Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: The Doctor’s Heart 
SERIES: Carlisle Medical
AUTHOR: Andrew Grey
PUBLISHER: Andrew Grey Books
LENGTH: 135 pages
RELEASE DATE: December 14, 2021
BLURB:
Rosco is an emergency room doctor with a daughter who relies on him. Between his career and family, he has little time for any type of personal life. But he finds himself flirting with one of the ambulance EMTs and, to his surprise, he gets flirted with right back.
Miguel is surprised the handsome ER doc even knows who he is. His own life is a little dull, but making eyes at Doc and getting a response supercharges his days. After he’s injured on the job, Miguel gets a firsthand look at Doc Rosco’s incredible bedside manner, not to mention the rest of him.
As the two men tentatively start exploring the attraction that has simmered for months, the head of medicine takes exception to their budding relationship. Pressure builds, and the two men must make decisions about their lives, their jobs, and the one thing that could make each of them happy… each other.
REVIEW:
Rosco is a single dad who is an ER doc working night. His family has rallied around him after his best friend, the mother of his daughter Posey, was killed in an accident and he has be raising her since she was less than a year old. His parents have moved back into the family home with him so that he doesn’t have to find other childcare alternatives. Everything is going pretty well – certainly with his family. But he’s lonely. He had a boyfriend who was more interested in his status as a doctor and being “taken care of” than he was in Rosco as a person. Then when his daughter came into the picture, it was clear what a loser this guy was.
Miguel is an EMT who also works the night shift. He is attracted to Rosco, who he knows they went to high school together. He’s not sure if Rosco is interested though and besides, he has to be professional at work. But when he gets injured and Rosco takes care of him and he needs to take some time off, their paths cross unexpectedly outside of the hospital. It’s clear both men are interested.
Miguel is good with kids as he’s helping hi sister with her kids after her divorce from her husband who has done a bad job in supporting his family. When he runs into Rosco at the pool and the park when he has his niece and nephew and Rosco has his daughter with him, they get to know each other better. Rosco is a little bit shy and he’s not sure how he can handle anything else besides his daughter and his job. But his family encourage to do something for himself. Miguel definitely would like to see where this goes.
There is just one fly in the ointment however. There is a homophobic head of medicine at the hospital where Rosco works. Rosco does not want to look for a different job, but he’s tired of the BS with this head of medicine and his attempts to make his lift so difficult that he leave. But it’s clear that this isn’t the first time he’s tried to do this. It will take some perseverance and good luck though to find the ammunition to make sure that he can’t do it again.
This is the first Andrew Grey book I’ve read in a while. This is a story with some angst, but it doesn’t go on for too long 🙂 I enjoyed Miguel and Rosco’s dance around each other as they try to figure out how to make a relationship work. Neither has had much luck in the romance department. Rosco’s family are lovely – his parents are very supportive even if they were surprised and worried in the past. Miguel’s mother has a harder time with his sexuality and that reality is handled well if a bit easily here in this story. I would like to think that the resolution with homophobic bosses work out this way, but I’ve known too many people who have been made miserable enough to leave a job they loved. Usually it’s a bit more insidious and management isn’t dumb enough to leave such a blatant pattern of behavior, but thankfully I do think this is getting better. I’ve been lucky in that I’ve only worked in one place in the last 20 years where this was an issue.
I will say there were a couple of editing issues here that I’m not sure are part of the final version – a name wrong, a wrong word a place or two and some dissonance around where Miguel was living that confused me a bit. But if you’re looking for a romance on the lighter and sweeter side without explicit sexy times and minimal angst, then I think you’ll enjoy this one.
RATING: 
BUY LINK: