Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Barbarian's Hope

This is finally Asha and Hemalo's book. This one is sad and emotional, but I enjoyed it and was glad to see Asha and Hemalo work their issues out. Major trigger warning for grief and talk of child loss.

This one is a very slow burn. The couple has a lot of trauma to deal with before they can get back together in a healthy way, but they do get their HEA.

Content Warnings

robinwritesallthethings's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

What It’s About: This book focuses on Asha, a rather surly character we’ve encountered in previous stories. It delves more into why she is the way she is and gives her a second chance at a happy ending.

Spice Level: There isn’t a huge amount of spice in this one, but it is between two aliens, which is something interesting that we’ve never really seen before in this series.

Realism: This is probably a more real volume than most for our big blue aliens. There’s a lot of grief here, but it makes sense, considering the situation, and it makes sense that this couple has drifted apart because of it.

Trope Alert: Second chance romance.

Trigger Warnings: Asha deals with the previous death of her child pretty explicitly in this book. The subject is handled very delicately, but it might still be too much for some readers. There are also some injuries to be had.

Final Thoughts: Once again, I’d like to say that Ruby made both a character and a topic I honestly didn’t want to read about palatable. I’ll always give anything she writes a chance because she has the ability to make anything appealing.

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roorooreads's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I feel like this could have been half as long and still gotten the point across. It was very emotional though and I choked up a bit at times with the deep sadness out FMC felt.

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kell_yeah_reads's review against another edition

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4.0

no comment

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philodora's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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kb33's review against another edition

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emotional sad fast-paced

Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

This isn't a spoiler because it's talked about in other books, but here's a TW/content description for those who wonder if they should skip this book: Asha and Hemalo had a baby who was born early and only survived a few hours. Their grief tore them apart, and they are separated at the beginning of this book. The death of the infant is not described on page, but it is frequently mentioned, and Asha's grief is described in detail. This is a spoiler:

In the epilogue there is a detailed childbirth scene of their second child, who is born healthy.

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