Proceed With Caution:
This book deals with the death of an infant and depression.
The Basics:
Finally we get Asha's story. While this is the tenth full book of the series, the plot doesn't really directly continue any previous events. Other than the obvious addition of human women and the tribe moving to their new village. I'd still recommend starting at the beginning though.
My Thoughts:
Barbarian's Hope is the long time coming story of Asha and Hemalo's reunion. It's also another holiday special starring Claire! While I enjoyed both of these stories on their own, I felt like they each should have been their own book or novella. It's kind of unfair to Asha and Hemalo to have to share their pages, because those two do have an interesting story. However, it does make sense in a way, because Claire is Asha's only friend and her voice of reason. She still didn't need to take up half the book though.
I still very much enjoyed Barbarian's Hope. Up to this point we'd only seen Asha and Hemalo fight or ignore each other. The sa-khui mate for life, so I assumed they'd get a reconciliation story eventually. I had to know what was really going on with these two! From seeing them as side characters, it seemed like they couldn't be any more different. Asha was quite prickly while Hemalo was more soft. Of course, we go in deep on why Asha was like that. Depression as a concept doesn't exist on this planet, but it's very apparent that that is what she's going through. Hemalo wanted to give her space, but perhaps that wasn't the best choice.
Meanwhile, Claire planned another holiday celebration for the tribe. It was super cute. Instead of doing one big day, she planned for eight with activities from all of the major holidays. With a Not-Hoth twist, of course. She even got herself a secret Santa! I did like this resolution to a lingering story-line.
Barbarian's Hope ends with a three year time jump! I was like NOOO at first, but I think it works for this series, since life is much slower on Not-Hoth. Pregnancies last 13-36 months, so everyone would be pregnant for ever if the author didn't speed things up at times. I'm eager to see how life has changed over those three years!