This is a three book in one boxset that I was enjoyed reading.
Book one centers around Marion and Brotak and I will warn you now, reading this is not for the faint of heart. Brotak’s race of people has no women in it anymore, and so as the clan leader he made a deal. Help protect people of earth and he and his people get one woman every three months. He finds and ends up claiming Marion as his mate and as this is a romance novel obviously their love story ends happily.
That being said, their relationship starts brutally. As Brotak has never been with a woman his control and his experience is very obviously lacking. As a woman myself reading Marion’s first time was brutal and had me clenching my legs. Their second time together is not much better. However, what the author does really well is showing how Brotak and Marion learn how to communicate and end up being partners to each other. Which I really liked.
Book two centers around Lana and Dhacar. This is also an excellent book but I seriously had some problems with believability while reading it. Lana, when she was on earth in a religious compound, was raped repeatedly. And somehow, this really doesn’t impact her sexual relationship with Dhacar. Of course she has to tell him what happened, and of course he does not take it well and immediately wants to kill the person that hurt her. Then, of course, another man that has also come to this new planet desires her and tries to take what he wants by force, leaving her to be rescued by Dhacar. It is all around a very sweet story, but how easily she moved past all of her experiences to me, was a little bit, unrealistic. Obviously how every person deals with trauma is drastically different, but it almost felt like Lana’s experience was about as important as learning her eye color.
Book three centers around Diana and Vrihith and this is by far the best of the three books. The relationship between this two is so dynamic and so wonderful. After learning that the woman were essentially brought to this planet to be nothing more than brood mares, Diana wants nothing to do with it. As she starts to fall for Vrihith, she starts struggling against her feelings, because that is not what she wants. She wants a place of her own, a life of her own, without being dependent on a man. And Vrihith, to his credit, just wants to be with her and protect her. He absolutely wants her to be her own person, he just wants to come along for the ride with her.
The worst part about this book I would have to say is the ending. Vrihith ends up fighting in a gladiator style fighting ring. The author builds this up that he is going to fight and win, and be this amazing person. And it does not happen. I absolutely hate when authors use this build up and then drastically pivot the story line. I do understand why the story line pivoted as I believe there are more books after these three. But it was still a disappointment that does slightly detract from how good the book is.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Overall – This is a decent series of books that expertly handles the different races as they come together. Unfortunately there are some things that could have been done a lot better (for instance the ending of book three), but overall I am happy I read the books, and would happily continue the series. This is a genre of romance fantasy that I have recently grown to love and Luna gives me a new take that I have not read before.
Plot – 7/10
Characters – 7/10
Originality – 8/10
General Joy of Reading – 8/10
Overall Score – 30/40
Barbarian Clans of Xavren Box Set: Books 1-3 by Luna Kingsley
Cost* – $7.99 for Kindle. It is on Kindle Unlimited
*Cost is based upon what the book cost when book review is published
Alicia Jeanne 