Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - Barbarian's Prize

Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Barbarian's Prize by Ruby Dixon

21 reviews

lindslikesbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense 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

2.75

Not my favorite one of the series but still made me chuckle a few times. This one is a bit more sad and I would check TW for it.

Plot:
Tiffany is one of the last two women left on the ice planet who hasn’t mated. She wants to find her man but she’s fine waiting because she still has nightmares about the aliens who abducted them. She was one of the women they raped when they were taken so she knows she’s not ready.

Enter Salukh, her big blue alien man. She wants to push through her ptsd so she’s like let’s fool around.

Idk 😣 it felt like a weird way to cover a serious issue. Maybe not the series for it.

⭐️⭐️.75

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missbliss's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad tense 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

Finding Intimacy Through Fear and PTSD

This was a solid entry though not my favorite. The installment focuses on the couple of Tiffany/Salukh. I will say that this story felt more intense in that there are not in depth descriptions of the rape Tiffany experienced like there were in the first book which describes it happening but flashbacks of her fear and the experience of being trafficked that felt very first person POV. In many ways that felt more emotionally intense to listen to so a heads up that this story is depicting someone struggling deeply with PTSD after being trafficked and sexually assaulted. This is a predominate struggle for Tiffany and drives all of her decisions or fear of making decisions. Some folks might find her avoidance and terror of the sa-khui men annoying or forced I actually thought this was depicted in a realistic manner and how often PTSD responses and avoidances inevitably often creates more conflict. I think Ruby does an excellent job of making all of these characters feel very distinct and have very real personalities. Also the growing universe of how each human woman is adapting and what she focuses on in this new world. I find the continued world building keeps pulling me in and also appreciate how the sex scenes really are character building too, as the scenes are tailored to the personalities of the individuals involved and speak to aspects of them instead of being wash, rinse, repeat. I think the symbiont khui relationships with the individual is fascinating and I am curious how this will continue to be developed. Octavia Butler has a series known as Lilith's Brood that discusses what happens when an alien species couples with humans and the after effects that are different from what is depicted here but I keep thinking of it as I listen to these stories. The relationship Salukh had with his khui had me smiling and laughing and was very different than has been described with other characters and again I enjoyed it. I feel like the story telling is consistent and audiences will be drawn to some books more than others based on characters they prefer. But all the characters feel realistic. The narration continues to be good, I will say there was a brief bit where Hollie sounded almost like a Valley Girl and it really pulled me out but did not last long. I keep forgetting that I think the women here are early 20s because with the narration and stories I see them as older, which isn't a bad thing. So many stories folks are supposed to be much older but behave like high school children, I appreciate a story that does not feel like that at all. Overall still loving this series and meeting everyone in the town.

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allingoodtime's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

Since I have a very small budget for books, there are times I have to stop reading a series because it’s one I just cannot afford to buy. That was the fate of this series for a while as this book wasn’t available through any of the libraries I access. It seems they are being re-released through Berkley so I decided to check again. Yay! My library finally had this book. So after more than half a year, I’m able to pick back up with the Ice Planet Barbarians.

There are only two human women left who are not yet mated when this story picks up. There is speculation amongst the humans that Josie has not resonated because she has an IUD, whereas Tiffany is suffering from PTSD from her time on the ship of their abductors. The attention of the single sa-khui men is overwhelming to her and causes her great anxiety. It’s no wonder she hasn’t resonated. It doesn’t matter. Salukh knows Tiffany is meant to be his mate and he is oh-so-sweet with her.

While Salukh never pushes Tiffany, he is often sad that they haven’t resonated. He is more frustrated with himself and never lets it show with her. Being human myself (surprise!), I think it’s so much more romantic that he still holds such strong feelings for her without resonating. He loves her for her, not because he has an entity forcing the issue. This, in turn, has Tiffany falling in love with him because he treats her so well and is understanding of her needs.

I’m glad to be back in this world. It’s steamy and romantic, but also crazy and makes me laugh. There is something that happens to Josie at the end that had me cracking up because that’s just not how things work in real life, and that’s what makes it so fun to read. I may have to get KU again so I can read these books without such a big gap between them.

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shaykay's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny fast-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

In Barbarian Prize, we get to focus on Tiffany and Salukh as they try to navigate how to be together. We quickly learn that Tiffany is one of the last two human women who have not resonated. She had an extremely horrific time when she was on the green alien spaceship. All of the males have been hounding her, and it's been really weighing on her. She's scared that they will ultimately treat her as an object since they never try to just talk to her until Salukh. She mentions all the time throughout the book that if she was ever going to resonate, she really hoped it would be him since he is the only one that actually makes her feel cared about. It was fun to see her story play out since we followed the same formula that Kira's story did because she and Aehako didn't resonate right away, either. That is my favorite book in the series. This one is honestly tied for my favorite of the series now because I just really loved Tiffany's story. Both Tiffany and Kira had really strong storylines, and I really want to see if there are any others out there that have something similar. We are out of human women, too, so that means none of the others will have the background with the green aliens. I'm curious to know if they ever come back or if something even more tragic will happen to this tribe now that they are just starting to really rebuild.

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bbygirl21's review

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challenging emotional hopeful lighthearted sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I really love Salukh and Tiffany. I love how Salukh respects Tiffany's boundaries and doesn't push her like the other unmated hunters do. It really shows that he actually cares about Tiffany as a person and not as some prize he has to win. I really didn't like the way the other unmated hunters treated Tiffany and how violent they become towards each other when they don't receive the reaction from Tiffany they want.

With Salukh it's different. Even before Tiffany let's Salukh know what happened to her to cause her bad reactions around the alien men he never pushed her to be with him, he showed compassion and empathy and understood that Tiffany needed more care. And I like how when he does find out what happened to her he protects her from the other guys.

I also really liked be the way that Tiffany and Salukh finally resonate to each other. I love that they get to choose each other before they even know whether they'll be actual mates.

I really enjoy it when the couples get to choose who they want before the actual resonating happens. I feel like it gives the characters more of a chance to connect and bond. And this book gives us that.

Overall this was a really great book in the series. And another one that I'd recommend looking up the trigger warnings for.

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