ICE PLANET BARBARIANS

From the Ice Planet Barbarians series , Vol. 1

The perfect blend of sweet, sexy romance and a riveting, high-stakes survival story.

A woman stolen by aliens crash-lands on an ice planet and finds love.

Dixon’s wildly popular series—it’s a fan favorite on TikTok and has a podcast dedicated to deconstructing each episode—is finally coming to print. In this first installment of the series, Georgie and at least a dozen other 22-year-old women are stolen from their homes on Earth by green aliens. Something goes wrong, and the aliens abandon their human cargo on an icy planet the women dub Not-Hoth. After engineering an escape plan, Georgie becomes their de facto leader. She bundles up and trudges out to find help and meets Vektal, a 7-foot blue alien and the leader of his tribe, the Sakh. His people have developed a symbiotic relationship with an organism called the khui, which allows the Sakh to survive the brutally cold temperatures of their home planet. Vektal’s people mate for life, but since there are very few women left, he has resigned himself to life without a partner. When he sees Georgie and his khui resonates, a physical response akin to purring, he knows she is destined to be his mate. Explorations of coercion, consent, and free will are woven throughout the story. Vektal’s unorthodox greeting shows that consent might operate differently in his world; but in the end, he learns that humans trapped in the worst of circumstances will still fight to control their own destinies. The book is fast-paced and sexy, but the major appeal might be Vektal. He is a romance main character stripped down to the core: desperate to find his partner and willing to do anything to keep her happy.

The perfect blend of sweet, sexy romance and a riveting, high-stakes survival story.

Pub Date: Nov. 30, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-54602-4

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Berkley

Review Posted Online: Nov. 29, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2021

THRONE OF THE FALLEN

Maniscalco fans will enjoy, but it will be hard for new readers to find their footing.

An artist with a secret and a Lord of Hell must work together to solve a puzzle in this romantic fantasy adventure.

Miss Camilla Antonius has a lot on her plate. She’s a talented artist, but is barely keeping her late father’s gallery afloat while being blackmailed by a local lord who knows a potentially ruinous secret about her. Envy, one of the seven princes of hell, is also trying to keep up appearances while a terrible malady slowly decimates his court. When he’s invited to play a dangerous magical game with a prize that could save his people, he goes all in. When one of his clues involves Camilla, the two must work together, becoming partners as they cross realms, dealing with human, demons, and Fae in order for both to win what they most covet—all while doing their best not to fall in love. Though this is a standalone novel, it’s set in the same universe as Maniscalco’s Kingdom of the Wicked trilogy, and certain elements, character dynamics, and plot points will be harder to follow for readers unfamiliar with the earlier books. This is also Maniscalco’s adult debut, and it shows: Steamy scene follows steamy scene as characters use extremely coarse language, like a teenager at last gleefully free of parental supervision. The story itself, an adventure filled with riddles to be solved and problems to be overcome, is fun and interesting but overshadowed by the need to push every boundary. Despite its length, the book reads quickly, switching back and forth between the two leads’ points of view, though the voices aren’t distinct enough to be clear. It’s all quite jumbled.

Maniscalco fans will enjoy, but it will be hard for new readers to find their footing.

Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023

ISBN: 9780316557290

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023

LASSITER

A beloved character takes the helm in a book that leads the series into uncharted waters.

A fallen angel is reunited with his true love.

After falling in love with a human woman, the archangel Lassiter was punished by the Creator. He was cast out of heaven and sent to Caldwell, New York, home of the vampire warriors known as the Black Dagger Brotherhood. Over the course of the last 10 books, Lassiter evolved from a flamboyant, annoying sidekick to a trusted member of the Brotherhood family, even taking on the important mystical role of Scribe Virgin. At the end of the previous novel in the series, Lover Arisen (2022), Lassiter lost his halo after making a personal sacrifice to a demon which enabled the return of Lash, the evil son of the Omega. Overcome with shame and regret, Lassiter exiled himself to a remote Colorado town. Lassiter doesn’t remain alone for long; too many people—the Black Dagger warriors, his archangel cousins, and Rahvyn, a mysterious being who can jump through time—are prepared to drag him kicking and screaming back to Caldwell. Rahvyn is the lover he thought had died. At first, he assumes she's a hallucination, but when he learns she was lost in time, he decides not to squander their second chance at love. Lassiter and Rahvyn share their painful pasts and dark secrets with each other, which allows them to form a lasting bond. Their reunion plays second fiddle to the main event, though: Lash's revival of the war against the Black Dagger Brotherhood. Almost frenetic in its pacing, the novel pits Lassiter and his vampire brethren against the rising, and perhaps unbeatable, powers of evil. A shocking twist at the end displays Ward’s willingness to boldly reinvent the long-running series, leaving open fascinating new pathways for future books.

A beloved character takes the helm in a book that leads the series into uncharted waters.

Pub Date: April 11, 2023

ISBN: 9781982180027

Page Count: 448

Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023

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