The Strange Appeal of 'Ice Planet Barbarians': A Crash Course in Alien Romance
- Courtney Leigh
- Jul 25
- 12 min read
hWelcome alien lovers to the strangest series you will ever love.
Before we get started, what’s a book that opened your eyes to a genre that you otherwise would not be reading today?
We all have that author or that book that sort of broke the ice for us. Stole our genre virginity, if you will. And mine was Ruby Dixon. The queen of big blue aliens with spurs and tongues that have ridges. Cinnamon rolls in space. Mates that just want to please their woman and whisper sweet nothings and make many babies.
I’m aware alien romance has been around for a hot second, but like I said, we all have our first.
After binging some Lara Adrien vampire spice and the hefty Eternal Mates series by Felicity Heaton, I was on the lookout for more shifters. Vampires. Werewolves, maybe. And somehow, while I was diving toward the giant cave mouth of shifter romance, my dainty size ten foot caught a stone and I went careening down the alien romance rabbit hole… which turned out to be a black hole that, to this day, has not let me go, and in fact, keeps feeding me more and more obscure alien stories that I continually gobble up like a fat kid eats cake.
If you don’t know who Ruby Dixon is, she is notorious for diverse heroines, big blue aliens with giant hearts, and dirty dirty smut in space.
The first book I ever read of hers was Ice Planet Barbarians and let me put this in perspective.
You are a reader of broody vampire romance with serious tones and dark alleys and men in leather trench coats with dramatic pasts and then, your curiosity gets the better of you and you open up the book with a cheesiest cover featuring a man with blue skin. When you suddenly find yourself on an alien planet where a big blue alien hunk is eating you out of unconsciousness, your attention will be grabbed. Perhaps not in the best way at first, but your hooked. You want to know what happens next, whether its to laugh or not, you can’t stop.
I’ll be honest, by the end of Ice Planet Barbarians, I was in a world of confusion. This is the first book in the extensive IPB series. The first book features Georgie, who is one of many women who were abducted from Earth, but when the alien ship they’re on crash lands on a desolate ice planet and the aliens who abducted them bail out and leave them there, Georgie steps up to find help for herself and the many other women with her.
The planet is barren and extremely cold and somehow she manages to cross paths with a man from the Sa-khui tribe that inhabits this planet. They’re very big, horned, blue skinned, wear fur and loin cloths, and have glowing blue eyes, a result of having to host a parasite that has a few perks like regulating body temperature on the cold planet or finding their most compatible mate. The parasite, called a khui, will “resonate” or vibrate when a compatible mate is close, basically making the two irresistible to each other because these parasites really want them to bang and make babies.
Vektal, our blue hunter, comes across Georgie and clearly recognizes she is not his species but also immediately has the hots for her. Georgie, because she’s new to this planet, does not have a parasite and therefor can’t feel when it resonates but Vektal is totally head over heels at first site and in fact, when she is knocked unconscious, he decides to wake her by taking a little taste of her.
Yes… Georgie literally wakes up with this man’s head between her thighs and rather than go “Oh! A giant blue alien is licking my lady parts! That’s freaky as hell!” She goes… whelp… I’m about halfway to finishing, so please don’t stop.”
And…
Vektal comes from a dwindling tribe of people with a shortage of females, so it’s kind of natural that his khui reacts to Georgie because since he can’t find a mate in his own species, the khui sort of chooses the next best thing, which is a human woman who literally fell from the heavens. He starts to help Georgie survive, fully intending to bring her back to his village, and she continually tries to direct him back to the ship full of very single women in need of help, but the language barrier is not helping at all.
Eventually, he understands and realizes that he not only got himself a girlfriend but there is a whole ship full of eligible women for all his friends too!
The women, in order to survive the planet, have to all get a khui of their own. This entails the men of the tribe hunting a big animal that is just filled with these things and then making a small cut on the chest where the parasite can be re-homed. Naturally, the women are very hesitant, but this place is very inhospitable so they all eventually concede.
And so it begins.
The IPB series is born. Every book following is about a different woman from that ship resonating with a different member of the tribe. A lot of these boys are very horny and desperate for a woman to dote on and take care of and make babies with. Even the grumpy ones are complete cinnamon rolls in the end.
These books, for the most part, can be read as standalones, but obviously characters overlap so reading them in order does help in getting to know everyone. All of these books, despite the traumas the characters sometimes go through, are extremely lighthearted and very simple to read which I think is why people like me enjoy them so much. They require little to no thought and while that might seem like an insult, it’s really not.
They’re all written in dual POV format so you get the internal thoughts of both sides. Some couples are nuts for each other and others don’t want anything to do with each other. Because there are so many books, there’s also a large variety of characters. People of different races. Sizes. Some have disabilities. Some have phobias. So like I said, it’s a diverse crowd. Sure, the stories start to kind of sound the same eventually, but we’re not reading these books to be wowed. We are reading to have a good time.
So, if you want to read the whole series in order, great! If you’re the kind of reader that picks and chooses in series like this where the books are essentially standalones, here is a quick breakdown of every book in the IPB series.
BUT, before we get into that, a word from BloomStories. BloomStories is a spicy audiobook website with over a thousand short stories and full length books on audio for your listening pleasure. Not only that, but they have ASMR, sleep aids, and even some guided playtime featuring some very talented voice actors. Use my code/link CLEIGH to get up to 66% off your subscription. Not only will you get access to tons of audiobooks, all organized into very specific tropes and genres, but by using my affiliate link, you’re helping to support me so I can deliver more quality content…
Like full breakdowns of hunky blue alien smut…
Let’s get into this series!
Starting with book 1.
Ice Planet Barbarians
Georgie, a woman with a get-to-it nature and a protective attitude meets a very straight forward blue alien who desperately wants to make her his. He’s pretty naïve to the whole concept of consent, but Georgie seems to like it so both parties seem happy? In my opinion, this was a perfect book to kick off this series because if you can’t handle this series at its worst then you don’t deserve it at its best! This is force proximity meets lust to love.
Barbarian Alien
Liz is an outgoing, sarcastic potty mouth and she calls her khui a “cootie,” which later gets adopted by most of the girls in this series. Her cootie is like a demanding parent trying to set her up and it ends up resonating with Raahosh, an alpha male who’s grumpy, broody and fond of tying her down. Liz absolutely doesn’t want anything to do with Raahosh and Raahosh is kind of the kindling that feeds her fire, so if you like really sassy couples, this is for you.
Barbarian Lover
Kira is a sort of a Debbie downer. She’s quiet and standoffish but she has reasons for that. The first being that she can’t have children, a fact she thinks will lead to the tribe abandoning her since that’s kind of the biggest reason all these boys want the human women in the first place. But also, she has a translator in her ear that the bad aliens that abducted all these women can track and she’s torn about leaving to save everyone. But Aehako is the sweet blue alien she needs. He’s kind, flirty, and takes a liking to her even before their creepy parasites resonate.
Barbarian Mine
When we say barbarian aliens, this is about as barbarian as you can get. While Harlow is out collecting supplies in this barren landscape, she’s literally clubbed over the head by Rukh, the long lost brother of the grumpy alien, Raahosh. Conveniently, Harlow resonates to him. Rukh has some pretty serious abandonment issues due to his messed up past, but Harlow is the level-headed and caring woman that he apparently needs. If I remember correctly, she had some kind of illness before landing on this ice planet, which her khui is working overtime to keep at bay, so these two being in isolation for an extended period of time came to really depend on one another.
Barbarian’s Prize
Tiffany, another survivor from this crashed ship, has a secret. She’s beautiful and popular and all the boys want her, but because the aliens that abducted them forced themselves on her, she’s quite reserved and doesn’t know how to be in a relationship. Salukh pursues Tiffany for some time, wishing that their khuis would resonate, but because of its hesitance, these two develop an emotional bond. The two are stuck in what’s called the “elder’s cave” together after a storm, which is basically a giant ship that crash landed some time ago and is filled with tech that these aliens don’t quite understand. It features past trauma, a friends to lovers relationship, and forced proximity.
Barbarian’s Mate
In this book you have Haeden. Think Mr. Darcy if he was blue and had horns and lived on Hoth. He’s pretty grumpy, but he also has tons of baggage since he did resonate prior to our girl Josie showing up to the planet. This previous resonance followed by rejection caused both parties to get sick and he almost died and the woman who rejected him did end up dying. Josie also has baggage seeing as on earth she was in an out of foster care and then was physically, sexually, and mentally abused, both on earth and by the aliens that kidnapped them. So, you could say these two had a bit of trauma bonding going on there.
Barbarian’s Touch
This one is about Lilah, who is deaf and lost her cochlear implant to the aliens that stole them away. She has a big sister who knows sign language and is very protective of her, but otherwise, she’s kind of screwed. When she’s stolen by a blue alien that wants her as his mate, things can’t get worse. But then she’s stolen from the alien that stole her by a much nicer alien who doesn’t want to force a relationship on her. Rokan instead teaches her how to survive and even learns sign language.
Barbarian’s Taming
Ok, now remember how some big brute stole Lilah to try and force her into a mating and then got rejected? Well, he ended up returning her and then getting totally exiled by the tribe for doing it in the first place. And now that Lilah has found love, her protective sister, Maddie, is feeling left out like the girl who never gets picked first in sports and who can relate more to being left out than Hassen. These two are all bitter emotions and decide they’re going to fool around. No strings, just some good times. But, as you may have guessed, this turns into more.
Barbarian’s Heart
This book is a bit different as it deals with an established couple who, at this point, already have a child together. Pashov, prior to this book, is wounded in an earthquake and when he wakes, he’s lost all memory of his mate, Stacy, and his child so the book is a bit tragic in that they have to rebuild a relationship. He does his best to be a mate and father, but obviously this is hard on everyone and there is a good deal of tension, so if you’re into that, great.
Barbarian’s Hope
Here we have another couple that is getting a second chance and we also get our first completely alien couple. Asha and Hemalo are both from the Sa-khui tribe and after being mated, they had a kit together which tragically died shortly after birth. The grief drove them apart and made Asha into something of a bitch, which drove Hemalo away and gave her some abandonment issues. It was a big mess. Clair, a human character, ends up coaxing Asha out of her shell and eventually she and Hamalo have a second chance at resonance. This is more of an emotional book rather than the straight smut that the other books are.
Barbarian’s Choice
In this book, we are given another alien couple. Farli is a very young sa-khui member of the tribe. She’s kind of coming into her womanhood, but with a tribe full of men who are finding their mates in humans, she’s a little out of place. Until a ship lands on their planet for repairs and in that ship is a hunky, rugged man of the same species, Mardok. He’s an ex soldier and unlike Farli, he’s seen and done a lot and has scars to prove it. Farli, being the young, curious woman she is, finds the ship and resonates with Mardok. He’s a bit standoffish at first since he doesn’t really care for her planet, but she is kind of adorable and irresistible, so it works out.
Barbarian’s Redemption
This book follows Bek. Eight years have passed since the first ship full of women showed up and he still hasn’t found a mate. So? He ends up getting 5 human women smuggled to his planet, one for himself and the others for his unmated friends. He’s kind of naïve and doesn’t realize that in order to get women to his planet, those women are likely to be slaves. He does end up resonating with one, but naturally, she’s extremely distant seeing as she is considered property. Bek spends a majority of the book being punished by his tribe for being stupid and also groveling to Elly, who’s traumatized and wants nothing to do with him.
Barbarian’s Lady
This book is about Kate. She’s tall and not often seen as feminine and is a bit self-conscious, despite the fact that the men on this planet are not by any means smaller than her like many men are on Earth. As a woman who’s nearly 6 feet tall, I can relate. I swore never to date men shorter than me simply because it made me feel unfeminine. Luckily, hear I am today dating a short king because I got over that insecurity, but Kate hasn’t gotten there yet. Harrec is head over heels for her and when the two get stuck in the wilderness, they are forced to rely on each other and although Harrec wants to protect her, he also faints at the sight of blood and Kate is forced to use her size and strength to hoist the man to safety. Cute.
Barbarian’s Rescue
Warrek is the incredibly silent type and Summer is kind of the opposite with a bit of a complex about not having any desirable skills. When slavers attack the tribe and take everyone captive, however, they are the only two that can help and must work together to save everyone. It's kinda goofy, kinda cute, and exactly what you'd expect.
Barbarian's Tease
I held off reading this one for a while because the synopsis seemed like it was a frustrating premise... and it was. Taushen is a young kind of naive man and when slavers capture the tribe, he ends up being trapped with the human, Brooke. She ends up lying to the slavers and telling them that she is mated to Taushen in order for them to cage them together in hopes that they will breed and make more babies/slaves. To help this process along, they give her an aphrodisiac of sorts and you can guess where that leads. After the fact, Taushen is very upset that Brooke's advances weren't genuine and a wedge is driven between them until they can finally come to an understanding and admit their feelings.
Books I haven't read yet
Barbarian's Beloved
Barbarian's Seduction
That’s all I have for you guys today. If you would like a part 2, please let me know. This is far from all of the books Ruby has written and it isn’t even all the books in the IPB series, but if you’re looking to get started on this wild journey, hopefully this will help you. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Ruby has a way of writing that makes you wonder why you’re reading but also, you’re just happy. Her books are self aware and don’t pretend to be anything other than what they are, ridiculous, smutty, sweet stories that you can read and not get depressed about. They’re the biggest escape from reality you can get.
If I didn’t read her books, I wouldn’t have gotten obsessed with alien romance as a whole and in turn, I wouldn’t have started my own alien romance series.
That series is The Surge Series and can be found on Kindle Unlimited and each book is a standalone and can be read individually, but the series as a whole fits in the same universe.
I always need some shameless self-promotion because how else is a little indie author like me going to eat?
Anyways, I hope you’re all having a great day. Drop your favorite Ruby books in the comments and if you’ve never read her books, drop your favorite alien romances below because I would love to know.