Angie
Proceed With Caution:
This book contains roofies, human trafficking, and mentions of sexual slavery.
The Basics:
This is the final book for this storyline. Not of the series! But this is the end of the line for this group of barbarians and their humans, so you probably shouldn't start here. Everyone has finally resonated! Yay! It also sets up the spin-off series, Icehome.
My Thoughts:
Barbarian's Tease did feel like the final book of the series, in both good and bad ways. I enjoyed it a lot, just like all of the books, but it was far from a favorite. It overlaps with Barbarian's Rescue, as it starts with the ship landing and taking everyone captive. Brooke did some quick thinking and tried to make sure the bad aliens kept the couples together, since they seemed to want them for breeding. This left just her and Taushen who are not mates, but the bad aliens had a plan for that. This starts their relationship off to a rough and confusing start, but the rest of the book is to fix that.
Brooke isn't ready to mate, and Taushen is and had misunderstood what happened in captivity. She tells him that she just wants to be friends, and he agrees to back off. Of course, Brooke grows to like him, lust for him, and love him without the influence of resonance. Their "vacation" was quite cute to read about. They're the only couple who hung out as just friends for a significant amount of time before mating. It was different and nice.
The end of Barbarian's Tease was kind of rushed. Brooke and Taushen have to return to the tribe at some point, and when they do things are very different. We see a bit of those changes, but there's a lot and not all that important to end this series. I wanted a bit more of the romance and what comes next for Brooke, Taushen, and maybe some of the others. It did leave me eager to start Icehome, though I'll miss this group of characters.