I gave it a shot! 

At least I gave it a shot! I’m proud of myself for that!

This book has been doing the rounds on TikTok and I keep seeing it pop up places, so much so that I had to give it a shot. It certainly is a thing! Whether it’s a good or bad thing, I’m not entirely sure.

This entire romance is about a group of women who are abducted by aliens, sexually assaulted, and then left on a planet to die only to be ‘saved’ by another group of aliens who decide to take the women as their mates as their inner soul whatever stuff has them fall in love. It’s…interesting.

This is 100% not my thing, which is amusing because usually, everything smutty is my thing! I didn’t even realize how much this isn’t my thing until after the first human/alien sex scene unto which I felt nothing. The writing is absolutely fine! The author does a solid job making the sex scenes feel sexy but there was just no part of me that could get into banging a giant blue alien no matter how much sultry music you play and how in love the characters are. Did nothing for me.

Nothing about this book is bad, but I still do not get the hype behind it. Giant blue alien dude telling this woman she’s his mate now when neither of them can understand the other’s language, paired with the book beginning with rape and there being no real forward momentum is just too much for me to take. Also, the alien love interest introduces himself to our main character by immediately going down on her upon finding her, while she is passed out and cannot communicate or give consent. Just. Yeah. No. Oh, also alien love interest is legitimately ribbed so he’s pleasurable for her. Good lord.

This book is basically 300 pages of smut, so be aware of that before you read. There’s no world-building, dubious consent, no real plot and it begins with women getting abducted and hearing/watching a fellow woman being raped. I don’t really get why that scene had to be added to show that the ‘bad’ aliens are bad. Just why?! The whole book is so ridiculous I can’t even knock it because hey, the author committed, and I respect that!

I never want to hear the word KHUI again. Ever.

This is what it says on the tin. Big blue aliens fucking human women. If you’re down for that, you’ll dig this as long as you’re aware of the possible sexual assault triggers. I will say the author is not bad in the slightest and the new covers for these books are GORGEOUS. I just learned a kink I 100% do NOT have today, so hey, we’re all learning!

Title: Ice Planet Barbarians
Author: Ruby Dixon
Format: Paperback
Pages: 317
ISBN:  9780593546024
Three Descriptors: Offbeat, Steamy, Fantastical