Lauren’s Barbarian by Ruby Dixon

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Title: Lauren's Barbarian
Author: Ruby Dixon
Series: Icehome #1
Published by: Tantor Audio
Release Date: March 20, 2018
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Felicity Munroe, Sean Crisden
Length: 8 hours and 24 minutes
Genres: Romance, Erotic Romance, Science Fiction
Source: Chirp
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2021 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2021 COYER Summer
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iTunes ✩ Libro.FM
My rating:

Blurb:

A lush, tropical island on an icy planet makes no sense.

Then again, not much makes sense anymore after waking up and finding myself not in bed but on a strange world populated by aliens. Since that moment, I’ve learned that nothing is normal anymore and I’ve got to roll with the punches. I can handle this, though. I’m strong and capable.

So… washed up on a tropical island? Got it handled.

Separated from the others in my group? Handled.

Stranded alone with a brutal but delicious alien man that can’t speak English but has great…ahem…body language? Yup, handled.

Add in the fact that my cootie – a symbiont I need to survive – has chosen my big, hulking alien friend as my fated mate? Let’s just say that the situation isn’t the only thing that’s going to be handled.

But it isn’t long before I learn that the tropical island paradise is a death trap and we’re all in grave danger, aliens and humans alike. To survive this, I'll need my tempting guy to give me a hand with the situation…good thing he's got four of them.

This romance features all of the adventure, humor and community you’ve come to expect in the Ice Planet Barbarians series, but it stands on its own. You do not need to read the other series (or be caught up) in order to read LAUREN'S BARBARIAN. Enjoy!

My Review:

4.5 stars — I LOVED the introduction of a whole new setting and new clans.  This one was super suspenseful with all that was going on.  In some ways it reminded me strongly of the first IPB book, with the inability to communicate.  Sometimes I have a hard time suspending my disbelief for how they did learn words, but I think my brain just doesn’t want to grasp it.

I actually really enjoyed Lauren.  Sometimes it felt like she was too calm, but I think I got that she was trying to hold herself together for other people.  It wasn’t as though she didn’t feel fear and panic, she just had an uncanny ability to shove those down and do what needed to be done.  She was relatively down to earth as well — she rolled with the punches pretty easily.

It was hard getting back to a bit more primitive hero with Kathar.  I feel like as the Sa’khui have been living with the humans, they have gotten less barbaric…  And Kathar really was Lauren’s barbarian.  It wasn’t that he didn’t care though, he just went with instincts.  I appreciated the way he was leading his tiny clan, and that he was one of the first of the 3 to recognize that they had to work together.  I loved that even though their communication was terrible, he came to easily trust Lauren, especially about the island.

And as per usual, they were pretty hot together.  It was kind of interesting since we were back to limited communication, so it added a different element.

Lots of new characters introduced (obviously), and I’m looking forward to learning more about them.  Obviously loved baby Zaren, and Kiki/Fat one.

The whole beginning section — seeing how they got lost, establishing a bit of a friendship between Lauren and Marisol — was super interesting, but didn’t persist through the book.  It was understandable given the circumstances, but I’m interested to see if Lauren and Marisol keep their friendship.

There were new narrators for this series.  I enjoyed them both in general, but it was hard to get used to new voices and the way they were pronouncing things vs how the other ones did…probably just because it was the same narrators for the whole first series, so you got used to them, you know?  But on their own, without comparing, I really enjoyed them both.  Good voices, great pacing, emotions, all that good stuff.  I loved Ms. Munroe’s portrayal of Lauren — so much dryness to her thoughts at times.  It was awesome.

So yeah, solid introduction to the new series.  Kind of can’t wait to keep going, they’re addicting and easy!