Pregnant Nurse, New-Found Family by Lynne Marshall (Medical Romance August 2008)

  Heart-warming, emotional, tender --- wonderful!

ER doctor Gavin Riordan never expected to get custody of his nine year old son Patrick, but now that does, he is determined to make up for being the father he should have been.  When his son begins wheezing, Gavin is determined to get to the bottom of his son's asthma attacks.   When Dr. Bupinder Mehta sets up an allergy skin test for Patrick with the nurse, Gavin cannot believe his eyes!  Standing before him is the beautiful nurse Bethany Caldwell, the woman with whom he had spent one night of unbridled passion a month ago!  When she discovers that she is pregnant with his baby, Bethany's dilemma takes on a new urgency.  Gavin is a man she just can't resist, especially when she sees him with his son.   Bethany has had it with men who skip out so when Gavin attempts to rekindle the flames, she is cautious for her and her child's sake.  With all these complications, can Gavin and Bethany's one night of passion lead to something deeper and lasting?  Can one little boy and his asthma break through all hesitations past, bringing Gavin and Bethany together forever as a family?

From the first pages, Lynne Marshall's PREGNANT NURSE, NEW-FOUND FAMILY, takes the reader into the center of the medical drama within Los Angeles Mercy Hospital.   Fast-paced emotionally-packed medical situations touch the lives of the doctors and nurses both in the allergy clinic and the ER.  The reader feels the pulse-racing situations that her characters must face and yet at the same time, Lynne Marshall gives her readers heart-warming close-up vignettes of the patients and their families that show the emotional impact of the medical drama on the lives of her characters. The mystery of Patrick's asthma triggers brings a tenderness and family intimacy into this medical romance.

Humorous, sexy and professional, Gavin steals the heart with his innocent good-intentioned missteps.  Fallible at times, Gavin is a hero determined to set things right.  His heart is always in the right place even if his words aren't.  Bethany's past has led her to distrust being dependent on others.  She has a gift for being able to reach children.  They just naturally see her good heart and open up to her.  Lynne Marshall's portrayal of Patrick and his love for his father endears him to the reader --- it is no wonder that Bethany feels so drawn to Gavin!  There is no mistaking the fact that Patrick has inherited one of Gavin's finer qualities --- a sense of caring for and responsibility to others.   Lynne Marshall's PREGNANT NURSE, NEW-FOUND FAMILY is unforgettable! 

Personal notes: 

I enoyed the medocal part of this romance a lot.  my grandmother had one of those EpiPens for bee stings but I was young so this romance kind of filled in some things for me.  I also liked how she made one reference to the impacts emotions can have on asthma as well as the results of other asthma triggers.  I had asthma as a baby, but have had it very rarely and very rarely bad enough to need treatment (one inhaler tends to expire on me before I even use it up) so I am still learning about it really, esp. after a pneumonia-like virus triggered a massive case of asthma a couple of years ago.  Dust (often kicked up by our 60-75 mph winds in the dry Colorado climate), perfume (I love perfume ), cottonwood seem to be the thing.  Milk is iffy. Personally, I think emotions do play a part in asthma.  Every time my mom got really hyper and wired in the past, I felt I could not breathe --- classic asthma symptoms.   Not cats, fortunately!  I went into a licensed home with 82 cats once with them swarming all over me and no reaction whatsoever!  When I was a baby, my parents gave away their two Bassett Hounds because of my asthma but I wonder if that was just standard protocol back in the early 1960s because I am not allergic to cats or dogs and have lived with them most of my life since I was about 5 or 6 years old.  I am glad too --- I love animals!  Anyhow, I am not a medical person at all but I enjoyed seeing the medical aspects of asthma and allergies very much in a more personal way in this romance.

This is my second romance by Lynne Marshall.  One thing I find in common between the two is how she really makes the reader feel the fast pace and the drama of the medical lives of her characters.  I feel like I am right there beside them, feeling the urgency as well as their concern.  Her characters are busy people with lots of work and responsibilities yet she also makes me feel  these intimate moments in their lives.  Nice contrast. 

AKA Merri
Family Challenge Team: The Spine Breakers with my dh Glenn AKA Phaedrus