Barbarian’s Taming is the eighth (yes, you read that right, we’re about halfway through!) book in Ruby Dixon’s Ice Planet Barbarians series. You’d think that by now the plot would have become stale or the sex routine, but truthfully it’s moving along quite nicely, and there are some significant plot developments that will have implications for future books.

One can’t read book eight without a brief recap of book seven. In Barbarian’s Touch (the review for which has a general series overview), sisters Lila and Maddie have been woken from stasis on their crash-landed ship on Not-Hoth (the human name for the ice planet) and have joined the tribe in their large ice-cave home. Hassen, a lonely sa-khui male, kidnapped Lila hoping to force a resonance with her. However it didn’t work; he just came off as scary and Lila escaped and was eventually rescued and resonated to Rokan. Hassen was exiled from the tribe, and while he still hunts for their food, he isn’t welcome at their fires and will remain in exile for as long as their leader Vektal decides. Meanwhile, Maddie is also isolated, for the first time not being the one her deaf sister relies on. That’s where the last book left off.

So Maddie is lonely, and Hassen is lonely – a perfect setup for a new romance. Except that Hassen kidnapped Maddie’s sister so she isn’t particularly keen on him, though his intense gazes do make her feel a little… something. When Lila goes off on a hunting trip with her mate and several other tribe members, leaving Maddie behind, Maddie decides she is tired of being a layabout and not having any of the skills the other ladies have developed (and she’s also tired of being with her depressed female sa-khui roommate). She decides that she wants to become a hunter and ventures out into the cold snowy tundra, only to end up being rescued by Hassen from a metlak (a creature Lila described as an abominable snowman). He can’t believe she ventured out by herself (silly human!) while she exerts her bossy personality and tells him to fuck off. Hassen interprets this as Maddie asking him for sex, and in the moment, he decides that yeah, he’d be into that. But when the misunderstanding is cleared up (no sex happens – yet) and they talk more, they realize they are both bored and lonely. Maddie suggests to Hassen that he teach her how to hunt. Although he is exiled, Hassen decides he would like to do that, even just for some company, so they agree to meet secretly in the storage cave the next day so he can help her pick out the right hunting tools for her size.

Maddie finds she can’t stop thinking about having sex with Hassen, and when they meet up the next day and she proposes a roll in the hay, Hassen eagerly agrees. Except he thinks she’s asking him to be her pleasure-mate (a more permanent status) when she’s really only interested in scratching the itch one time, and he’s disappointed Maddie doesn’t want to take him permanently into her bed. Yet after that one time, and with their regular outings for Hassen to teach her hunting, neither can get the other out of their minds (at least, once Maddie is assured that Hassen absolutely doesn’t have any feelings towards her sister). Will their close proximity, developing friendship, and sexy times lead to the resonance that ensures their happy ending?

Each book is an opportunity for the reader to learn more about the home lives of the sa-khui and their human pairings, the importance of their main cave and of the discoveries of the various ships that have crash-landed on the planet. I really enjoy learning about this fictional world and its inhabitants, and also having both the sa-khui and human perspectives on things, as the story is told from both main characters viewpoints. It was also nice to see Hassen redeemed as a character, and to learn why he acted the way he did when he went against the tribe and kidnapped Lila. Maddie is able to forgive him, which is needed before she can consider a relationship with him (however short or long-haul it might be).

It’s also nice to see Maddie grow as a character. She starts off being very down on herself as she is ‘fat’ (her description of herself) and sees herself as being a burden to the tribe. But Hassen sees her figure as sturdy and strong, needed for the tough environment outside of the caves, and her large breasts definitely don’t turn him off. As Maddie learns the skills to survive (making fires, hunting, cooking etc.), she begins to believe in herself as a valued contributor. Knowing Hassen sees her as beautiful is an added boost to her self-esteem.

The second half of the story includes a devastating occurrence that changes the lives of everyone on the planet, and Hassen and Maddie play an integral role in supporting the tribe as they come to grips with the changes. I’m being deliberately vague to encourage readers to pick this one up even if they haven’t read any others, as there is always a good introduction to bring new readers up to speed. And subsequent books will be dealing with the fallout from this one, so it will be interesting to see how the tribe copes with their new reality. Barbarian’s Touch and Barbarian’s Taming are my favourites of the series to date, and I look forward to continuing it!