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REVIEW: The Doctor’s Date by Heidi Cullinan
Copper Point Medical: The Doctor’s Date – Heidi Cullinan
Sequel to The Doctor’s Secret
Copper Point Medical: Book TwoThe hospital’s least eligible bachelor and its aloof administrator hate each other… so why are they pretending to date?
Dr. Owen Gagnon and HR director Erin Andreas are infamous for their hospital hallway shouting matches. So imagine the town’s surprise when Erin bids an obscene amount of money to win Owen in the hospital bachelor auction—and Owen ups the ante by insisting Erin move in with him.
Copper Point may not know what’s going on, but neither do Erin and Owen. Erin intends his gesture to let Owen know he’s interested. Owen, on the other hand, suspects ulterior motives—that Erin wants a fake relationship as a refuge from his overbearing father.
With Erin suddenly heading a messy internal investigation, Owen wants to step up and be the hero Erin’s never had. Too bad Erin would rather spend his energy trying to rescue Owen from the shadows of a past he doesn’t talk about.
This relationship may be fake, but the feelings aren’t. Still, what Erin and Owen have won’t last unless they put their respective demons to rest. To do that, they’ll have to do more than work together—they’ll have to trust they can heal each other’s hearts.
The Doctor’s Date has the kind of intriguing premise that immediately grabs attention. It was almost lost in TBR limbo after my bad experience with Antisocial, my first Heidi Cullinan book. Reading it now, The Doctor’s Date is a mix-bag of feels but definitely, much better than the other book.
The part that got me hooked is Erin Andreas, HR head and wallflower, spending $25,000 on Dr. Owen Gagnon, anesthesiologist, the world’s grouchiest grump, and his infamous nemesis, in the hospital bachelor auction fundraiser. Then Owen asked Erin to move in with him that very night.
This has the makings of a very squee-tastic rom-com. But unlike a rom-com where the prose and events are laced with humor, the writing leans towards misery. Many events go from bad to worse for Erin and Owen, then whiplashes to uber romantic comfort scenes designed to soothe the hurts. I don’t mind some angst and drama, but there were too many miserable moments to wade through just to get to the happier parts.
It’s why I struggled in the opening chapters. Erin’s father, head of the hospital board, was really horrible. He’s a bully who neglects him in private and belittles him in public. The guy is the kind of villain I hate the most, the lawful evil type. He made me drop the book. Owen’s dad was just as horrid, causing serious trauma to his son,. Once a musical prodigy, now Owen couldn’t bear looking at his violin.
But I kept thinking about the premise and was compelled to pick up where I left off, hoping it would get better.
It did!
The bachelor auction has some of the swooniest scenes!!! I hated Owen at first. He was drunk and high and a complete asshole. But the way he swooped in to rescue Erin from his dad! And the way he spectacularly misunderstood Erin’s motive for bidding on him, causing the dork to hatch ridiculous but hella sweet plans to protect the gob-smacked but secretly swooning Erin, it was rom-com gold!
The running metaphor here is the fairy tale about the poor prince(ss) in the tower, the ogre and the evil king. It’s fitting but a little too on the nose and repeated too often. I love the childhood connection angle in the prologue. I sensed some BL manga influences, and unlike Antisocial, it was deployed better here.
Owen and Erin as boyfriends is everything!!! It’s their magic that kept me reading because by the third arc, the story slumped. There were the not-so-exciting slice-of-life scenes that took too long reaching key events dealing with the suspected embezzlement of hospital funds, and Owen’s and Erin’s family issues. I got impatient and tuned out.
By the time it got to the climax, I barely cared about the goings-on. I wished the embezzlement issue was played up more, giving the plot a stronger mystery angle. But it was fun to see Owen, Erin and their friends forming their own Scooby Gang and taking down the bad guys. And the epilogue was too cute!!!
The Doctor’s Date holds true to its promise to sweep me off my feet with a charming fairy tale. I rooted hard for the poor little prince and squee-ed with delight to discover the ogre’s golden heart. There were monsters to slay and an evil king to vanquish. Sometimes the villains were too much, but the prince and the ogre stayed strong and true. With the help of their friends, they saved the world and lived happily ever after.
Rating:
3.5 Stars – that place between like and loveSoundtrack: Prince
Artist: Versailles
Album: PRINCE & PRINCESSP.S.
The Doctor’s Date is the second book of Copper Point Medical. It can be read as standalone. I haven’t read Book 1 yet.
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THE DOCTOR’S DATE
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SOUNDTRACK: Prince by Versailles
Soundtrack to Copper Point Medical: The Doctor’s Date by Heidi Cullinan
Prince by Versailles for a book about a poor little prince in a gilded cage and the ogre who gave him strength to break free.
If you’re scared, lend me an arm and take you away.
Every time I think of “you who cried so many times because you were hurt by something”
The love that wells up overwhelms my heart. Before dawn
As it is I’ll take you away and I’ll never let you get anywhere.
To this future where I want to pick you up now and take you to the sky. -
さあ怖いのなら腕を貸して 連れ去れてあげる
“何かに傷付き何度も泣いたあなた”を想う度
こみ上げる愛しさが心を押し潰してゆう
夜が明ける前に
このまま
あなたを奪い去って もう何処へも逃がさない
今あなたを抱き上げて 空へ連れ去リたいこの未来へ
Ah…その指に触れ…その肩を抱き…そっとくちづけた
壊れた心を強がる花を守ってあげたい
こみ上げる愛しさが心に溶けて
守られる幸せを知ってほしい
きっと誰も例外無く守られてる
それに気づき人を愛せるようになるはずだから
あなたを奪い去って もう誰にも渡さない
今あなたを抱き寄せて 空へ連れ去リたいこの未来へ
両手で羽はたく事は出来ないけど
あなたを抱きしめてままで空へ飛び立てるなら
心を奪い去って もうあなたを離さない
今全てを抱き締めて 奪い連れ去りたいこの未来へ
If you’re scared, lend me an arm and take you away.
Every time I think of “you who cried so many times because you were hurt by something”
The love that wells up overwhelms my heart. Before dawn
As it is I’ll take you away and I’ll never let you get anywhere.
To this future where I want to pick you up now and take you to the sky.
Ah… Touching that finger…
Hugging his shoulders…
I kissed gently.
I want to protect flowers that strengthen broken hearts
The love that wells up melts in my heart
I want you to know the happiness that will be protected
I’m sure everyone is protected without exception.
You should be able to realize that and love people.
I’ll take you away and I’ll never give it to anyone anymore.
To this future where I want to embrace you now and take you to the sky.
I can’t flutter my wings with both hands.
If you take to the skies with a hug in your arms,
Take your heart away and don’t let go of you anymore
To this future where we want to embrace everything and take everything away and take it away.***Duck Duck Go translation
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BOOK BLITZ: Prince by Cambria Hebert (Excerpt & Giveaway)
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COVER REVEAL: Prince by Cambria Hebert
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NEW RELEASE BLITZ: The Prince’s Consort by Antonia Aquilante (Excerpt & Giveaway)
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REVIEW: The Unseelie Prince by Kaitlyn Abdou
The Hawthorne Throne: The Unseelie Prince – Kaitlyn Abdou
The Folk have never shied away from taking what they want. Legends speak of Faeries stealing people from their beds, swapping infants with changelings, and impregnating women they find beautiful. You should never trust them, though they cannot lie. Eat their food, and you may never see home again.
Noah Reid has spent his life seeking normalcy after a turbulent childhood with a superstitious mother who refused to answer questions about the father he never knew, and instead, attempted to impress upon him a real fear of Faeries.
Despite his mother’s best efforts, Noah finds himself ripped from the life he knows and thrust into a palace of nightmares. Here, he must face the persistent attention of the Regent and discover the shocking truth his mother took to her grave.
Fàilte air ais, a Naoise. Welcome home…
Content Warning: This novella contains dark subject matter.
I think I’ve gone about this the wrong way. I came in blind, was enchanted by the Liam Taylor’s narration and kept expecting a fairy tale where the human snapped out of the spell and/or was saved at the nick of time. But nooo, Noah or Naoise continued to be mesmerized by the Regent, seduced by sex and just walked blindly into the trap until it was too late. So no happy endings here. There is also a taboo aspect, incest, which some might find disturbing.
Majority of the novella is Noah having his brain addled and there is actually very little happening outside of the seductions. What very little that happened provided some conflict to the story, where the council questions and reacts to the Regent’s actions. A cursory glance would find the whole thing lacking in substance. However, the underlying story is actually quite compelling.
The heir to the Hawthorn Throne of the daoine sìth was found and ready to be crowned but the Regent is determined to stay in power. The heir, Noah, is half human so he is susceptible to glamour. The Regent, Fearghas, used this to his advantage and kept Noah under his control.
I liked that we also get the Regent’s POV so literally everybody, except poor Noah, knew. That the boy was so innocent had me wondering how he even survived the human world. Like in most fairy tales, food and wine should not be touched and Noah was constantly supplied with both so he stood no chance of resisting. Still, part of his brain sent warning signals. At one point, he even acknowledged he had Stockholm Syndrome but shrugged it off. He was presented to the council where they talked about him in Gaelic and he knew the language but he just stood there and did nothing. And then, there was that moment when the connection between his father and Fearghas hit him but still, nothing. It was hard to feel sorry for him, he was so passive.
This is tagged as romance, definitely of the gothic variety. I will try not to wonder how the romance will work because there are darker stories out there that pulled it off convincingly. I’m not gung-ho about Noah and Fearghas just yet, the power dynamics is so skewed. The Regent was villainous through and through. I will read the sequels because I wanted badly for the balance of power to switch or at least even out. Or for Noah to stop being a helpless ragdoll. The story is very effective that way, it makes you want to find out more.
The Unseelie Prince might not have ended happily, but it ended with a bombshell. Delivered in Fearghas’ chilling whisper, never had the words “welcome home” sounded so sinister. What will you do now, Prince Naoise? Are you going to do anything at all?
Rating:
3 Stars – not exactly setting my world on fire but I liked itSoundtrack: Mesmerism
Artist: Dead Can Dance
Album: Spleen And Ideal -
The Bestiary: Cleanly Wrong – Mell Eight
Rung is a half-breed orphan brownie who can’t do anything right, much to the worry of his cleanliness teachers. When he runs away, Rung decides that he can resist the need to clean. Only, there is that one office that so desperately needs help...
OMG this is sooo cute and fluffy!!! This is my kind of faerie tale!
Rating
4 Stars – minor quibbles but I loved it to bits
(source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15841288-cleanly-wrong)
