For help understanding the star and spice rating system of this newsletter, please refer to the About Me page on Substack.
Reviews From This Past Week
When She’s Fearless by Ruby Dixon
Release Date: April 16, 2023
Content Notes
Fluffy AF
Big Cat Guy MMC
Trauma Victim FMC
Blue Collar MMC
Plus Size FMC
Plus Size MMC
Possessive MMC
Primal Play
I am rating When She’s Fearless and its duet partner, When She’s Wary, by Ruby Dixon by what they are meant to be. These are little balls of fluff here for a fun time, not a serious one. It is fluffy in multiple ways. I read this as a palette cleanser after some more “serious” reads. It did its job for me.
While Dixon gives you HEA and lots of sweetness, she’s staying serious with her craft in exploring a valid reaction to trauma like this FMC is doing. She sees she has no control so she decides to let go and enjoy life without fear. I may have wished her to be a little more cautious, but Chelsea was a charming FMC to love anyway. Of course, I find plus-sized bodies (or really anything that deviates from the typical “perfect” body) to be a treat so I’m giving Dixon her rightful kudos for that as well.
When She’s Wary by Ruby Dixon
Release Date: May 7, 2023
Content Notes
Fluffball Story
Cat Alien Dudes
Trauma Victim FMC
Blue Collar MMC
Weapons everywhere
Pit traps, too
Self-healing
Possessive and Protective MMC
Have you ever watched one of those short videos of a spicy kitten who spits and hisses at first only to become a sweet purring meatball with patience and love from a human? That’s When She’s Wary by Ruby Dixon but the kitten is a traumatized human woman and the human is a cat alien.
Set right after When She’s Fearless, this story is clearly a perfect bookend to show another valid response to trauma. Tabitha loves weapons, traps, and really anything to make herself feel protected and in control. So having a self-confident but easygoing giant cat alien is kind of her perfect match. Only Risdaverse logic can make that previous sentence make any sense.
Also like When She’s Fearless, When She’s Wary is a tiny ball of fluff. Despite its more serious FMC and slower burn, Dixon manages to make this story just as sweet. It may be even more so for the character growth Dixon puts the FMC through via healing herself a little more. Couldn’t we all use a little bit of self-healing?
Currently Reading
To Be Read
Housekeeping
For more information about this newsletter’s spice and star system, check out this newsletter’s About Me page.
Thanks for this review! I love Ruby Dixon but haven’t branched out from Ice Planet... I’ll have to check these out :)