Bubba the Monster Hunter. This time he has to take his team into the world of fairy and discovers interesting facts about his Momma and himself. If you like your witty banter with at southern twang and a lot of attitude, this is the series for you. Very entertaining but not high brow fiction.
469 reviews3 followers
June 28, 2021
Good read

Bubba is one messed up red neck but he is also a very entertaining one. Everyone in the entire group has issues, much liked everyone outside the book's world. Their issues are a little more extreme than most people I know but I can sort of relate. I enjoy reading about their adventure and can't wait to see what happens to the group next.
Profile Image for Rhys Causon.
1,049 reviews2 followers
September 16, 2021
After four stories I expected Bubba’s newly mentioned sister to do more. But the stories that built up to her rescue are all interesting (though the second story has a bit of weird pacing).

Hopefully a season 5 is released at some point because I’d like to hear more from this hillbilly monster hunter (at least in order to see what happens after that epilogue).
5 reviews
September 13, 2023
I enjoyed the first three books/seasons despite the editing oversights and repetitive nature of the writing. It became noticeable in this volume, and the one following it, the writer was not keeping track of his own story history. At first, I gave the benefit of the doubt that Bubba was an unreliable narrator. The context of some of the changes from previous volumes did not make sense and were not explained. I can only guess the author either retconned his own lore or was not referencing his own past notes as he produced new stories.
Profile Image for Laura Moylan.
1,666 reviews
April 17, 2024
Awesome read

Bubba and company end up heading into Faery to find his kidnapped half sister. He ends up fighting just about every type of monster therein. I thought I loved Bubba and his special type of crazy before. But, finding out he read Anne McCaffrey Pern books just made me fall in love with him more! I can't wait to find out what they are all going to do now.
168 reviews
March 15, 2019
More Bubba and more fun

I think this has been my favorite so far. As usual, Bubba and friends have to either kill or rescue something, but this time it is Fairy. There was plenty of action, some good laughs and overall, a great story
9 reviews
March 11, 2023
Awesome and unique

Who knew that a redneck monster hunter could be so relatable? I am Thoroughly enjoying each adventure and take with Bubba and family and entertained beyond my expectations. This is a great series and I am looking forward to hanging out with clan Bubba.
Profile Image for Mark.
458 reviews2 followers
January 4, 2024
I really enjoy this series but the typos are really distracting. Please find a proofreader that you trust before submitting your book for publication. Something that simple could move you up to the next level as a writer.
268 reviews2 followers
March 26, 2021
loved this but found out this should be the last one you read in the series #4
49 reviews1 follower
September 15, 2021
Favorite in series

Probably my favorite in the series so far. Loved the adventures in Fairyland. Really conveys well the alien/different morality of the fae compared to humans.
Profile Image for C.T. Phipps.
Author 96 books679 followers
December 23, 2021
I enjoy the Bubba the Monster Hunter series very much. It's nice that keeps a mostly grounded and enjoyable episodic set of adventures. Here, Bubba goes to Fairyland to rescue his half-sidhe sister from the infamous Puck.

I can't say I'm too enthusiastic about the revelation that Bubba is part fairy or the extensive focus on him being trapped in fantasy land but the jokes are still great as is the action. This is definitely a Southern focused series after all.

Plus Bubba versus a dragon!
Profile Image for Erin Penn.
Author 4 books23 followers
April 21, 2019
Season four follows Bubba and his team of misfits into the mystic realm of Fairyland, well, Bubba calls it Fairyland much to the annoyance of the natives. During his last visit in Season 3, Bubba kept his shenanigans to the Summer lands. This time he spread the joy of his brand of mayhem from Winter to Summer and even some of the unaligned. In the process, he fights trolls, dragons, and queens, reconciles (mostly) with his mother, and falls even more in love with Amy. Give you one guess which scares our favorite redneck the most.

I loved this season because it devoted time to all the core members of Bubba the Monster Hunter stories. Skeeter, Amy, and Uncle Joe followed Bubba in the lands of Summer and Winter, giving the layer of problem-solving team-ship provides which was missing during Bubba's solo adventures last season.

(Read through Kindle Unlimited)
Profile Image for Tawnya.
420 reviews65 followers
August 27, 2025
Truthfully when I started reading this series I thought I would hate it. I mean "Bubba" conjures up a certain image that is not flattering. Of course the author was counting on people thinking the same thing. Bubba however uses people's preconceived notions of a hillbilly redneck to his advantage. Add in Skeeter as his best friend and it just works. It gets corny and crass, but totally owns up to knowing they are skirting the line.


Monsters, Magic, & Mayhem
27-Into the Mystic 4 stars
28-Cold as Ice 4 stars
29-Hot Blooded 4 stars
30-Shades of Grey 4 stars
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews