When She Belongs by Ruby Dixon [Review]

When She Belongs (Risdaverse #4) by Ruby Dixon
Format: ebook
Source: borrowed through Kindle Unlimited
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: September 19, 2020

Risdaverse
When She's Ready
When She's Married
When She Purrs
When She Belongs - Paperback | Kindle
When She Dances
When She's Bold
The Alien's Mail-Order Bride
Pretty Human
When She's Lonely
Prison Planet Barbarian
When She's Pregnant
When She's Merry
When She's Fearless
When She's Wary

Related Novellas:
Bad Guy
Worse Guy

Ruby Dixon
| Website | Amazon |

Synopsis (Goodreads):

He’s the biggest jerk in the galaxy.

I can live with being stuck on the far end of space. I can live with having to spend weeks on an abandoned station in an asteroid belt. Sure, I don’t belong, but I’ve got my book and my eight-legged attack cat with me. I should be fine.

I’m not fine.

My alien host, Jerrok, is a jerk. He’s surly and unpleasant. He hasn’t bathed in years. He’s part cyborg - and all those parts seem to be falling to pieces. He’s the one in charge of this remote station, which means we’re forced to interact. It’s an absolutely miserable situation for both of us…

…until I realize that all his anger and bluster is covering the fact that he’s thoughtful and understanding. He’s protective, too, keeping me safe when the bad guys approach. When I get hurt, he’s the one tenderly caring for my wounds.

Jerrok is also intensely, utterly lonely, just like me.

As time passes, I start to wonder…maybe where I belong isn’t a place…but a person.

Thoughts on When She Belongs: Grumpy heroes who push everybody away and are just generally unpleasant until someone comes along and crawls right under their skin are EVERYTHING. Jerrok and Sophie look like an unlikely couple on the surface, but they worked magnificently together.

Sophie was rescued from sexual servitude and is still trying to find her place in this big, bad universe. Frankly, the fact she's not good at anything her pirate-y saviors need her for is terrifying and she's a hot mess of nerves and fear when we first meet her. Being dumped on a derelict space station with a grump of a scrapper because the va Sithai brothers can't risk taking a human into a dangerous system is just the cherry on top.

Jerrok lives alone at the edge of a galaxy because it works for him. He's surly and he likes his alone time. Having Sophie invading his territory (even though she goes out of her way to be unobtrusive) grates on him because she disrupts his routines.

Then he gets to know her. Turns out they're more alike than either of them would have guessed and this quiet run-down station on the edge of nowhere is exactly where they need to be. Together, they find a way to work through their past traumas and find the balance in each other they didn't have before.

Seriously, people, surly grumps who go soft for the right person is my thing right now and I absolutely adored Jerrok and Sophie's journey. Yep, my heart eyes are strong with these two.