Ice Planet Barbarian Review

Hey guys,

Happy Sunday! And happy Father’s Day! I hope you’ve all had a good week. Mine was generally uneventful, other than receiving my first dose of the COVID vaccine.
As always this is a Spoiler Free review.
I have been in a reading slump for 2 VERY long weeks and this is the book that finally broke that for me! I had seen people raving about this book in the way that it was a weird and funny romance but out with that I knew nothing about it and didn’t even read the blurb before picking it up – so I literally went in blind and I think that was part of why I liked it so much!
Anyway, let’s jump into the review.

Title: Ice Planet Barbarian
Author: Ruby Dixon
Genres: Romance, Sci-Fi
Publisher: Indie Published
Publication Date: April 3rd 2015
Pages: 188
When I Read It: June 17th 2021
Goodreads Rating: 3.79 Stars

Goodreads Description:
You’d think being abducted by aliens would be the worst thing that could happen to me. And you’d be wrong. Because now, the aliens are having ship trouble, and they’ve left their cargo of human women – including me – on an ice planet.
And the only native inhabitant I’ve met? He’s big, horned, blue, and really, really has a thing for me…

Review:
I really liked this! AND…It finally managed to help me break my two-week-long reading slump, for which I will be forever grateful for. I’d only heard good (and kind of crazy) things before diving into this but had no real knowledge of the books or the plot – I hadn’t even read the blurb before picking it up.

What I liked…
THE WORLD-BUILDING – This was just beyond awesome. It ties a lot into the writing and how you manage to convey things that are unfathomable, that we don’t have words for, through human words. So many details that are overlooked in a typical romance had to be dealt with here – language barriers, body differences (*wink wink), landscape, customs – it was just all amazing and to see it from both character’s points of view was awesome.
THE PLOT – I loved the premise of this. It was fast-paced and action-packed from beginning to end and that was exactly what I needed. The plot did dip towards the end because I felt that it was setting up for the later books but it was very busy in the early chapters so it wouldn’t have been able to maintain that pace the entire story. I wasn’t a complete fan of the mate-type romance but can’t have it all.
THE WRITING – I kind of mentioned already that I adored the writing of this. It was so detailed, but also it didn’t take itself too seriously – which this desperately needed. I loved having the multiple pov’s and it was unexpected to see that so it was a nice surprise. It was also pretty funny and I laughed a few times.
THE CHARACTERS – They were decent. I really liked them while reading and it’s only really whilst writing this that I noticed they were a little 2D. Liz was my favourite character but Georgie was a close second because both of them had a wit to them as well as a determination that gave them a bit more depth than the others. The rest of the girls felt a bit flat. Vektal also lacked personality. You learn very little about him other than the fact he is OBSESSED with Georgie/the general idea of his mate. I wish we just got a little more to the characters, their interests and past-times would have just given it a bit more depth but overall they were likable and nothing to begrudge.

What I didn’t like –
Usually, I put a header here but I don’t really know how to word it because it’s not exactly a pacing or intrigue issue, but basically, the end was less interesting than the beginning. What this book excelled at was showing the differences between humans and aliens, thus causing all sorts of confusion and hijinx. As the story progressed obviously you can’t keep this up forever, so it just sort of fell into a typical mate romance that was based on sex and insta-love…so not great on that front which is why I don’t plan on continuing the series because the novelty of the situation has worn off. Unless one of the blurbs for the couples really take my fancy, I don’t see myself picking them up because there wouldn’t be much of a plot.
I also think this should have a trigger warning at the start because there is a rape scene in the first 10% and I didn’t see any warnings for that. Personally, that is not a trigger for me, but the fact it could be for others and it wasn’t disclosed was a big no-no for me. Although it didn’t affect my score because it is easily fixed.

Overall I liked it and I do recommend. It was funny and quirky and completely different to the romances I usually read which was fun!

Overall Score = 7.5/10
Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

That’s all for today’s review folks.
This book was a funny and definitely quirky read that was completely new to me and I see why people are talking about this because it had some…unusual features haha…so I definitely recommend picking it up if you’re interested since it’s just a short read and it’s on Kindle Unlimited too!

Have you read this?
Have you read anything by Ruby Dixon?
Do you have any sci-fi romance recommendations?