Audiobook Review: Lauren's Barbarian by Ruby Dixon

Series:	Icehome #1
Pub. Date:	March 20, 2018
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Narrators:	Felicity Munroe Sean Crisden
Length:	8 hrs 24 min
Source:	Publisher

Lauren's Barbarian is the first book in the Icehome series, a spinoff of Ice Planet Barbarians. As I have committed to listening to Ice Planet Barbarians in audio, I have not finished reading that series before embarking on this spinoff. While I don't think it's absolutely necessary that you have finished the first series... I didn't like starting this spinoff without reading the other books. There was just too much that had happened on the Ice Planet and I felt like I was missing out. Otherwise, this book is just as good as the others that I have read.

So a new group of humans and aliens have been stranded on the Ice Planet, it seems like this part of the story must have happened in one of the previous Ice Planet Barbarians books. The book starts off as the captives are being woken up from their pods and being told their fate, and our original big blue aliens are preparing their ship for destruction. Unfortunately, Lauren is on the ship when it catches fire and starts to sink, and she has to bail out into the ocean - which takes her clear across to some previously unknown islands with its own alien inhabitants. 

Lauren was a good heroine. She accepted her fate with stoicism and bravery, and she helped where ever she was needed. When she met our new aliens and begins to resonate, she didn't fight things needlessly. She didn't scream or cry or act the brat. She used her brain and found a way to communicate with our hero and his people, despite the language barrier. So she got high marks all around from me.

K'Thar was likewise a good hero. He is the leader of a diminished clan, after a volcano eruption took out most of the inhabitants of the island. He cares for a disabled clan mate, an orphaned child, and always makes sure others needs are met before his own. He was deserving of a resonance mate, and I was glad that he was paired with Lauren. Oh yeah, he looks different than the original big blue guys. He's still blue - but he can turn colors, and he has four hands! Just imagine all the steamy shenanigans those hands can get up to! He put them to good use, let me tell you.

I really liked how Lauren lead the charge to save the clans, and I'm excited that we have so many more couples now to keep the series going. Ruby Dixon does a great job at building a fun and interesting world, with fascinating characters, and crazy animals.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this audiobook that I received from the publisher, Tantor Audio.

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