Header PromotionHer Very Special Baby by Lucy Clark (Harlequin Medical Romance April 2008)
Second Chance Romance and a book after my own heart!
Dr. Nathan Young signs on for a 6 month contract at an Australian small town clinic that Morena Camden inherited from her father. Divorced and now single with a baby in tow, Morena certainly could use more relief. Nathan can charm even the most difficult patient, but every time he gets near a baby or a pregnant woman, he backs away. Why? Why did Nathan insist on a 6 month contract when the position was advertised as permanent? With hurt so deep in both Morena and Nathan, can these two come together and see beyond their pasts? Can attraction lead to love?
Lucy Clark's Her Very Special Baby is a romance after my own heart. First, the interactions with the elderly patients, such as Mr. Dinsmore delight with a sense of compassion and understanding between generations. Despite the hurts from their pasts, Nathan and Morena set off a spark in each other. It's not just a physical spark, but a sense of humor and lightness, a playfulness they inspire in each other. Lucy Clark's Her Very Special Baby has 2 powerful messages about hurt: People of a certain age all have baggage and fearing fear is often worse than than the actual events. These two themes work together to create a moving second chance romance. Lucy Clark's romance also allows readers to see medical people as people, people who have fears and concerns about the people they love --- people not so different than patients in their own lives. Very nice!
Certain things just work better in Medical Romances that do not work so well for me in other lines. One thing that really irks me is when the heroine talks the hero into loving her. I just prefer it when an event or something else makes the hero realize his love or come to terms with it. I just don't buy the talk into love, psychological breakthrough moment most of the time. I prefer to see that change come from within. In this Medical romance, it just works better because it is a medical. Nathan needs to forgive himself... Morena isn't just a lover, she is a doctor. It is that mix that does it. A heroine without the medical background might not have led him there. Doctors had not led him there in the past so he needs more than just another doctor to talk with him. It works here.
Personal notes:
This romance was truly a book after my own heart. One thing I love about books is that different characters and stories reach me as a person, calling forth memories of my own life and experiences. It is part of the more intimate personal pleasure of reading for me. I have always had special relationships and friendships with older people throughout my life. I was the grandkid who sat around enthralled by my grandparents' stories when others couldn't be bothered to waste their time on "old people." Janet, one of my closest friends in North Carolina, was almost 50 years older than me. She wasn't a mother figure but a friend. It was strange but I have never met a person with whom I just had so much in common on a kind of soul or spiritual level. It's just been a constant throughout most of my life. I just can't tell you how much I loved seeing Nathan and Mr. Dinesmore as their life experiences merged, providing these two people of different generations with a deep understanding of each other.
And of course the whole bit about fear..the worst part of the dentist for me is not even what they do...it is my own fear. I don't think this book will lower my fear but, wow, what an awesome thing to be reading this book right now!
Merri
Hildie's blog: http://blog.hildie.net
Wow
What a great review! The HMRs just hit the right note, don't they?
The D2K Paranormal Junkies 2008 Challenge
Thanks! This one really
Thanks! This one really hit the spot. I had no idea when I just happened to pick it up thids week! I just liked the cover illustration but what a treasure find I discovered inside!
Hard to believe that this was an author team too. How do two different people (even if they are husband and wife) write together so well that the narrative feels so smooth?
Merri
Hildie's blog: http://blog.hildie.net
First, there is this
First, there is this adorable baby on the cover--big draw for a pediatric nurse
Second, there is the story--I do love HMRs--this was a real page turner.
Nancy
Sheandeen...I wrote this
Sheandeen...I wrote this before discovering your very cool blog on Reader's POV! It was really neat to see your blog after I had written this, incuding a more personal note which I normally don't do in formal reviews....even though the personal is always there even when I write in 3rd person about books.
Merri
Hildie's blog: http://blog.hildie.net
Merri, I love reading your
Merri, I love reading your blogs and reviews. You have this wonderful way of analyzing books. And I often come away feeling like I've seen your POV. Keep up the insightful, analytical blogs coming.
Nancy
Lucy
I'm seeing Lucy next week so I'll be sure and tell her to log in to eharl and read this great review.
Isn't that cover just gorgeous? I have major cover envy sometimes
Amy
Brisbane General Trilogy out Sept.
Sept -Top-Notch Surgeon, Pregnant Nurse.
Nov - Dr Romano's Christmas Baby.
Feb 09 - The Single Dad's New-Year Bride.
Lucy's a team?
I just finished one of her books from '03 and her bio from back than says that she's one person . . . what's the scoop?
Also for Merri only -- I'm going to be home for almost 3 weeks this summer, which means I'll have tons of older HMRs with me to mail on to JaninieBean in Canada. Would you like me to ship what I have already finished to you so you can enjoy them first? Or would that just be too much pressure with a deadline to finish them by a certain date? (I can get them back from you once I'm up your way.)
Penn, still horribly behind on her HMRs
Join the 2008 Book (Reading) Challenge!!! It’s for a good cause and it’s FUN!
Come find my teammates and me at The DFWPlus Blog!
writing team and notes
Here's what it says on the back of the book:
"Lucy Clark is actually a husband-and-wife writing team..." and the rest is a bio with they this and they that. Kind of cool. One certainly never notices it though...the writing feels so smooth. Who knows who did what...all I know is that it is great writing!
Penn, I am tempted but it's too much pressure. First I am a klutz so I rarely borrow books for fear of damaging them. I just don't enjoy reading if I have to worry about what I might do. However I do appreciate the offer! I had a fantay this week of being able to have a whole bookshelf of ALL the medicals like I have of the Bombshells and then I had this kind of daydream fantasy of Harlequin for its 60 anniversary having some giveaway of all of them to several people...one being me of course.
I have a growing secret stash of the earlier Medicals that I hope to start adding into my reads as soon as I catch up more. sure hope there will be a Challenge next year because I think it is going to take me at least this year to figure out a sane way to handle all the books.
Amy, cover envy...that's funny! If I were a writer, I would be totally envious of you for all your books. Your book --- I call it the fallopian tube romance to myself--- is one of the best books I have ever read...in any genre...seriously one of the best books I have read in almost 42 years of reading (how's that for putting on the pressure?). It is one of those kinds of books that will stay with me the rest of my life.
That brings up an interesting point about the medicals. I remember so many of them long after reading them. THere is a lot of variety in this line but even though I am new to this line, I remember so many of them...Olivia Gates for that awesome sheikh book and her poetry and intensity, Lynne Marshall for the book that made me see myself better during a hectic pre-Christmas time, Josie Metcalfe for the dark Christmas read that was unexpectedly but wonderfully darker than I ever imagined, Laura Iding for that clipboard scene and the common sense medicine...all the Crocodile Creek books of course for that awesome look at the community and disaster medicine.
Merri
Hildie's blog: http://blog.hildie.net
No pressure
LOL Merri - pressure? What pressure?
Serioulsy WOW, thanks for the compliment. Some books are just gifts from the girls in the basement - instinctual - and that was most definitely one.
I think I can shed some light on the Lucy Clarke thing. Lucy's husband has always helped and dabbled with her in her books, doing research and that kind of thing, but now they have formed a more official writing partnership.
Amy
Brisbane General Trilogy out Sept.
Sept -Top-Notch Surgeon, Pregnant Nurse.
Nov - Dr Romano's Christmas Baby.
Feb 09 - The Single Dad's New-Year Bride.