Synopsis

You'd think being abducted by aliens would be the worst thing that's ever happened to me. You'd be wrong. Because now the aliens are having ship trouble, and they've left their cargo of human women — including me — on an ice planet. We're not equipped for life in this desolate frozen wasteland. Since I'm the unofficial leader, I head out into the snow to look for help. I find help all right. A big blue horned alien introduces himself in a rather startling way. Vektal says that I'm his mate, his chosen female — and that the reason his chest is purring is because of my presence. He'll help me and my people survive, but this poses a new problem: if Vektal helps us survive, I'm not sure he's going to want to let me go.

The protagonists

My review

My love for Ice Planet Barbarians and the series as a whole is not healthy, and I say that with the most affection in the world. IPB is one of my safe spaces, one of those books that opened the door to alien romance for me and from which I never came back. Ruby Dixon built an enormous universe with this first book, and what amazed me most was how she constructed that new world and its possibilities from the ground up. Georgie arrives on a frozen planet with nothing, and finds Vektal, a blue alien who helps her survive and tells her, with complete conviction, that they are mates. The language barrier at the beginning is one of my favorite elements: we watch them try, get frustrated, and find a middle ground that feels genuinely earned. What's refreshing is that being on another planet, in a different society with different rules, gives the romance a freedom that very few books have. I always come back to reread it. It's one of those.

Who is this for?

Where to buy it?