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A review by cadiva
The Doctor's Date by Heidi Cullinan
4.0
While I've rated them both the same, I think I enjoyed this one a tiny bit more than the first book in what is so far proving to be an excellent series.
This had none of the preachy element that I felt had slightly taken over the narrative of book one, instead it was all about family, how they can screw with your head and change your perceptions of life.
From the bat, this was clearly going to more than the obvious sum of its parts. It's not really a fake boyfriend story, there is so much history between Owen and Erin.
I have to say, every single time I read his name I had a pause to catch up that it's a male character. There is an explanation for his name and Erin is an Irish gender-neutral name for the country of Ireland (Éirinn) but it's more commonly used as a female name, so it threw me but hey that's just a personal thing.
Erin himself was a complex character and I loved him, almost as much as I loved Owen, his ogre, his dragon, his defender against whatever tried to hurt him. Theirs is a genuine, emotional connection but, as my lovely friend Dani says in her review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2728458303
I wanted more tension, especially because the romance that followed was slightly lackluster. Erin is over 30 and a virgin. Owen is a former player. When the two get together, sparks ... uh, actually, nope, sparks don't fly because there are no sparks. And no steam. And I do mean NONE, unless you count two brief groping scenes.
The chemistry which I love to see in a romance is simply absent. Everything fades to black or is referred to off page.
This was a little disappointing, not because I wanted a full-blooded erotic porn encounter to read, but because it meant that element of their relationship was utterly missing. Erin's a virgin, the care Owen took with every other aspect of his relationship with him should have been there for the reader in this also, but it wasn't. It was a throwaway line.
Still, that's really my only grumble because I loved everything else about this narrative. It's not a standalone, you need to read book one because there is a series long thread running in the background about the hospital all the doctors work at and I think it'd mean a whole chunk of understanding about what's going on would be missing.
Now, on to Jared and Nick and I really can't wait for that one.
#ARC kindly received from the author via Dreamspinner Press in return for an honest and unbiased review.
This had none of the preachy element that I felt had slightly taken over the narrative of book one, instead it was all about family, how they can screw with your head and change your perceptions of life.
From the bat, this was clearly going to more than the obvious sum of its parts. It's not really a fake boyfriend story, there is so much history between Owen and Erin.
I have to say, every single time I read his name I had a pause to catch up that it's a male character. There is an explanation for his name and Erin is an Irish gender-neutral name for the country of Ireland (Éirinn) but it's more commonly used as a female name, so it threw me but hey that's just a personal thing.
Erin himself was a complex character and I loved him, almost as much as I loved Owen, his ogre, his dragon, his defender against whatever tried to hurt him. Theirs is a genuine, emotional connection but, as my lovely friend Dani says in her review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2728458303
I wanted more tension, especially because the romance that followed was slightly lackluster. Erin is over 30 and a virgin. Owen is a former player. When the two get together, sparks ... uh, actually, nope, sparks don't fly because there are no sparks. And no steam. And I do mean NONE, unless you count two brief groping scenes.
The chemistry which I love to see in a romance is simply absent. Everything fades to black or is referred to off page.
This was a little disappointing, not because I wanted a full-blooded erotic porn encounter to read, but because it meant that element of their relationship was utterly missing. Erin's a virgin, the care Owen took with every other aspect of his relationship with him should have been there for the reader in this also, but it wasn't. It was a throwaway line.
Still, that's really my only grumble because I loved everything else about this narrative. It's not a standalone, you need to read book one because there is a series long thread running in the background about the hospital all the doctors work at and I think it'd mean a whole chunk of understanding about what's going on would be missing.
Now, on to Jared and Nick and I really can't wait for that one.
#ARC kindly received from the author via Dreamspinner Press in return for an honest and unbiased review.