Header PromotionThe Baby Doctors by Janice Macdonald (Harlequin Superromance - Oct 2007)
Reviewed by Lady_Amalthea on May 14th, 2008, 1:09am
Format: Print Books
Series: Harlequin Superromance
The Baby Doctors by Janice Macdonald
(Harlequin Superromance - October 2007)
Rating: Good
I got this book as a Free Book Friday, I think, and it took me a while to get around to it, because I don't particularly like babies, and there's a ginormous one on the front cover.
Did someone put the wrong cover on this book? Because I soon discovered that there aren't any babies in this book. None at all, near as I can remember.
The story is:
Dr. Sarah Benedict has just returned home to Port Hamilton after living in Central America for years. She's nervous about seeing her old friend, Dr. Matthew Cameron, and suggesting her idea to him--opening up an alternative practice. But Matthew is divorced, with a 14-year-old daughter, Lucy, and he's considering joining a corporate practice for the stability. Sarah and Matthew have to figure out whether they're more than friends, and how to negotiate family and their medical philosophies.
A strange mixture:
The characters are realistic and interesting. I particularly enjoyed the growing friendship between Sarah and Elizabeth (Michael's ex-wife), and the relationship between Sarah and her mother, Rose. While I never really understood Sarah's attraction to Matthew (he bothered me a little), I enjoyed seeing her jockeying for power with his daughter Lucy.
I spent most of the novel quite interested and quickly reading to see what happened next. I will happily recommend the first four-fifths of the novel.
However, I greatly disliked the end. Although the big climax was built up well, and the villian was well-written (I knew someone just like him, and it was very creepy), it ended all a little too quickly for me.
But what was worse was the resolution to the relationship, with Matthew tricking his daughter Lucy...I don't want to spoil it here, but if someone else has read this, did you feel the same way? Or am I overreacting? It bothered me, anyway, and to be honest I'm not sure if I ever really bought Sarah and Matthew's relationship.
I also wanted more of a resolution with Elizabeth's growing self-esteem, because the empowering friendship she had with Sarah was my favourite part of the book.
Miniseries: Single Father
I just have...
to say this again.... No babies??? How could there be no babies with the title and the cover? *sighing again*
The D2K Paranormal Junkies 2008 Challenge
Hi Lady Am - I presume that they're paediatricians?
but that doesn't mean the book has to be about the babies
I was about to ask you whether I should drag this to the top of my TBR, but I think it can wait a while
Hugs
Sadhbh
Dream Team 2008 Challenge blogs
No more excuses, just READ!
re: The Baby Doctors
Hmm, maybe they were paediatricians...I thought general practitioners, but Sarah worked with orphans in Central America.
The biggest medical case in the book is a young girl, so that might be what the title is referring to, but she's not a baby, I don't think? Maybe she was a baby and I just never noticed. Hmm. Still, the book was more about medicine in general, not babies.
Honestly I was pretty confused by the medical situation in general, I think because the system is so much different here in Canada. Most of my knowledge of the American medical system is from Michael Moore's film Sicko, so...
book marketing. Superromance
What? No babies?!
This is where I believe marketing does a great disservice to the Superromance line. I generally do not buy this line because marketing makes the line look like a lot of baby books. Being childless and forever so, I just don't typically grab the baby books. Now, there are contradictions to that. I just picked up a medical because I liked the cover...and the photo depicts a mom and a baby. So far I have really enjoyed every Baby-on-Board book in the Harlequin Romance line--not just a little but a lot and Love how the Medicals do babies. There are always contradictions to my feelings about any particular kind of romance...
But I do wish the Superromance line was not so baby marketed. I have really enjoyed the Superromances that I have read but the marketing leads me to ignore the line...and it isn't the books themselves. Hopefully having the Everlasting Loves there may change that but seeingthis, I wonder. I am buying those regularly even if I haven't reviewed them yet. It's not that I dislike the line ---not one little bit ---but the marketing turns me off a lot.
Merri
Hildie's blog: http://blog.hildie.net
I agree...
Merri, I tend to avoid this line for the same reason. Now I'm wondering if the books really are about babies after all!
And Lady A, I can imagine the American health system would be wildly confusing if that was your main info source! I know the terminology in the Medical line sometimes throws me a bit but I'm picking up the terms as I go.
The D2K Paranormal Junkies 2008 Challenge
re: The Baby Doctors
Debi and Merri: I'm the same way. I avoid the baby books...I'll read one in spite of the babies if I know it's an author I like, but generall, I ignore them. So I agree, though I like Superromances a lot of them are too baby-focused for me...or even just child-focused in general.
It's possible the girl with the medical issue in this book was a baby, and I just didn't notice, BUT I promise that you don't have to like babies to enjoy this one! And I really did enjoy the book aside from the ending.
Debi: So true. I actually had a lot less trouble with the recent Medical I read than with this Superromance, I guess because the British system makes some sense to me! But in The Baby Doctors I was just like "What? A corporation wants to buy the hospital? Doesn't the government run hospitals? What's going onnnn?" You think I wouldn't be so ignorant, considering your country is just right south of me...