Title: Houston, We Have a Problem
Author: Erin McCarthy
Series: Florida Doctors #2
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Contemporary, Contemporary romance
Dates read: 13th – 16th October 2020
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: Brava
Year: 2004
5th sentence, 74th page: Her hands were tight on his shoulders, digging in with hard, short nails and Josie panted, murmuring something that sounded like a plea for help over and over.
Wickedly funny, and hot, hot, hot – when it comes to romance that’s smart and sexy, Erin McCarthy is second to none. Now, the author of BAD BOYS ONLINE and SMART MOUTH brings together two doctors who makes no bones about the uncontrollable passion that’s about to change their thoughts about love, sex, and physical therapy…
USE AS DIRECTED, FOR AS LONG AS IT TAKES
Dr. Houston Hayes has never had trouble maintaining his professional distance with both patients and co-workers…until he meets resident Josie Adkins. Every time the tiny tornado of cheery clumsiness drops a chart in his presence, he’s treated to a view that makes him extremely interested in her bones. Jumping them, that is. For a man who prides himself on control at all times, this is getting to be a problem. And problems always have solutions…
All her life, Josie has wanted to be a surgeon. But how can she do that while she’s suffering from the debilitating Dr. Hayes Induced Dropping Medical Equipment Syndrome? Honestly, with those ice blue eyes and powerful shoulders dripping down to a – whoops, there goes the blood pressure cuff – what’s a girl to do? And then Dr. Hayes shocks her by prescribing a very sexy cure: one night of sheet-burning passion to erase the sexual tension for both of them. But only one night… he won’t need more than that…
Suddenly, Josie has her mission – a chance to prove the arrogant Dr. Hayes wrong. One night with her will never be enough if she has her way. And soon, both doctors may be falling into a desire deeper than any they’ve ever known… one that makes them hungry for more…
This isn’t my favourite McCarthy book. It wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t as amazing as the others so far. Rather than leaving me grinning like a school girl on Christmas, I was mostly just happily smiling at the end of this story. Happy, calm and content. Just not excited and bubbly like the rest of the books I’ve read by McCarthy.
I did love the setting of this story though – a romance based on the beach with surfing and medicine as a backdrop? Yeah… that’s the kind of story that I tend to like. Having said that, sex on a surfboard… that just seems… unwieldy and seriously, seriously awkward. Like. Wow. There are many things I want to try that I’ve read about in books (knife throwing being one of them), but sex on a surfboard? Hard pass on that. Not even sure if it’s really all that… well… doable.
Josie is a fun lead. She is cute and quirky. Bubbly and seriously smart. I also love that even though she is stupid in love, she manages to stand up for herself and knows that she deserves better. The strength that that must take is phenomenal and I think it’s important to have characters in stories who are willing to walk away from love and lust when they know that they’re not being given what they deserve.
At the beginning of the story, I actually quite liked Houston. But as the story unfolded… I don’t know, I found him a little bit less interesting and enthralling. There was just something… missing about him. I think that it’s maybe just an indication of how amazingly McCarthy has grown in her writing over the years… I fall much harder and much quicker for some of her more recent male leads…
Earth and Skye 
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