Barbarian’s Prize is the fifth story in the Ruby Dixon’s Ice Planet Barbarians series. Already popular with readers when the series was published independently by the author, a subsequent explosion in popularity on TikTok resulted in its being picked up by Berkley and re-released in print format (I have seen print copies of the series in my local bookstore on the #SpicyBookTok table). I read the first story, Ice Planet Barbarians, when it was first released and I liked it but hadn’t really kept up with the series. According to Goodreads, there are nineteen full-length novels, plus some shorts and novellas, so if Berkley plans to release all the books in print format, they’ve got plenty more to go.

There is a concise primer at the beginning of Barbarian’s Prize (and presumably in all the books after the first) to catch up any reader on the main worldbuilding and plot points and with that knowledge, a reader can jump into any book as they stand alone well. In a nutshell, aliens have abducted human women for sale in an extraterrestrial black market. The women staged a breakout, the ship had trouble, and the women were dumped on a wintry, desolate place dubbed ‘Not-Hoth’ (a Star Wars reference from the ice planet Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back). The women discover that a tribe of massive blue-horned aliens, the sa-khui, live on the planet in caves in a barbarian lifestyle. They have a symbiotic life form, the khui, that live inside them. When rescued by the sa-khui, the human women take on a khui symbiant as well. A side effect of the khui living inside them is that it will resonate if it finds a compatible partner (a mate) as will the khui in the mate, meaning that a couple who are fated mates will resonate together. This has enabled several of the women to find mates and have little blue alien-human babies. At the start of Barbarian’s Prize, there are only two women left who don’t have mates – Tiffany and Josie. This is Tiffany’s story.

Tiffany has nightmares about her time on the alien ship, where she was sexually assaulted. She never told the other women on the ship that when she was taken for examinations, she was also raped. This experience has scarred her and kept her very wary of the men around her, even though they haven’t shown any inclination to be violent towards women. In reality the sa-khui are very protective and loyal to their mates and abhor the idea of violating them against their will. As Tiffany is one of the last humans without mates, several of the sa-khui males are trying to earn her favour by constantly attending to her, bringing her gifts, etc. What they don’t realize is that she is afraid of them turning violent if she doesn’t pick one of them. So she tries to be polite and friendly to them all but also to not encourage them. Unlike her friend Josie who yearns to find a mate and resonate with him, Tiffany is terrified of resonating and being forced into a loveless situation where she’ll be helpless to defend herself if her partner is abusive. The only sa-khui she feels she can trust is Salukh.

Salukh believes that Tiffany will someday be his partner but as yet, his khui has not resonated with her. But unlike the other males, he can see that she is uncomfortable with all the attention they are giving her. He is observant and patient, and he understands that Tiffany is different to the other women who eagerly mated his friends. When he approaches Tiffany when she is alone, he always announces himself so as not to surprise her, and he is a good listener. Eventually she confides in him about what happened to her (he is outraged that a female would ever be treated that way) and why she is nervous around the other sa-khui.

Tiffany knows that at some point she’s going to have to get used to the idea of being mated, and in order to prepare herself, she approaches Salukh with the idea that if he’s okay with it, she could practice being intimate with him. Salukh is a bit hesitant (he’s a virgin), but he also is eager to give his khui a chance to resonate with her, believing it’s only a matter of time. Will his khui finally cooperate, or is Salukh just preparing Tiffany for a life with another male?

Tiffany’s assaults are told as flashback scenes in her nightmares and fade to black without graphic descriptions, but it is easy to see why her situation on this planet with large non-humans is different than it is for the other women. She is working hard at overcoming her fear but she also is learning to be independent, gaining new skills to enable her to not have to rely on males around her. She’s also much stronger physically due to the khui inside her, and this helps her to fight back some of her fear. But she’s also got a good match in Salukh, someone who honestly cares about her, is patient, protective without being overbearing, and sees in her a woman who will make a strong partner. Their first couple of intimate encounters don’t go the way either Tiffany or Salukh would hope but it only makes Salukh more determined to prove to Tiffany that he is the mate for her. It takes a bit of time and some unexpected situations occur, but they do get their well-deserved happy ending.

No one will confuse these stories with more than what they are – steamy romances with alpha heroes in a new setting. But the worldbuilding is good if simplistic, and the characters are unique individuals surviving in harsh situations where romance gets a chance to bloom. It isn’t just about the sex (though that’s certainly what brings these books to the attention of the BookTok crowd). With its protective and patient hero Salukh and strong, brave, Tiffany, Barbarian’s Prize is an adult, low angst, low stakes, enjoyable read.