Reviewed by Taylin
TITLE: The Healer
SERIES: Knights of Boston #1
AUTHOR: Courtney W Dixon
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 285 Pages
RELEASE DATE: April 15, 2023
BLURB:
To heal the body you must first heal the soul.
José
I lost everything. My parents were murdered, my best friend was sent to prison for a drug deal gone wrong, and eventually, my grandmother, who raised me since I was fifteen, died. I have been living life day to day to make a good life away from gangs and violence. As a nurse, I can finally do something meaningful. But I’ve been lonely, too, until the bumbling nurse standing a foot taller than me had me constantly irritated, yet, I found him strangely endearing.
Jonas
Family is everything. Family is life and goodness, and I would do anything to protect them. Including protecting them from me. When I came out as gay at thirteen, it threatened to tear the family apart. Some supported me. Some were disgusted. So, back into the closet I went to maintain the peace. But after eighteen years of absolute loneliness, there is only one man who could finally pull me out to see the light of day. José is a fiery nurse I work with, and I want him. Unfortunately, I keep irritating him too much for him to really notice me.
Can the two men stop dancing around each other and colliding long enough to realize they are the perfect match? Will Jonas’ family finally accept him as he is? And danger lurks too close to home for José. Can he protect those he loves in time?
CW: Homophobia, bullying, racism, teenage drinking and smoking, death of parents, sibling abuse, attempted murder, violence, explicit content.
REVIEW:
As a child, Jonas was forced back into the closet for fear of a family rift. Unable to be himself, he’s died a little every day since. The only thing that keeps him going is his job as a nurse at the local mob-funded medical center. Tragedy scars Jose’s past. Yet he is out and proud. He promised himself that he would only date those out of the closet. Nevertheless, seeing something different in Jonas, he makes an exception. The question is whether he will regret his decision.
The Healer is the first in a three-book series, and all can be read as standalone. This sweet tale is led by two delightful men of color who have been through hell. There is drama, but with its MOB connections, somehow, I expected more action than was given.
The tale is told in the first person from the viewpoints of Jose and Jonas. Given the perspective, I wasn’t surprised that a few autonomous body parts crept in. Another side-effect of this aspect is often repetition, and this story has fallen to unnecessary recurrences. The MOB funds the clinic is a frequent phrase. Childhood experiences are reiterated in the first person and when being recounted by or to a partner. Editing out or significantly shortening some episodes would have reduced the word count and made the story a bit punchier.
The lives of Jonas and Jose are logically told from childhood onward, including some highly emotional events, homophobic family personalities, the numbness of loss, and more. What these extraordinary men have been through and accomplished is inspirational and amazing. I particularly liked the matriarchs of the family.
The pockets of drama and action are superbly written. I just wished that some repetition was foregone in favor of Mafia action. As the story stands, the MOB is a convenient reason to have erroneous clinic rules. I liked that a crime family had a hand in the clinic, it gave the story a good twist, but it could have been used to better effect while keeping Jose and Jonas as the center of attention.
RATING: 
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