Surprise Baby, Second Chance by Therese Beharrie
Released: July 26, 2018
Contemporary Romance
Mills & Boon
Reviewed by Mandi
I love to read marriage in trouble tropes. To explore a couple already committed to one another, yet having emotional issues always sucks me in. But this one was a little too slow for me. Rosa left her husband four months before the book starts, without a single explanation. She has her reason (I don’t want to spoil it since it doesn’t mention specifics in the blurb) but she doesn’t tell him. She just packs up her clothes one day while he isn’t there, and doesn’t speak to him for the next four months.
But now it’s her mother in-law’s birthday, and she made a promise to her own late mother, that she would show up for events like this – so she gets dressed up in one of her own designer gowns, and heads to the small island in South Africa, to attend the party, knowing she will see her husband, Aaron. When she arrives, Aaron is the first person she sees – he is actually the only person there. Set-up to be forced alone together, a bad storm comes forcing them to spend alone time together in an open-floor plan house. Nowhere to hide from one another, Rosa is forced to communicate with Aaron. She still loves him and cares for him, but she is stubborn in holding on to her reasons for leaving. Aaron is angry and hurt that she left and blames himself for a lack of communication.
I understood why Rosa left – I didn’t have a problem with her reasoning. And I think Aaron’s hurt is portrayed well. My main complaint is that it was just too slow. I always say that this author writes well done conversations but it works against the reader a bit in this one. Too much talking and not enough whatever else a book possess to keep me engaged. I think the characters fall a bit flat because of that.
One Night with the Army Doc by Traci Douglass
Released: August 1, 2018
Harlequin Medical
Reviewed by Mandi
This might be my first Harlequin Medical category read, and I also believe this is the first time Traci Douglass has written for this line. I enjoyed this one! I thought the medical drama was woven in well with the romance – we get a hero and a heroine with really nice chemistry too.
Molly Flynn is a very skilled young doctor. Graduating high school at the age of thirteen, she has gone on to be a skilled doctor who travels all over taking on medical cases that cannot be solved. Just like the TV show House, except she is nice and has much better social skills. Speaking of television, she is also a tv star. She has her own medical reality show called, Diagnosis Critical. Her production crew films her every move as she tries to figure out what is wrong with each of her patients. This go around, her network has her travel to Anchorage, Alaska, to try to help a hockey star who has many odd symptoms which is keeping him in the hospital. It’s here she meets our hero, Jake.
Jake is former military, and having served over in the middle east, not much phases him. But seeing his best buddy Bobby, who also served with him, lying in bed sick, he is starting to get worried and trying not to show it. When Molly arrives with her tv crew, Jake is not happy. He had media attention in the past, after arriving home from war, that didn’t turn out well for him. He refuses to sign the release, so they can’t film him, which frustrates Molly- as both Jake and her are working on Bobby’s case. They both have an immediate attraction to the other, but Molly is coming off a break-up and Jake is worried for his friend, so their romance is a slow-burn. Nice sexual tension though and I like that it didn’t feel rushed.
Molly has major father issues, and I like how they are dealt with in this one. She is has a nice confidence and can stand up to Jake when his over-protectiveness of Bobby inhibits her medical care. I liked Jake a lot too – his past with the military is well done and both him and Molly felt like real doctors (I hate it when a character is slapped with a profession but it doesn’t seem realistic).
I would like to read more by this author!
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