The 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.
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| Averaged! |
Lost in a Book - 3.5 Hearts
The Doctor’s Date is the second installment in Cullinan’s new series and I’m glad that I gave it a try. After the first book I was hesitant to dive in but this book has a little more depth to the characters. It’s still sweet with low angst but doesn’t flatline like the last one did for me.
The story starts off with Erin’s childhood background story that provides context on his behavior as an adult. Erin’s in charge of human resources for the hospital. He’s skittish, isolated, and has had a long life of intimidation and neglect from his father (who is also the president of the board). He has never done anything with another person (not even a kiss) and has been starved for affection, touch, and kind words. Erin has been looking for a mighty ogre to rescue him since he was boy and the ogre has a name, Owen. It’s always been Owen. Always.
Owen’s an anesthesiologist that has quite the reputation within the hospital as pretty much being an asshole. His glower sends the gossiping nurses scurrying but, with those he loves, he's loyal and a protector. His favorite past-time is rubbing up against Erin until they are both breathing fire… not in a sexual way, that comes later. Much. Much. later.
My thoughts on Erin and Owen are a little confusing. I liked them together sometimes because there’s respect, patience, and a connection of building a deeper friendship. As I was reading though, I kept wondering if some chemistry would appear- I don’t think it ever really did. This lacking of chemistry has nothing to do with sex. I’m not sure where Erin falls on the sexuality spectrum but I would guess closer to asexual than not. I appreciated that they didn’t rush to sex and instead took little steps that added some depth to their friendship. The sex scenes are fade to black which doesn’t really bother me if the characters have a great connection and chemistry.
Owen’s a natural leader that takes charge and that’s no different when it comes to Erin. It takes a while for Owen to reveal himself and his childhood trauma because he’d rather be helping others. Erin lets himself be rescued with his backbone appearing a few times in his role as HR director and the auction. Other than that, Erin just goes along and enjoys the fruit of his ogre coming for him and fully caring for him (almost helpless at some points). There’s not many medical situations taking place in The Doctor’s Date but there’s an underlying mystery to solve that adds some suspense.
As I mentioned, I enjoyed this installment and will possibly continue with the next book. If you’re looking for a really sweet, low angst M/M romance, with a little bit of humor, this could be your cuppa.
Trigger Warnings for abuse.
Adam - 3.5 Hearts
Dr. Owen Gagnon and HR director Erin Andreas are notorious for their bickering and public battles. Owen goes out of his way to push Erin’s buttons, and Erin responds in kind.
That is until Erin bids $25K for a date with Owen. Erin’s father is shocked. The hospital is shocked. The town is shocked. Erin and Owen are..kind of shocked, but mostly down.
So begins the transformation of their relationship from enemies to friends, and eventually lovers.
Suspecting that Erin bid on him to escape his borderline-abusive father, Owen goes into protective overdrive mode, moving Erin into his home and telling the town that the two have been lovers all along.
And Erin, swept along in the moment, finds himself unable to tell Owen the truth - that he bid that much money because he’s been half in love with Owen since they were teenagers.
I thought the initial set-up, though definitely OTT, was very cute. The men put aside their previous animosity pretty quickly, with Owen making it his mission to look after Erin.
They’re cute and sweet. And when things move from friends to romantic, it’s fairly seamless.
But this is a very slow burn romance. As in, the heat is almost non-existent. It makes sense to an existent, given Erin’s inexperience, but I would have liked more physical chemistry.
Similar to book 1, the relationship itself is fairly low-drama. Yes, both men have their baggage and that affects how they approach love. But they aren’t huge insurmountable obstacles.
I loved seeing how Erin and Owen worked through their issues together, and how being together gave them the strength to be happier people.
The relationship develops in parallel to Erin and Owen’s investigation into the hospital’s shady board of directors. The plot was pretty interesting, and kept me entertained for most of the book.
My main issue - the damsel-in-distress routine got old pretty quickly. Erin, like Simon in book 1, was a bit too helpless for my liking at times.
Even so, I really liked ‘The Doctor’s Date’. Though I would have liked more heat, it still gave me the small-town romance feels that I always enjoy. If you like a slower pace and UST with a low heat level, this is the series for you!
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