Reviews with content warning for Pregnancy - Barbarian Alien

This book had me laughing out loud, and to make it so much more worst, I was listening to it as an audiobook. Good god, some of it was so cringey and corny and other parts were simply funny based on the language barrier. However, it should be noted that while I was laughing for the majority of it, some parts were uncomfortable to hear. There were a handful of actions that were borderline non-consensual but were then brushed past. Overall, exactly what I expected from an Ice Planet book. Equal halves funny and ugh.

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rensreading's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

2.75

i wanted to like this book. it had a strong beginning but i truly could not push past the stockholm syndrome shit going on. it was even worse than in the first book. liz rags on georgie’s relationship a lot without taking a closer look at her own and that irritated me so much because she’s such a strong and stubborn character. but she isn’t perfect and she fell for the dark, tall, and brooding man with the tragic past and parental issues that kidnapped her after she had just escaped another set of kidnappers. way to really stick to your own independence there, liz.

i did like that she mentioned all the shitty and unexplained things the sa-khui are keeping from the humans, unknowingly or not. especially this line: “I thought we were supposed to be equals but maybe the goal is to keep us all barefoot and pregnant and sewing.” bc that is essentially what the sa-khui are doing. she’s aware enough to stir up dissent but not self-aware enough to look at her own relationship and see that its toxic and unhealthy. raahosh is a very shy guy when you get down to it but we can’t just write off the fact that he forced their relationship on liz by shoving the khui into her when she was unwilling. whatever happened to people’s right to die on their own terms? mates a big thing in this universe dixon created, obviously, but they’re also the cause for a lot of dubious consent and plain, unforgiving non consensual sexual assaults too.

again, just more violence against women.

dixon’s writing is also very inconsistent and juvenile too. liz knows the name of the sa-khui’s language without ever being told it by georgie. raahosh acts like the concept of love is normal in their culture and then mentions later that its a big deal to liz without ever mentioning who he learned that from since it wasn’t from vektal or liz, the two most likely to explain that to him. in the epilogue raahosh turns from this mine-mine-mine possessive dude to oh-my-god-what-if-she-hates-my-guts kind of dude and the shift in his character was drastic enough to really catch me off-guard. there was so much being waved away and then explained later but, in the process, it made the first instance all the more confusing since you’re left wondering how characters even know that information.

the spice was alright. it was the only reason i finished this but i wont be continuing with this series any longer and will probably unhaul the copies i got too.

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ashleybeereads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

kbairbooks's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

So. *sigh* It’s weird because in book one Liz did not come across as sarcastic and angry and just kinda awful… But she totally did in this book as well as in the first novella/short story. But it was really interesting seeing the differences in the characters and the romance and I’m still gonna keep reading of course but book 2 was just so different from the book one in an unfortunate way I’m really glad book 2 was not book one because then I probably wouldn’t have continued on with the series as always sex was fun and I’m excited to read book 3.

Content Warnings