(This post was first published on Heroes & Heartbreakers.)
Blue aliens, you say?
My dear friend, romance reader and writer, Alexis Daria, sends me a screen shot of text from her Kindle, with mad giggly faces all around it: Do you know what kinds of private parts blue aliens have?
I must admit I was amused and intrigued.
I’ve been on a contemporary binge for a while now. Years ago, I was hard into paranormal, but I drifted toward new adult then deep into erotic rom, but now…
This blue alien thing—I was hearing it from more and more people—I had to try it.
So I did, and it’s been a blast from the past. I haven’t fallen for a series this hard since first reading J.R. Ward’s Dark Lover.
It’s been like diving into a blue team version of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. Replace the lessers with little green men, replace the fangs with horns. And yes—remember that talk about private parts?—give the males a spur. Curious yet?
Move the setting from the decadent mansion in Caldwell, NY to a Neolithic cave in an arctic climate, and welcome to Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon. (Amazon)
These blue males are big, possessive and scary, but they’ve got it bad for their heroines and they know how to deliver in the passion department. But the thing that got me really resonating (Oo, that’s a pun, and wait for it…) with it like the BDB is the mating thing they do. You know the we-are-destined-to-be at first sight thing?
They do what’s called resonating rather than bonding as in BDB, and they don’t hear MINE in their heads, instead their bodies hum. Like a sound comes from their chest when they resonate with a mate.
I’m all about it. It’s like a manifestation of the saying, You make my blood sing.
And the way Ruby Dixon does it has a cool factor on another level. It’s a bit of spoiler (so maybe skip the next sentence), but the women will resonate back if they return the mate—bond—thing, whatever.
I love the reciprocation. That it’s not one-sided lends it something extra.
The medicine has introduced about a decade ago to relieve men with moderate or levitra 100mg pills cute-n-tiny.com severe erectile problems. Pretty much every ‘Newbie’ is going to need some help at some point, the problem is, most don’t india viagra generic ever get it. Deprivation of sleep can lead to numerous health complications and can lead to anxiety and cialis free shipping depression. Not only viagra professional that all the reputed medicine company of India has produced Sildenafil citrate with the name of Sildenafil citrate. There’s a seriously addictive quality to these books and given there’s fourteen of them, it’s binge worthy. I’ve been trying to dissect what about them is so addictive to so many romance connoisseurs, and what it is about the IPB and the BDB that’s similar.
What hooks me to read book after book in a row without thought to read anything else?
I mean, the sex is ultra-hot. There’s nothing like a greeting, as in book one of—how to put this in PG terms?—a male’s nose to a female’s intimate parts for a let-me-smell-you-hello/love at first sight.
But it’s not just that. Or the whole special perks in the wang department. (Though that’s faaabulous.)
I think—for me—it’s the caretaking.
I’ve been so hard in love with bad boys and anti-heroes lately, I’ve undervalued the sensitivity of caretakers.
These barbarians care for their women. Care for their wants, care for their needs and desires. They love and respect their independence as well as they comprehend their fears. They pay attention to their insecurities, give support when it’s needed, and are hands off whenever she requires.
Somewhere in my reading of bad boy after bad boy, I forgot something I truly enjoy: a hero who shows love in deed as well as in bed. When these aliens, for all their hunting and possessive ways, are attentive to their heroines, it’s so comforting.
The IPB are a comfort read, really. They fill a hole on my TBR list. Something I didn’t know I was craving.
The books are less than 200 pages. The series is far from as epic or intricate as the BDB world, but the simplicity of them is perhaps the best part. The major conflicts stem from within the relationships, and the external challenges they face aren’t overly dramatized.
The cast of characters is large and has a lot of depth to get lost in—much like the BDB.
I have to include a *trigger warning* for the first chapter of the first book. A minor character is assaulted, but this is the only incident I’ve seen so far in the series. It is easily skipped. I did, and it was worth it. Just beware.
I’m super grateful for this new rec, and that there are 14 of them. And ongoing!
I’m sure I’ll go back to my contemporary bad boys and erotic anti-heroes, but it’s nice to have a pleasant escape to another world. I never would’ve guessed blue aliens could be so comforting—and ultimately satisfying.