Reviewed by Cindy
TITLE: Wed to the Barbarian
SERIES: Barbarian Duet book 1
AUTHOR: Keira Andrews
PUBLISHER: KA Books
LENGTH: 320 pages
RELEASE DATE: October 21, 2021
BLURB:
Will an innocent prince forced into marriage choose passion?
Sheltered in the palace with his books, Jem’s life is peaceful. Even if he’s lonely and yearning for romance, the big, strong men he wants don’t crave small, timid princes.
Then he’s forced to marry a mysterious barbarian.
Jem must do his duty—even if it means being stuck with Cador, a brute who dismisses him as weak. Even if it means a fake marriage in name only for the sake of their homelands. Even if he must leave behind everything and everyone to journey to a forbidding island of ice and stone.
Even if there’s only one bed.
Alone with this wild—yet tender?—man, Jem discovers desire that burns hotter than he ever imagined. Can two strangers learn to trust, or will dangerous lies tear them apart?
Wed to the Barbarian by Keira Andrews is a gay romance fantasy featuring enemies to lovers, an age gap, forced proximity, first times, and of course a happy ending (eventually). This is the first action-adventure romance in the Barbarian Duet and must be read before The Barbarian’s Vow.
REVIEW:
Jem is the indulged youngest child of the royal family. He’s content to fill his days with books about daring aventures he knows he would never have the nerve to embark on. But being a member of the royal family comes with responsibilities and and eventually Jem had to fulfill his.
Cador has his own burdens to deal with and when he first meets Jem he has no qualms about what he has to do to help his people. But close quarters and a decent heart lead to Cador getting to know the husband he never wanted and now the future isn’t as black and white as it once seemed.
This was definitely a “Harlequin Romance” kind of a book. And that’s not a bad thing.
The story gives the reader everything they are looking for in a historical romance. The quiet character who’s a lot stronger than they ever thought they could be. The dashing but frustrating “hero” who has a reckoning about who he is and what’s he’s capable of. There’s no big surprise about where this story is going but it did take me exactly where I wanted to go.
I love the world the author has created for their characters to inhabit. There’s a lot of good things about that world but of course not everything is wonderful. It wouldn’t be much of a story if it was! We spend most of the story in Cador’s land and the people he meets there are not quite what he assumed. Cador’s sister is an unexpected ally but she has a quiet strength when the time is right.
His brother is definitely the immediate scourge of this particular part of the story although the author does manage to make him a little bit of a sympathetic villian. Not a lot mind you, but a bit.
I enjoyed the dance between Jem and Cador as they struggle to find their way reluctantly together. There were some moments of humor that lightened the tone of the story and as someone who’s not as in love with angst as I used to be, I enjoyed it a lot.
Of course this story ends on a cliffhanger and I’m very much looking forward to seeing how Jem and Cador find their way out of the pickle they are in!
Well written and a fun read. This might be my first Keira Andrews story but it won’t be my last!
RATING: 
BUY LINK: