Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - When She Belongs

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

When She Belongs by Ruby Dixon

10 reviews

kb33's review against another edition

medium-paced

Strong character development? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.25

CW/TW explanation: there is no on page rape, but the mfc was a sex slave prior to this book. This story covers her sexual reawakening, and she works through her emotions about this on page. There is also

a scene where she knows she may be raped by an intruder on the ship, but she isn't.

Jerrok struggles with limb differences and bad prosthetics, and memories of torture.

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fritopie's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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elledanie's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

4.5

My fav Risdaverse 🦾

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lilbookbee's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This book has singlehandedly convinced me that I can like blue alien books. Specifically, this has turned me into a Ruby Dixon believer. This book has tempted me to abandon my carefully curated TBR list and start a Ruby Dixon binge, starting with the Risdaverse.

No but seriously. This book had so many things I love, and things I didn't know I loved until I read it. We got hot aliens, we got grumpy sunshine, we got forced proximity. Jerrok and Sophie are literally meant to be. Their slow build relationship felt wholly genuine, especially when navigating both of their traumas. Jerrok spent so much time being grouchy, but when he finally opened up to Sophie, it was beyond sweet. And their spice, god, it was so hot.

This review would be incomplete without me mentioning Sleipnir. I adored that big weird cat adjacent alien thing. I just thought he was the most fascinating thing!

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isitcake's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Sophie - not a bad main character. We only see her trying to learn navigation for the corsair brothers Adiron, Kaspar and Mathiras over about 6 months and its a lot of pressure to replace their seemingly human perfect "sister" Zoey. She was enslaved and sexually abused for 9 years, especially by praxxians; cat-like aliens that sleep all together, which means she was forced to have sex in front of lots of people and shared with them.
Jerrok - this would almost be a Grumpy vs Sunshine trope if Sophie didn't have such a dark past. Jerrok is a loner, lives on an abandoned station alone salvaging ships and junk. He was tortured for ~a year during the Threshian wars and a lot of his body has been replaced by prosthetics; an arm, leg, and I think a good part of another leg. But his prosthetics are the cheapest the military could provide and they cause him a LOT of pain.

Sophie and a valuable 8-legged cat/dog pet carinoux are dumped off with Jerrok while the 3 brothers go treasure hunting (the plot of Corsairs: Adiron). She spends months in close quarters with Jerrok. He's instantly attracted to her but she's still getting over her past. She burns her hands when a pipe bursts and he takes care of her for a few days - including feeding and bathing her, and so naturally sleeping together so he can bathe her. This escalates sexually but it's so sweet. Rather than touch her he encourages her to pleasure herself. This continues for 4 days before they finally have sex. (And it was with some help from his cousin Bethiah). I would have been content to just keep reading about them together, salvaging and transforming the ship to live together.

But of course the Jabberwock shows up trying to track down the 3 corsair brothers of The Little Sister ship who have gone missing. They recover the ship and there's a robbery situation that puts Sophie in danger and really cements how much they both love each other. And this injures Jerrok enough that they don't go with the Jabberwock to rescue the brothers.

In the end, the Jerrok goes to the station where Zakoar of the Broken Back replaces his prosthetic arm for a much better model, which increases his confidence and happiness.

Like a lot of readers, I really dislike Bethiah. She's a convenient plot device to push other characters to develop. I also wasn't thrilled by the last 40% of the book where there's a LOT of plot to fill in the details of what happened leading up to the climax of Corsairs: Adiron. I really just wanted to keep reading about Sophie and Jerrok alone together forever :)

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tostita's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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wilybooklover's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

3.5

I almost DNFed this a few times at the start because Jerrok was a bit too mean of a grump for my tastes. But he softens up a bit around the 20% mark and that’s when I started to enjoy this. He’s a big marshmallow inside, and Sophie is just pure sunshine. They’re both suffering from a lot of trauma and find a haven in each other. Very sweet romance, although a bit too long and circuitous (which I'm gonna blame on it starting life as a serial).

I loved seeing Bethiah again, she’s such a fun character!

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alisoun's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Boy oh boy this was a long one - it's literally taken me four months to finish. Tbh I think it was a bit TOO long.
Regardless of length I adored Sophie and Jerrock. They were incredible, deep, amazing characters.
This book is really dark especially compared to Ruby's normal books!

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bbooks23's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Surprised as to how much I loved this, even if it was 100 pages too long.

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theyannibannireads's review

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adventurous dark funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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