Review: Impatient Care From This Doctor But Good For A Short Summer Read
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 30, 2013
This was a pleasant fast summer read and can be finished in a single sitting.  There were a few formatting problems here and there, but they did not seriously detract from this light weight, but fun little read.The hero is a skilled, but personality-impaired surgeon at a hospital in Vancouver.  Besides doing his absolute best for his patients where his unbending perfectionism combined with a harsh manner in dealing with human failings have alienated most of the staff, and trying to deal with those hated messy emotional scenes that are the natural fallout of people dealing with the trauma of having loved ones ill, injured, and in pain, he and his colleagues are also dealing with chronic shortages of personnel and patient care facilities.  The heroine is the first woman operating officer of the hospital and very much feels the weight of being in a ground breaking position and determined to excel but is caught between the Ministry Of Health and the demands of the increasingly angry physicians who staff her facility.  Add a physician-phobic, but very ill mother and you have one seriously stressed woman.Our beleaguered heroine gets her mother in for desperately needed surgery only to have a mysterious complication almost take her away and leaves her comatose with no guarantee she will ever wake up.  This is also the moment the physicians decide to rebel against a situation they feel is being ignored by the Health Ministry, and they strike.  Between trying to be there for her mother, mediate between the Ministry of Health and the angry doctors, keep her hospital's essential services running, and re-routing patients who can't wait for this to be solved to other facilities, sleep has become one of those things you dream about but never actually get around to.  So it's not surprising when the hero, who did the surgery, and has been trying to determine the cause of her mother's collapse, declares her vegetative and tells the heroine to put her in a facility for long term care in his uniquely jarring, brusque manner that she reaches her breaking point.  I gave the heroine points that she didn't grab for the nearest heavy object and brain the man, instead she gave him an equally blunt assessment of his failures in the communication and compassion department and he retreats, singed and smoking from her presence to the discreet amusement of the staff.Doesn't seem likely that these two would ever get together, but when the plumbers union rallies in support of the doctor's job action, a helping angel arrives in the unlikely form of the relentlessly cheerful plumber in charge of the food wagon.  He is a force to be reckoned with, handing out coffee, goodies, and good will (and LOTS of advice) and sort of acts as a lubricant between the spiky personalities of both hero and heroine even as he steamrollers them into admitting that both are attracted to the other.This is a short piece, so interactions are somewhat rushed to fit within the story's frame.  I would have liked to see a longer word count so the tale could progress at a less maniacal pace, but the writer did manage to get everything wrapped up in this novella.  I did like that the heroine, while walking in uncharted personal territory, knew she was not willing to forever take a backseat to the hero's practice and required equal importance in his life.  Fighting for a relationship the hero knows he wants, he begins to unbend and humanize to a surprising degree and after a few staggers, everyone gets their HEA.As I first said, not a heavy hitter of a story, but good for a little light amusement when you want a break from more angsty books.