Shelter for Sophie

Shelter for Sophie (Badge of Honor: Texas Heroes Book 8)- Susan Stoker
Amazon Digital Services
Release Date: August 15, 2017

Rating:
📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: She’s shy, he’s stoic…not the hardest personality traits to overcome, but Sophie Carson and Roman “Chief” Proudfit have their work cut out for them.

Sophie has a crush on the silent-but-studly firefighter next door. She’s been pining away silently while secretly helping the hardworking man by mowing his lawn—which he thinks is being done by her nonexistent husband and/or boyfriend. He’s definitely not big on neighborly chitchat, but with her stutter, that suits Sophie just fine. But now a misunderstanding at a bar has put him even further out of her reach.

Roman’s difficult upbringing on an Indian reservation is a sore spot, so when he thinks Sophie is taking advantage of poor people for medical trials at her workplace, he lets her know exactly what he thinks. But when he discovers he misunderstood, he’s man enough to admit it…and also that he should have opened his eyes to his beautiful, sensitive neighbor sooner. 

As the couple gets closer, each helping the other overcome lifelong pains, for the first time in years, Roman has something to live for other than his job. And, as he discovers when Sophie puts herself in danger, something even bigger to lose… 

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Opposites attract when Sophie and her next door neighbor Roman "Chief" Proudfit connect.  Sophie's had a crush on her neighbor since he moved in a year ago but is too shy and insecure to do anything about it.  A lifelong stutter makes her self-conscious about meeting new people and she can't imagine why anyone as good looking as Chief would be into her.  Chief pretty much ignores his neighbor until he misunderstands something he overhears her say in a bar.  Sparks fly but can they overcome misunderstandings and danger to reach a happy ending?

Sophie is a sweet, likable woman who you can instantly relate to.  She's shy, and is convinced that no one could like her because she stutters. But she goes out of her way to help everyone she meets, from cutting her hot neighbor's grass when he's not home to buying food and blankets for homeless people who stay near her work.  I also really liked Chief, although in the beginning I wanted to smack him upside his head.  A firefighter who grew up on a reservation in New Mexico, Chief is sensitive about others being taken advantage of- and is convinced he's right all the time.  A misunderstanding about Sophie's work brings home to him that he might be more judgmental than he wants to be, and that he owes Sophie a big apology!  But he mans up and not only apologizes, but finds he wants to get to know his shy neighbor a whole lot better.

Shelter for Sophie was a great book, with delightful chemistry between Sophie and Chief.  Stoker obviously did her homework about Navajo culture and seamlessly blended pieces into the novel.  Both Sophie and Chief changed for the better as the book went on, becoming more comfortable not only with each other but also with themselves and their place in the world.  

Susan Stoker (Rescuing Kassie) is becoming a go-to author for me, and Shelter for Sophie didn't disappoint!  A part of the Badge of Honor series that follows a group San Antonio firefighters and law enforcement officers, but like most of Stoker's books it can be read as a standalone book.  If you like your firefighters hot and your heroes hotter, this is one for you!

I received this book from Instafreebie in exchange for an honest review