Berkeley Sensation | July 7, 2015 | Contemporary Romance
Medicine River, book 2
★★★★
SOURCE: TASTY BOOK TOURS
Summer in Montana brings heat with a chance of romance in the new Medicine River Romance from the award-winning author of Montana Actually
Sexy and charming Australian doctor Will Bartlett will do anything to help out a friend, even if it means moving to Bear Paw for the summer. Some small-town hospitality, and the uncomplicated friendship of his co-worker, Millie, is just the ticket to shake off the restlessness that’s been gripping him lately.
Millie Switkowski, RN and medical student, is home for her clinical rotation, and she’s determined to make this summer so much better than last. She’s got a year of medical school under her belt, her diabetes is under control and she’s kicked her crazy crush for Will Bartlett, who only ever treated her as “one of the guys.”
But when Will turns out to be Millie’s supervising physician, without warning the summer gets a whole lot hotter than either of them anticipated. With both of them holding onto thorny secrets, can they walk away with their hearts intact?
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{ about fiona lowe } .
Fiona Lowe is a RITA® and R*BY award-winning, multi-published author with Harlequin , Carina Press and, Berkley USA. Whether her books are set in outback Australia or the USA, they feature small towns with big hearts, and warm, likeable characters that make you fall in love. When she's not writing stories, she's a weekend wife, mother of two 'ginger' teenage boys, guardian of 80 rose bushes, slave to a cat and often found collapsed on the couch with wine.
{ excerpt } .
And you’re home. Her gut tightened. Half of her was grateful Shane didn’t know about her diabetes, while the other half of her hated that she’d just taken a hit about her weight. She wasn’t obese, but then again, she was hardly willow thin, either. She knew this sort of banter was how guys talked to one another, and she’d never expected them to treat her any differently before. Tonight wasn’t the night to go all girlie on them.
“A beer and pass the buffalo wings, Shane,” she said brightly. As for the alcohol, she’d have to bolus insulin for the carbs and make that one beer last the entire night. Turning back to Josh, she asked, “How’s Katrina?”
“She says to say hi and told me to tell you that you’re not to party too hard tonight because she wants you in good shape at her girls’ night tomorrow.”
“Is that code for me to stay sober so I can keep an eye on you?”
He grinned. “Maybe, although I don’t think I’ve ever seen you even a little bit buzzed.”
And you won’t. She’d been there, done that, years before he’d come to town, and it just wasn’t worth the health risk. She still carried the guilt, and that weighed her down enough.
Pushing the past back where it belonged, she slapped him on the back in typical guy-style. “As the best man, it’s my job to make sure you don’t get injured when you inevitably fall off the mechanical bull, to guarantee no cowboy takes you outside and sits you backward on a horse and, as the designated driver, to get you home in one piece by midnight.”
He slung his arm around her shoulder, the touch easy and friendly. “And that’s why I chose you to be my best man.”
“That and the fact you couldn’t ask Ty Garver no matter how much you want him standing next to you,” she said sadly, thinking about the cowboy who’d fallen in love with Katrina years ago.
“Well, yeah, there is that.” Josh sighed with heartfelt understanding. “And Will Bartlett’s not available. He couldn’t get anyone to cover him at MontMedAir for the weekend.”
And there is a God. Not that she didn’t like Will; she did. In fact, last year, she’d liked the Aussie MontMedAir doctor just a little too much. Heat burned her cheeks at the embarrassing recollections. Having a crush at sixteen was normal; crushing on a work colleague at twenty-five probably got a listing in the DSM-5. The memory of last spring and summer was still excruciatingly embarrassing, given he’d barely noticed her other than as one of many people he came into contact with through work.
Will was laid-back, easygoing and charming, and he had a way of making people feel appreciated and part of a team. That had been her undoing—being appreciated was powerful stuff, and Floyd Coulson, Bear Paw’s hospital administrator, could learn a thing or two from him. Given all that, she’d read way too much into Will’s generous praise, especially as he often said, “You’re the best, Millie,” when she’d accompanied him on MontMedAir retrievals.
Following him on Twitter and pretending it was because of his #FOAMed tweets—free open access meducation—was borderline stalker behavior, although totally educational. What the guy didn’t know about emergency airway management wasn’t worth knowing. At least she’d come to her senses before clicking on Add Friend on his Facebook account, and for that, she was both proud and grateful. Sadly, she’d undone that bit of clear thinking after a traumatic medical evacuation last August.
It was the fifth time she’d been the accompanying nurse out of Bear Paw, and they were airlifting two badly injured tourists who’d been involved in motor vehicle accident. They’d flown out between two storm fronts, and the pilot had given her the all clear to check the patients’ vitals. She was out of her seat when the plane hit an air pocket, and she’d been thrown sideways, landing face-first in Will’s lap. She still got a hot and cold flash whenever she thought about it.
He’d gripped her arms, lifted her up and checked she was okay before hitting her with his devastatingly gorgeous smile—the one that radiated from his full lips, creased his tan cheeks and crinkled the edges of his unusual dark blue eyes. He’d quipped something about things moving fast for a first date, which had disarmed her all-consuming embarrassment and made her crush-filled brain totally misunderstand what he meant. When they landed and had handed over their patients to the Seattle hospital staff, she’d suggested they have a drink.
“Great idea, Mils,” he’d said with his sexy Australian diphthong, sounding as if he truly believed the words. Her heart had soared, flipped and high-fived all at once only to plummet to her feet when he’d continued with, “but I’ll have to take a rain check.”
Of course he would.
A rain check that never came. A rain check that made her puce with embarrassment whenever she thought about it.
{ review } .
As the excerpt shows, Millie (very much a man-liking female) has had her embarrassing moments where Will, Australian doctor, is concerned. And Will, the arrogant good looking man that he is, turned her down flat.
Will doesn't have to look far for sex. He's good looking and he knows it; the women flock to him (no joke). But lately, it just hasn't been enough. He's not looking for a relationship by any means, but his partners haven't been truly exciting him. Granted, he's harbors a ton of guilt whenever he's happy...
As a twinless identical twin, Will has his problems. Nothing too big, but he still hears Charlie's voice and still does things that Charlie would do. As much as I would have liked to meet Charlie, I did enjoy the moments where Charlie would "speak" to Will, if that makes any sense at all.
Will and Millie's mutual friend is getting married, and when Will can't make it because he's on the MontMedAir schedule, Josh asks Millie to stand in as his best person. Millie, a Type 1 Diabetic who keeps that information right to her chest, is happy: she can hide her pump and everything in a tux much better than a dress, and she looks mighty fine in a tux if she does say so herself. The thing with Millie is that while she's on the groom's side of the party, she still goes out and hangs with the girls, too.
When Will unexpectedly shows up to the festivities... Well, this is where the story truly begins.
Being mistaken for a lesbian by the guy you've been harboring a teensy tiny crush on doesn't exactly bode well for any sort of future. Rather than correcting him because damn, that hurt... she just goes with it.
...and a pretty good friendship comes from it.
Will and Millie work together, and while they'd always been cordial, a friendship blossoms when Will finally finds a female who doesn't want to talk to him for purposes of relations. The more time they spend together, though, the more that Will wishes she were playing for his team, though.
When an adventure day out puts Millie's diabetes on a huge stage, their relationship changes yet again. And when Will finds out that, yep, Millie is 100% straight (learned from Millie's best guy friend, Ethan), Will's emotions are all over the place. Angry, confused... maybe a little bit (lotta bit) turned on.
I enjoyed Millie's character. She was feisty and of extremely sound mind. She chooses to keep her diabetes to herself, only telling those on a need-to-know basis and while on one hand I found this to be a great quality (and I totally understood her reasons why she did it), when life or death situations arose, it makes you wonder at what point do you let friends know...?
Will... Ooooh, Will. For the first half of the book, I found him to be an arrogant ass. He got what he wanted in terms of ladies; he ran away from home, more or less, when life got tough... He did whatever fancied him. The friendship between Will and Millie was fun to watch. And then when Will found out all of Millie's secrets? I loved the raging emotions in this man -- showed his human side. But goodness gracious, could Will be a control freak -- and it comes from his history and career path, no doubt. But there were points where I just wanted him to let go and allow Millie to be her own person (but kudos to Millie for finding a happy medium for the two of them... eventually).
...and then there's a side story! It's Ethan and Tara's and I have to point out how much I detest side stories. That said, I pretty much skimmed the beginning of their relationship :( I read the parts of Tara and Millie's discussions, Millie and Ethan's (many years long) friendship... and then I pretty much gave up on the two of them until Tara talks to Ethan about her past.
Let's just say at that point I wished Tara and Ethan had had their own story, because Tara is one complex chica and hasn't exactly had the easiest life. At that very point in their little side story, I very much enjoyed Tara and Ethan.
...I just prefer to focus on one relationship when reading a book.
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ReplyDeleteThank you; I think it's cleaner. I do love a clean page ;)
DeleteThank you; I think it's cleaner. I do love a clean page ;)
DeleteThis sounds like a fun read for a lighter mood. Thanks for the excerpt, intro, and review. This is my first time seeing this author.
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