ARC Review: The Doctor's Date by Heidi Cullinan

From the blurb:

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.

Heather's rating:




I have a lot of mixed feelings about The Doctor's Date, and I'm wasn't sure what my rating was going to be until I sat down to write this review.

I'm a big Heidi Cullinan fan, and I've read 90% of her published work, but I've been struggling a bit with the Copper Point Medical series. I was sure I was going to love The Doctor's Date, and though I really enjoyed parts of it, parts of it confused me.

Based on the first book, I thought it was going to be an enemies-to-lovers situation, or a relationship with some hate-chemistry. That really isn't what the story ended up being. Erin and Owen's dynamic was... new to me. It was a sort of daddy/sub-ish dynamic without the kink. Owen felt like a caretaker who rushed in and took control of everything, and Erin seemed very young and very lost. I didn't get any sense of competence from Erin, just a guy who needed someone to rescue him. It kind of worked for me, and I understood their relationship, but it was weird how it escalated so fast and with such... commandment. It's hard for me to explain.



I also wasn't expecting Erin to be on the asexuality spectrum, but that was a pleasant surprise. I like sexual diversity in my M/M, and a character who is perhaps gray-asexual and demisexual was a nice change of pace. I didn't love how fixated Erin was on Owen for all these years, though. It rang a little... odd.

I liked the mystery and the tension in the story, which I don't usually enjoy, and I thought the pace was great. I liked reading the whole story, even if I think Erin's father had an inconsistent characterization.

If you like a Heidi's mushier stories with lots of romance and low steam, this one might work for you. I, however, might bow out of the series at this point.

*Copy provided in exchange for an honest review*

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Enjoy, my friends!