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A review by fishreads
Barbarian's Redemption by Ruby Dixon
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
(Initial rating 3 stars) I never managed to write a review after initial reading so what follows is a review after rereading the story two years later.
Bek, feeling lonely and resentful that all the available human females have already resonated to his tribe mates does the unthinkable. He makes a deal with Mardok's former crew mates and asks them to bring five human females, for him and the other unpaired males, back to the Ice Planet. They do as agreed by buying five human slaves off of the first available slave trader.
When the five new females, Gail, Brooke, Kate, Summer and Elly, are deposited off to their "new home", most of the tribe (apart from the aforementioned unpaired male tribe members) is horrified by Beck's actions. Beck is unrepentant, as in his mind, he did nothing wrong.
Beck starts of as an unlikable character, he's gruff and brutish, and he feels so entitled to having a mate of his own that he will not consider possible consequences of his actions in order to achieve his goal. I assume that at the same time, Bek's apparent loneliness and deep yearning for a mate, is supposed to make him more sympathetic in reader's eyes. As this was a random reread, after reading Surving Skarr (where Elly and Bek make an appearance), I didn't remember much of Bek from the previous books in the series (he was an asshole to Claire, who was his pleasure mate initially, but I can't even remember if Claire got her own book and if she did which one it was?) I can only say that I didn't hate Bek's character.
Out of the five females, Elly was the one who, after being abducted from her home as only a teenager, suffered the longest being a slave and was resold a couple of times during the years. As a result she has a huge amount of trauma and also developed various defense mechanisms in order to survive. Despite of her frail appearance she turns out to be brave and gutsy heroine who can go toe to toe with Bek.
Bek doesn't make a good first or second impression on any of the new females and his and Elly's relationship starts from a place of hate. But after they resonate to each other and Bek tries being patient while at the same time not being too far away from Elly, Elly not having the easiest time of integrating with the rest of the tribe starts seeing Bek as somebody familiar and safe. While the two take their time getting to know each other I couldn't help the feeling that Elly's change of heart towards Bek came a bit too soon.
Barbarian's Redemption was one of the books in the series that I would put in the more enjoyable column as both Bek and Elly were interesting and ultimately likable characters. Out of the five new females, Elly, together with Gail, was one of the more likable heroines as, if my memory serves correctly, I had more issues with Kate, Summer and Brooke's stories.
Themes: dual POV, slavery, past trauma, "fated" mates, forced proximity, virginity, pregnancy
Bek, feeling lonely and resentful that all the available human females have already resonated to his tribe mates does the unthinkable. He makes a deal with Mardok's former crew mates and asks them to bring five human females, for him and the other unpaired males, back to the Ice Planet. They do as agreed by buying five human slaves off of the first available slave trader.
When the five new females, Gail, Brooke, Kate, Summer and Elly, are deposited off to their "new home", most of the tribe (apart from the aforementioned unpaired male tribe members) is horrified by Beck's actions. Beck is unrepentant, as in his mind, he did nothing wrong.
Beck starts of as an unlikable character, he's gruff and brutish, and he feels so entitled to having a mate of his own that he will not consider possible consequences of his actions in order to achieve his goal. I assume that at the same time, Bek's apparent loneliness and deep yearning for a mate, is supposed to make him more sympathetic in reader's eyes. As this was a random reread, after reading Surving Skarr (where Elly and Bek make an appearance), I didn't remember much of Bek from the previous books in the series (he was an asshole to Claire, who was his pleasure mate initially, but I can't even remember if Claire got her own book and if she did which one it was?) I can only say that I didn't hate Bek's character.
Out of the five females, Elly was the one who, after being abducted from her home as only a teenager, suffered the longest being a slave and was resold a couple of times during the years. As a result she has a huge amount of trauma and also developed various defense mechanisms in order to survive. Despite of her frail appearance she turns out to be brave and gutsy heroine who can go toe to toe with Bek.
Bek doesn't make a good first or second impression on any of the new females and his and Elly's relationship starts from a place of hate. But after they resonate to each other and Bek tries being patient while at the same time not being too far away from Elly, Elly not having the easiest time of integrating with the rest of the tribe starts seeing Bek as somebody familiar and safe. While the two take their time getting to know each other I couldn't help the feeling that Elly's change of heart towards Bek came a bit too soon.
Barbarian's Redemption was one of the books in the series that I would put in the more enjoyable column as both Bek and Elly were interesting and ultimately likable characters. Out of the five new females, Elly, together with Gail, was one of the more likable heroines as, if my memory serves correctly, I had more issues with Kate, Summer and Brooke's stories.
Themes: dual POV, slavery, past trauma, "fated" mates, forced proximity, virginity, pregnancy
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Animal death, Confinement, Eating disorder, Slavery, and Trafficking
Moderate: Vomit and Kidnapping