Proceed With Caution:
This book contains mentions of abduction and rape.
The Basics:
Barbarian Alien starts near the ending of Ice Planet Barbarians, overlapping a bit with the rescue portion. This time it's narrated by Liz and Raahosh.
My Thoughts:
While Georgie was much more accepting of her alien mate, Liz is simply not having it at the start of Barbarian Alien. She hates this planet. She hates being cold. And she hates Raahosh for resonating with her and stealing her away to his private cave. Clearly, this is a hate-to-love, fated mates, alien breeder romance. However, much like Vektal, Raahosh is not in the habit of forcing women into anything, especially his mate. Except for the whole inserting a khui into her against her will in order to save her life. He just wants his mate to survive, love him, and start a family!
Barbarian Alien reminded me a bit of Beauty and the Beast in the beginning. Raahosh is holding Liz hostage, she's repulsed by him, she runs away and is attacked by local wildlife, Raahosh storms in to save her, and boom, sexy times! Except that Liz is pretty mean to Raahosh and the poor guy understands most of it without her even realizing it. He's the biggest, fiercest warrior in the clan, but he's so sensitive! I wanted to hug him and tell him she doesn't meant it. She's just lashing out!
I really enjoyed Barbarian Alien. It took a much different twist than I expected, even though I had already read book #1.5 which actually took place after this one. I just didn't know how they got to that point and how it was getting resolved. Liz was a super fun character and wasn't going to go down without a fight! It's a very different type of happy ending, but it was still happy for the couple.