Are the rumors about him true? She intends to find out.
The mysterious Dr. Steele has taken up residence next door, and scandalous rumors about him are spreading through Margaret Landeau’s small Massachusetts town. Rumors of women he’s ill-used and exploited for his experimental surgeries. Never one to believe gossip, Margaret arms herself with a basket of baked goods and ventures to discover the truth from the man himself.
John Steele has lost everything. His parents, his aunt, too many women he intended to save, and his good name. All he has left is his aunt’s home in a far-flung village and a library he’s stocked with whiskey. He has nothing to offer anyone. Especially not the bold woman next door whose passion for healing reminds him of the man he once was.
But when a dangerously ill girl arrives on his doorstep, pleading for help, Margaret is thrust into his world. She will learn who the real Dr. John Steele truly is, and soon, not even his dark past can stop her from fighting for the brilliant doctor she now loves. But he must deny his crushing desire for her—loving a man like him can only cast a shadow over her own bright future.
Purchase Link www.books2read.com/heartofdrsteele
Review
Margaret Landeau has a passion for healing and a terrible curiosity about their new neighbour. John Steele is an expert (for the time) at women's health, particularly surgery, at a time when women's problems were mysterious maladies to be treated with laudanum and bloodletting. However, his cutting edge (heh) surgical techniques make him unpopular with his peers and suspicious to the uninformed, so he retreats to his aunt's home, his reputation in tatters. If only his blasted, beautiful neighbour would leave him alone with his whiskey.
I'm not a huge fan of medical romances, but I am a sucker for historical romances, especially when they deal with the untitled common folk whose lives and problems are far closer to our own than the aristocracy of the day. Margaret faces institutionalised sexism in the medical industry and John is pit against the anti-medicine crowd who won't believe in ailments or treatments they do not understand.
I really enjoyed that while the attraction was there from the start, they grow to appreciate each other's minds. John does not denigrate or dismiss Margaret's dream of medical training and is in fact incredibly supportive, and Margaret does support John in his own troubles but insists that he also stand up to his problems and fight for their relationship. I did find her a bit inconsistent in the matter of Winsome Michaels and too easily swayed by rumour but this did not detract from my overall enjoyment of the book.
I will note that there is a bit of surgical gore, so faint-hearted, beware!
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Rachel's Random Resources, all opinions are my own.
Colette Dixon writes steamy stories with heart and humor about slightly tortured people who learn how love can heal. For more years than she cares to admit, she worked in a hospital while dreaming up love story plots. A farm girl who landed in Chicago, she loves to eat (food made by others), drink tea, and sun herself at every chance she can get to survive the Midwest winter.
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