Review: 4.5 stars for a NA romance with blood, guts and heart
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 14, 2014
Back in the day there was this TV show I loved about a child doctor. While my kids will forever know Neil Patrick Harris as the snarky, sex-hound Barney Stinson, I lost my teenaged heart to a soulful Dougie Howser, MD. Which is why I wanted to read this book.Isabel Jenkins has always been brilliant. And difficult. Her adoptive parents have loved her the best they could, but raising a freaking mega-genius hasn't been easy. She read novels at age 4. She spent one week in Kindergarten and was then homeschooled--couldn't cope with the kids, apparently. She "entered" college at 12, and finished med school when she was 17. And, at nearly nineteen she's poised to enter a surgical residency at Johns Hopkins.Then she's given a re-boot. The psych exam she was required to take wasn't too favorable. Seems Isabel is unable to 'connect with others' due to a 'lack of life experience'. This blacklists her from residency programs across the country. She can sit for the psych exam again in 6 months, and has no desire to do research, so she embarks on a 'personal journey': college--for real this time. No private tutors, no learning in isolation. She has a dorm room and a cheerleader roommate named Kelsey. And a delectable RA, Marshall, who, as it turns out, had Isabel's mother as a biology teacher in high school. Marshall's the only one who knows Isabel's a doctor--and she'd like to keep that info on the down low. Blend with the natives, and all that.Unfortunately, Izzy, as she calls herself on campus, is NOT managing. She tries--really--but she almost can't help being the socially awkward kid she is. Having always been the "prodigy" all her eccentricities were absorbed by the adults around her and she has no boundaries--because none were ever set. It's no surprise that she blurts out random medical facts when in conversation, and oversteps continually, in the most exasperating ways. Like she NEEDED to swab the flaccid member of Kelsey's overnight guest because she thought she saw a sore? *shakes head* #EpicFail #NotNormalIzzyMarshall does heroic work to save Izzy from becoming a social pariah, and, in the process they become study-buddies; she helps him pass Anatomy, and he helps her learn to be a regular person, perhaps even develop friendships.As Izzy's RA, Marshall isn't supposed to develop a crush on Izzy--but don't let a few rules get in the way there, Marsh! Actually, there's a lot of sexual tension with a slow build toward consummation. In fact, it is Izzy in her medical element that wears down the last grooves in their mutual resistance. Turns out Marsh is sick--and Izzy's the one to find and help him in his days of need.Just as Izzy gains the sense of empathy she had been missing, she recognizes the problems she had caused by her proficient, yet callous, bedside manner. Overwhelmed with feelings she had never really experienced: love, regret, shame, guilt. She steps away from Marsh--running back to the sterility of medicine and the comfort of knowledge.Only, this time medicine isn't the home she used to know, and reconciling with Marsh may become the most important choice she makes.As a book, it was a well-paced, interesting story. Izzy has clear emotional issues, she's antisocial to an almost pathological degree. Her brilliance may grant her access to the medicine party, but what's the point if you never get a chance to dance, right? I really enjoyed the slow build between Izzy and Marsh, how his chronic disease was handled and the baby steps Izzy took toward building lasting friendships. Her growth emotionally was refreshing--seeing her admit that her knowledge wasn't helpful in actually connecting with the people around her was such an Aha! experience.Couple things that troubled me: the whole way the surgical intern/residency issue was described was factually...off. Medical residents in the US don't apply for one then the other, not anymore. Not for, like, 25 years now. Those sort of arrangements are made when a student is graduating med school, so I had to take it as a "special case for Isabel" sort of caveat. And, this psych eval, while critical to the story, is also an Izzy-ism. There aren't many prodigies who enter medicine in the US, but they are almost all shunted into research programs to allow them maturity time. This is for everyone's benefit. Close people to me have entered residencies at age 26--rather standard--and they were not taken seriously by their patients--due to their youthful appearance. As much as I admired Dougie, I really wouldn't have wanted a pimply-faced teen (no matter how brilliant, talented or self-righteous *V gives Lorde the stink eye*) lecturing me about my life and/or my passionate love affair with peanut buster parfaits. And neither do most adult patients. Further, I'll take Izzy's negative view of research as another instance of her naveté, because ain't one physician alive who doesn't value scientific medical research. I know, 'cause I been doing it for twenty years now.Still, for fiction this felt good to read. We can always use another representation of responsible teens doing responsible things in fiction. The New Adult tag aside, smexytimes here are tame enough that upper YA readers won't giggle too much. Izzy is to be lauded for her courage, in determining who she is, and who she wishes to be--and then making a responsible plan to achieve her goals. That is NOT to say she makes good choices throughout--'cause she doesn't--but she does enough of the right things at the right times to make me like her. A lot.I received a reviewers copy of this book via NetGalley