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I hit a bit of a reading slump after reading A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer. I still have two books to read in that series, but I don’t know after reading 100 pages or so in the second book I set it aside and couldn’t bring myself to read more. Not that I wasn’t interested in the book. I just wasn’t in the right headspace for it. So, I thought what always helps with a reading slump? That’s right reading romance novels. And since I’ve read all the other major series by Ruby Dixon, I thought I would go over to the Corsairs. Which is a standalone and two series technically. Also, there’s a serial where the third book in one of the series is being posted a chapter a day. I am reading that, so I’ll touch on it in this post but it’s unfinished currently.
Corsairs takes place in the same universe as Fireblood Dragon and Ice Planet Barbarians. If anything, this book is the true link between them. Since the humans on Icehome don’t really know much other than Earth was destroyed. Corsairs mentions that Earth was destroyed after a rift was opened and there is mention of dragons. Again, that was hinted at in Icehome but not made clear. Whereas in Corsairs, it is and that’s Fireblood Dragon. So, all the series are connected which is interesting. Ice Planet Barbarian has a direct tie in as Chloe, the individual in Prison Planet Barbarian was Kate’s roommate when they were slaves for a short period of time. And then the rest of the books branch of to her mate’s brother’s crew and then Zoey’s brothers.
Similar to the previous series I’ve read from Ruby, each book takes place between two different characters. The main couple of that book. They all have connections to each other with some characters appearing more than others.
Books in the series:
- Prison Planet Barbarian (Chloe and Jutari)
- The Corsair’s Captive (Fran and Kivian) – Novella
- In the Corsair’s Bed (Catrin/Cat and Tarekh) – Novella
- Enticed by the Consair (Iris and Alyvos) – Novella
- Deceiving the Corsair (Zoey and Sentorr) – Novella
- Corsairs: Adiron (Jade and Adiron)
- Corsairs: Kaspar (Alice and Kaspar)
- Corsairs: Straik (Ruth and Straik)
- Corsairs: Mathiras (Helen and Mathiras)
This collection of series as mentioned is compromised of standalones, novellas, full-length books, and a web serial. I think the Corsairs full-length books are the longest out of any of Ruby Dixon’s books. As they have 400+ pages while typically her other series are around 250 pages. And the Novella series that focuses on the Fool’s crew are the shortest each being around 150 pages.
The basic plot of the books is space pirates and criminals (same race as those in Icehome and Ice Planet Barbarians) find/rescue human slaves then fall in love. Unlike some of the other series by Ruby Dixon where the females were saved from slavery (Icehome and Ice Planet Barbarians), but have had time to adjust for the most part or weren’t subject to the worst of it. The humans in this book for the most part were. Some were treated so horribly physically that they are missing eyes, while others have a lot of trauma from the sexual things they had to endure. So, there are more triggers in these books than in previous ones.
While this series has more of same undertones that are featured in Ruby Dixon’s other series with mates, there isn’t a heavy focus on pregnancy until the Buoyant Star crew is discovered by the vs Sithai brothers (Zoey’s brothers) and Lord Straik. And then it’s only because no one realizes that the humans were tampered with to be breeding slaves until it’s too late. None of the couples were actively trying to get pregnant like in the other series. It’s more like this is so messed up. Not to mention the ship is full of illegal clones. Meaning, humans were cloned from a source but not given the red skin marker. As it’s mentioned in the web serial (not too much of a spoiler), it’s quite possible that the clones were from a process called host-cloning where the host’s brain tissue is used split to create multiple clones and they all have fragments of the original person’s memories. Like the ship had messed up shit going on before it was abandoned, leaving four of the girls out of stasis until they were found. But these plot points don’t come in until the end of each of their books when the characters all start to come back together. As each of the brothers, girls, and Lord Straik are separated due to circumstances. Won’t say what as it’s kind of a spoiler and twist of Adiron’s book.
All the relationships were interesting to read about. Some of them I would’ve loved to see the books be longer, as there were massive time jumps where relationships really developed. Or were cut out entirely. Those being In the Corsair’s Bed (most of Cat’s healing was missing and their relationship goes from tense to teasing, but we aren’t shown that) and Deceiving the Consair (Zoey and Sentorr’s relationship started a year before the book but we only get a window of when they finally meet not that whole year of development/led up). But I also understand, the author wrote those novellas while writing her other major series. So, they didn’t get as much attention as her previous books. They were still good and unique, but I just would’ve loved to see more in those books specifically.
I would rate these books between 3 and 3.25 stars out of 5.
They were good even if some of them were short. But they also were sold as novellas, so I’m not complaining too much. All the books except are available for free on Kindle Unlimited. Some of the novellas I would’ve loved to see longer books as I mentioned earlier.
I’m not sure what I’m going to read next. I might attempt to go back to Heart so Fierce and Broken, but I might go to something else instead. I’m still debating. If you have any series or books that you think I would enjoy, feel free to recommend them. Sci-Fi or Fantasy twists usually tickle my fancy, while contemporary or historical do not. I try, but I usually end up DNF’ing those.
Love ya,
Mae Polzine
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