Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Falling for the Pet Doctor

AUTHOR:  Crystal Lacy

PUBLISHER:  Self-published

LENGTH:  172 pages

RELEASE DATE:  February 17, 2022

BLURB:

When his estranged mother passes away, struggling artist Felix Lu is saddled with a middle-aged parrot after he returns to his hometown of Honolulu, Hawaii to put her affairs in order. Out of his depth and dealing poorly with grief, Felix turns to compassionate veterinarian Tyler for comfort.

Losing the love of his life in an accident has made Tyler Hayworth afraid to risk his heart again. When Felix walks into his life, Tyler tries his best to steer clear of temptation–but lowers his guard when he realizes Felix is only looking for a temporary fix for his loneliness.

Felix is going back to the mainland soon. They can both take what they need from each other without compromising their hearts, right?

An emotional romance featuring a singing African grey parrot, lots of cats and dogs, and a sweet, well-deserved happily-ever-after. This 44,000 word novella was originally published under Radish Fiction under the name Finding Home. It has been revised and edited for re-publication here.

REVIEW:

Felix Lu has returned to Hawaii after the death of his mother.  They were estranged and he hadn’t been in touch with her before she died, having left for the mainland after finishing college.  He is an artist and his mother had questioned him choosing art as a career.  Thankfully he does have his cousin Mei as support, but he hasn’t been back in Hawaii for a while and he feels estranged from not only his mother but his hometown.  He’s dealing with a lot of guilt about not even knowing that his mother was sick and then she was just gone.  Then there is the issue of his mother’s pet, an African grey parrot.  Felix has no idea what to do about the parrot who screeches and wakes him up every day.  But after a week of him being home, he finds the bird huddled in a corner of his cage, feet bleeding.

Felix rushes Dorian to the avian vet and luckily Dr. Tyler Hayworth is still in the office.  He can see Felix is in distress and of course so is Dorian.  He takes Felix back to the exam room and has Felix help him get Dorian out of the cage so he can look at his feet. It turns out he’s also been plucking his own feathers out.  Felix feels even more guilt that he can’t even look after his mother’s parrot.  Tyler realizes that Felix is a bit over his head, so he volunteers to take Dorian home for care and recovery which Tyler gratefully accepts.  Tyler also gives Felix some literature on parrots because they have a lot of needs that Felix has no idea about.

When Tyler cares for Dorian, he makes great strides.  When he starts talking and singing – Chinese lullabies, mentioning Felix, etc. Tyler invites Felix over to see the progress and help him figure out what he needs to do be able to care for Dorian.  Hearing Dorian mimic his mother’s voice deeply affects Felix.  The dam breaks and Tyler is there for him.  Tyler has also lost someone close to him and he understands what Felix is going through.  It’s clear that they are attracted to each other, but it’s a slippery slope.  Tyler has made up his mind that he’s not going to love again because he’s sure he can’t recover from another loss like he’s already been through.

Felix and Tyler become more friendly and spend more time together.  The attraction deepens, but Tyler insists he can’t over anything more than a friends with benefits type situation.  Felix agrees because after all when he’s done taking care of things in Hawaii, he’ll head back to LA.  Well best-laid plans  Turns out neither of the can really control their feelings in this way, but they both have some soul-searching to do and some obstacles to get over if they want something beyond this short term fling.

This book surprised me a lot.  The beginning is pretty heavy.  Death and loss following an estrangement leaves Felix with a lot to deal with.  Not only the death of his mother and the guilt over their strained relationship, but then caring for her African Grey parrot who is also suffering after the death of his person.  Tyler is still dealing with the death of his husband and his way to deal with it is to keep any potential partner at arms length. He has no intention of ever putting himself in the position to be hurt so badly by loss again.  Felix is in the throws of his own grief, so it takes him some time to figure out what Tyler’s deal is and why he keeps saying he can’t offer more.  But as time moves forward and Felix becomes more motivated with his art, with cleaning out his house and the past and perhaps realizing his future is not back in LA, how can he express his feeling to Tyler without Tyler running away.  Tyler has trouble accepting that he has real feelings for Felix because he’s tried so hard to protect himself from feeling anything for another man.  But Felix has snuck up on him.  He genuinely admires and cares for Felix but he’s kind of drawn a line in the sand.  It takes some distance and real soul-searching for him to get to a place of acceptance of his own feelings.  I absolutely LOVED how things worked out between these two.  I adore Crystal Lacy’s writing and this was no exception.  If you’re up for a friends to lovers and with  bit of angst and grief and recovery thrown in, you’ll love this too.  Highly recommended!

RATING:

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