Reviews with content warning for Trafficking - Barbarian Lover

Reviews tagging 'Trafficking'

Barbarian Lover by Ruby Dixon

11 reviews

petite_madeline's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

Kira's story is my favorite in the series so far. This one was the most high-stakes out of the first three books and I loved every second of it! According to the author's note, this was the first book of the series that wasn't serialized, and it shows. The story had great movement without feeling repetitive like the previous books sometimes do. AND we're introduced to a new mystery that I'm excited to read about in future books!

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book_gremlin42's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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teatunesandtales's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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kb33's review

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lighthearted fast-paced

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

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fishreads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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livlamentloathe's review against another edition

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lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Almost DNF’ed this one but then decided to sprint through it to find out the ending. What a waste of time. What was the fucking point of the aliens?? Kera trying to keep it a secret was bullshit nonsense. These girls have no braincells in their heads—they’re too full up on breeding.

Also you don’t need to be able to have kids to lead a fulfilling happy life. You are not a broken person if you’re unable to birth children. You are no less worthy of love.

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lacee's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

My favorite so far! Aehako my beloved, my man! I couldn't stop smiling while reading this book! Kira and Aehako were just so perfect, I love everything about their relationship. I felt they balanced each other perfectly and the focus on establishing a relationship without resonance was refreshing and sweet. Surprisingly, there was actually a plot in this installment and some decent action.

I'm glad the baddies are gone. I'm a little peeved at how Harlow's disappearance was handled. I've mentioned the logic of the characters in my other reviews but I find it completely ridiculous that they assumed she ran away. There are dangerous alien predators that eat people on this planet yet they resort to thinking she's a coward instead of being, I don't know, possibly a Metlak's next meal!? The way these characters think sometimes is just plain dumb.

Side Note: The honeymoon novellas just aren't that good. Just like in <i>Barbarian Alien</i>, Kira, and Aehako's novella walked back some good character development.

I was hoping Kira and Asha would become friends. The main story hinted toward this just to revert them back to enemies in the novella. Lame.

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yaoipaddle's review

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

only ruby dixon can take the couple of my fave side characters and make it a fucking slog to get through.

if youre struggling to conceive or have fertility issues dont read this book because it will make you feel like shit. kira does nothing but describe herself as "flawed" and "broken" constantly because she is infertile due to a medical reason as a teen. instead of doing something interesting with a character that is not affected by the parasite in the same way the other humans are, the author makes kira a woman tormented and unbearable due to it.

"It was his choice to mate me despite knowing my flaws." - Kira (yes the 'flaw' is her being infertile.)

the actual plot beats of the evil aliens from book 1 returning are interesting but are too few compared to the many scenes of the author constantly reminding us of her pregnancy fetish.

the way everyone treated harlow was also so fucked up but i dont want to spoil too much. to me it just further illustrates how the characters will act out of character just when it's most convenient to the plot.

vektal and georgie continue to be so unlovable in this book as well. as if theyre the only two people that matter to each other and everyone else can die for all they care.

and my personal fave thing to hate on is how little the translator stuff makes sense. how can aehako not know what a "tub" is, but knows what calling someone "randy" means?

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kbairbooks's review

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dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

I liked this one!! I liked these characters and their relationship much more than Liz and Rahoshs and they are currently my favorite couple so far. I loved the positivity and the curiosity and the adventure and the bravery. I liked that this male was so much nicer as well.

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emfass's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

General small spoilers throughout so I'm just hiding the whole thing.

Things I loved:
-Big ol' optimistic cinnamon roll Aehako, and his solid and steady courting of Kira.
-Bone dildo pay-off from the previous book (though I kinda wish Kira had taken advantage of it earlier??).
-Going back to the Elder's Cave and taking advantage of the technology (AND SHOWERS) there.
-Tying up the bad aliens thread, because YEESH I did not like having that hanging over our heads.
-In all three books I've read so far, Ruby Dixon sets up the next book so well, making me very intrigued to read about the next couple without moving the focus to that actual relationship in somebody else's book. I think this is really well done.

Things I didn't like:
-The encounter with the bad aliens...I realize it had to happen because it was a loose thread from the first book, and I appreciated that it provided tension while also tying up quickly, but...it was almost too neat and quick?
-Why go through the trouble of this secret plug-in drive to try to hack the alien's ship if it just wasn't gonna work? Weird red herring/dead end plot point.
-Kira's khui eventually healing her body so she could be fertile, resonate with Aehako and be his "true" mate. Really don't like the message this sends to people who are, in fact, infertile. I kind of saw it coming but in the rest of the book, I liked the way Aehako was like, it doesn't matter, we're still gonna be mates.
-When Harlow disappears and Aehako assumes she abandoned them (there is no way she could survive?!) instead of the MUCH MORE OBVIOUS possiblity of "maybe something happened to her." And also Kira doesn't fight tooth and nail to go find her friend, she just goes along with it.

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