robinwritesallthethings's reviews
31 reviews

emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

What It’s About: Maylak, the tribe healer, has a bad feeling, and she isn’t going to rest until she figures out what’s causing it.

Spice Level: There’s no sex in this one, but it isn’t particularly necessary, so I didn’t miss it.

Final Thoughts: It was so fun to read about Maylak, because she’s such a fixture in every book since she’s the healer, but she’s never taken the spotlight. But her unresolved feeling makes me nervous for the future of my precious barbarians and their mates! Yikes!

Content Warnings

Barbarian's Touch by Ruby Dixon

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emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

What It’s About: When Lila wakes up on the ice planet, she’s shocked at everything she learns about her new existence, especially because she has to adjust to being deaf again. But spending time with Rokan might change her mind about her future.

Spice Level: This is another pretty slow burn, but when they finally get down to it, it’s perfect.

Realism: I really enjoyed that this brought up the theme of difficult communication that was present in the first book, but in a whole different way. And the fact that Rokan never thought of Lila as lesser and wanted to learn how to talk to her so she wouldn’t be left out made it even sweeter while enhancing their romance.

Trope Alert: Friends to lovers, miscommunication.

Trigger Warnings: Kidnapping.

Final Thoughts: I really enjoyed that Rokan made the effort to learn ASL, and that Lila’s khui didn’t cure her deafness, at least right away. It could always happen in the future, but it really centered the idea that she wasn’t deficient in any way.

Content Warnings

Ice Ice Babies by Ruby Dixon

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emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

What It’s About: Nora is the only human woman to have twins, and it’s affecting her relationship with her mate, who is obsessed with making sure their family has enough to survive the brutal season.

Spice Level: There’s more pining and yearning than actual getting it on in this one, but as usual, Ruby always manages to make that almost sexier than the sex itself.

Realism: It totally makes sense that Nora is experiencing some uncertainty after having two babies, and her mate’s insistence on keeping everyone fed is also understandable. It’s nice to see them resolve it together, rather than continue to not communicate with each other.

Trope Alert: Miscommunication.

Content Warnings

Having the Barbarian's Baby by Ruby Dixon

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

What It’s About: This short volume focuses on Megan, who resonated in another book. It explores her relationship with her mate as the birth of their child nears.

Spice Level: There wasn’t a ton of spice in this one because Megan is heavily pregnant, so don’t expect what you normally get in these novels. But there was definitely still desire, and it was sweet.

Realism: Megan’s clinginess was definitely something I could see happening, especially when everything you’ve ever known has been taken away from you. I thought it was nice to see her and Cashol work through it.

Content Warnings

Shift by Ruby Dixon

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

What It’s About: This volume collects all of Ruby Dixon’s bear shifter novellas into one book. They showcase a small town where bear shifters find their mates, who are often human, and bring them into the fold of the paranormal, despite some upfront difficulties.

Spice Level: The sex in all of these stories is intensely satisfying once the pairings get around to it. It doesn’t usually take long, since they’re all novellas. And shifters never run out of stamina, so take that into consideration.

Realism: I thought this was a cute way to deal with some of the issues shifters might face if their mates were human, and I liked the idea of a town that was mostly shifters, which provides them some security.

Trope Alert: Age gap, Daddy kink (if you squint, but just in case you don’t like it, I want to mention it), enemies to lovers, fated mates, friends with benefits. I might have missed a few since there were five novellas in this collection, but these are the ones I remember most vividly.

Content Warnings

Barbarian's Mate by Ruby Dixon

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

What It’s About: Josie, the last woman left without a mate, finally resonates, but it’s Haeden, who she doesn’t want, and she’s determined not to give in just because she’s supposed to.

Spice Level: There’s a lot of stop and start in this one, which makes sense with this couple, as well as a lot of yearning. But when they finally get around to it, it’s epic!

Realism: This book really explores the idea of what you can do if you resonate to someone you personally don’t like, and definitely drives home the idea that resonance doesn’t change your emotions, though it might make you more aware of them in the end. It also highlights the importance of communication. Once these characters talked and understood each other better, they realized they were perfect for each other.

Trope Alert: Enemies to lovers, grumpy/sunshine, miscommunication.

Trigger Warnings: Child sexual abuse and adult rape are mentioned at several points throughout the novel.

Content Warnings

Barbarian's Prize by Ruby Dixon

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

What It’s About: Tiffany comes into focus as we learn about the secret trauma she endured during her captivity and her frustration with being the most desirable of the last eligible women left in the tribe.

Spice Level: This one is more of a slow burn in terms of sex, with a lot of playing and exploring before the deed is finally done. It’s smoking hot all the way through and well worth the wait.

Realism: It would be easy to not feel bad for Tiffany. She’s attractive and skilled and all of the alien guys want her for their mate. But a deeper dive into her history and personality make her an entirely sympathetic character. I found her reaction to her trauma heartbreaking, but also understandable. I also like that this volume really dove into the idea of how resonance and falling in love aren’t necessarily the same thing, and how that might make people reluctant to have extraneous relationships for fear of what might happen later.

Trope Alert: Friends to lovers, friends with benefits.

Trigger Warnings: Rape trauma. In particular, there are some flashback scenes.

Final Thoughts: I have to say that I loved the sweet way Salukh treated Tiffany, both from the beginning and after he realized why she was so reluctant to pursue any kind of relationship. He was a perfect gentleman, and it was so nice to see how he respected Tiffany’s feelings.

Content Warnings

Treasure by Oyinkan Braithwaite

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

What It’s About: This is part of a series by Amazon where popular thriller authors write stories with a common theme of deception. This entry deals with a social media influencer who attracts a stalker.

Plot: Once again, the twist at the end is fairly obvious, but the events leading up to it were very exciting.

Content Warnings

Ice Planet Holiday by Ruby Dixon

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dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

What It’s About: The humans have been on the ice planet for a while now, and they miss holidays, so they invent one for everyone to celebrate together.

Spice Level: There’s not a ton of spice in this one because it focuses more on the holiday, but there is one scene that, while a little fast, is pretty fun.

Realism: I love the idea of the humans inventing a holiday to introduce some more of their traditions to the ice planet. The reintroduction of Claire, who was really just an annoying side character previously, rounds her out and makes her likable, and also deals with the idea of what happens when someone doesn’t resonate and then feels taken advantage of.

Trope Alert: An abusive relationship and fake dating make brief appearances.

Trigger Warnings: An abusive relationship is depicted in parts of this one, and there’s a difficult birth scene.

Content Warnings

Barbarian Mine by Ruby Dixon

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

What It’s About: This book reveals what happened to Harlow at the end of the previous volume after she didn’t come back and details her adventures with Rukh, an alien the others thought died long ago.

Spice Level: It may be cold on the ice planet, but the sex is always hot. I’m not sure the sex in this one is hotter than the others, but I like it more because Harlow and Rukh are my favorite couple.

Realism: This particular plot brings in the idea of (mis)communication and isolation even more than the others. Rukh barely knows the alien language, so even though Harlow speaks it, they have to work much harder to talk to each other, and their fear keeping them away from the others is very understandable, especially considering the circumstances. Overall, I just love how Ruby brings tough themes into these fantastical stories and deals with them well. It also showcases the powers of the khui a bit more. I was shocked at how much it could do when I read it!

Trigger Warnings: There’s some pretty intense kidnapping going on, brief mentions of a terminal illness, and a difficult pregnancy.

Content Warnings

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robinwritesallthethings's reviews 31 reviews

robinwritesallthethings's reviews
31 reviews