[Poll Book Tally] Barbarian's Taming by Ruby Dixon 3 stars

[Karin]

This was another one that started off poorly but got better. This one is about Maddie, whose sister was abducted in the earlier book. Lila is back and well, but she is still surly and rude to everyone. Yes, I understand that she is stuck on a very cold planet with no apparent skills (she was a bartender back on earth) and she feels like everyone is judging her because she is fat, but at this point she is being immature. She is attracted to the same person who kidnapped her sister and starts a friends-with-benefits relationship with him which he is not happy about since he was waiting until his khui purred for someone and is a one-woman sort of male. Also, one of the things I have liked about this series is that there isn't much swearing, and Maddie swears a fair bit. Also, we all thought Hassen was not a good guy, but really inside he is very sweet and caring, he just made a mistake with Lila and regrets it very deeply (he just wanted to force their khui's to choose each other but it became clear to him that Lila was not for him).

But who is taming who, here?

That said, things evolve and there is character growth (plus, of course, this is a romance). This book also has a humdinger of a cliff hanger at the end, but it has nothing to do with ruining this romance.