Mood reader, remember…
With all the DNF’s lately I needed something simple. Easy. Something I knew I liked.
I read the first two books in the series earlier this year, Ice Planet Barbarians and Barbarian Alien.
They really proved to me that you can write what you want.
There are literally 19 books in the series, with twice as many novelles and prequels. And they average 4 star ratings. The author writes them almost solely on what the fanbase wants to read.
What an honor.
But anyway…
Barbarian Lover was sweet, the perfect shy girl – flirty guy couple.
Kira is a human woman and during their original induction the Little Green Men put a translator in her ear to communicate. It’s intrusive, painful, and overly sensitive.
She can hear everyone in the cave systems, talking, working, and yes fucking.
Aehako on the other hand is a burly-chested, tall, hunter with a big family and an easy smile.
Weird, it’s like he was written by a woman…
He has eyes for Kira, who he calls Sad Eyes, from day one. I don’t really love the nickname. From an alien standpoint it’s probably sweet, they have a small language barrier and he is just calling her what she is. But as a human, this would just make me even sadder coming from my crush.
Kira however keeps him and any other barbarian at arms length because she can’t have kids. And kind of the whole point of the barbarians being so excited and taking them in is to mate and have kits a.k.a. babies.
She feels like if the truth gets out that she is barren they will kick her out.
Aehako goes out of his way to see her, talk to her, and bring a smile to her face.
One day Kira’s translator catches the feed of the Little Green Men, and they are planning to come back and pick up their lost ‘cargo’. A.k.a. all the women they stole from Earth.
Kira panics but doesn’t want everyone in the caves to know so she goes to Aehako, Vektal (the chief), and Georgie (his mate) with the news.
They agree, they need to act quickly and going to the original mothership that brought the barbarian race to the planet to remove the translator so it can not be tracked is their best option.
But since Georgie is pregnant she can’t travel and Vektal will not leave her side. Naturally Aehako volunteers and decides his best friend Haeden will also go.
- Side note – I am so excited for Haeden’s story!
Somehow another human woman finds out and demands to go. So the four set off for a grueling two day trip. Through a snow storm.
I’ve got to say I respect authors that make it hard to write for themselves. This planet is a giant iceball. Terrible weather, and it’s only going to get worse. Limited food options. Limited resources.
There is no summer, beaches, warmth. Everything that lives here wants to eat you. As far as crash landings on a planet goes this one is pretty terrible. But hey, at least they can breathe.
Kind of. They do need to take a symbiote to live. It basically rewrites their biology to live on this planet. It warms them up, gives them a taste for raw meat, and cures them of basic Earthly illnesses.
With great effort they make it to the mothership, Kira gets the translator removed, and they also get the ‘braindump’ of a few languages to make things easier to communicate.
But it’s too late, the Little Green Men already know where they are.
Rather than let the two big hunters protect them, Kira decides its her responsibility to negotiate with the other aliens and locks everyone else in the mothership.
As you can imagine, negotiations don’t go as planned. Aehakpo and Haeden break out of the ship and try to rescue Kira only to get shot with alien technology and nearly die.
Kira gets taken to the little Green men’s ship. But she has a back up plan and poisons the aircraft with bacteria from the planet that is deadly to anything without a symbiote.
It works and all the aliens on board die. She’s able to steer the ship into a mountainside and use an escape pod to make it back to the group.
It all happens in just a span of a few chapters but it’s written well and believable. No hate from me.
While she was onboard the other human helps Aehako make a trivet for Haeden who is badly injured. While she is looking for supplies she gets kidnapped, not by Little Green Men but by something large that purrs.
Open ended for how the ongoing storyline will play out. I’m into it.
Aehako thinks she ran off and is cowardly, which isn’t far fetched because a lot of the women have been easily spooked, and one of them did run off. She died almost immediately, but it still happened.
Kira is sad by the news but helps Aehako carry Haeden back to their home cave.
They run into Roahash and Liz (from book 2) and they help them get the rest of the way home.
Kira gives the good news to Vektal and Georgie, the only ones who knew about the Little Green Men returning. And they all think it’s a good idea to open up the South Caves to expand since they are overcrowded with the human women and a few kits on the way.
Vektal elects Aehako as the chief of the South Cave and they divide the people accordingly and make the move.
The South Cave is colder without the hot spring for warmth but it’s much more spacious.
Everyone is overall happy about the move and settling in.
While the main story line is going on of course our two MC’s are fighting their love for each other. Well Kira is fighting her love for Aehako. He has been pretty steadfast and vocal about his wants from page 1.
Kira is afraid she’ll give in only for Aehako to resonate with someone else the next day. Resonance is like being called to your mate, it can’t be fought and you don’t get a choice in who that person is.
Because she can’t have kids she fears she’ll never resonate. But Aehako chooses her as his mate, and after a few chapters of convincing she agrees.
When they move into the new caves Aehako’s old flame tries to pull him away from the human woman and to Kira’s utter dismay he begins to resonate. A loud humming comes from his chest, impossible to ignore or play off.
She is near tears until she realizes she’s also resonating.
The two are overjoyed at being chosen and resonating mates. They decided the symbiote that keeps them alive in this harsh planet also fixed Kira’s womb.
This story was about 190 pages. Short, sweet, and to the point. But I feel like it was well balanced with the actual plot. There wasn’t a lot that happened with side characters, enough people are mentioned that you get a feel for them but it is really focused on the two MC’s.
I’ll keep this series as a comfort read, always good and endless books.
Overall ⭐⭐⭐.5
💕 Would Recommend
💫 A – Adult (Ages 18+)
Spice🌶️🌶️🌶️
Worldbuilding🗺️🗺️🗺️🗺️
Ick Factor 😇
Fangirl Moments 💖
Errors/Plot Holes
Tropes: Aliens, Sci-fi Romance, Fantasy, Smut, Erotica, Romance, Space
Title: Barbarian Lover
Author: Ruby Dixon
Genre: Romance
Series: Ice Planet Barbarians
Format: Kindle
Length: 191 pages
Published: August 28, 2015 by Ruby Dixon
