The Doctor's Date

Both men have so much in the past that don't even include secret crushes that it is amazing they are functioning at all. Erin has turn his pain into himself and Owen has let his pain become a shield that keeps people away. This just leads to clashes but their interactions are different with each other and this is the seed that grows. Each wants to help the other heal and they each find strength within themselves. The power of these men to overcome abuse and neglect gives a feeling of hopefulness.

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Ruthie – ☆☆☆☆
This is the second book in the series, and I would recommend that you read them in order, as the story continues from book one. The underlying plot revolves around St. Ann's hospital; it involves the Board that governs it and the staff who work there. There are questions arising as to how such a successful hospital can be suffering financial woes, and as Dr. Wu tries to upgrade it, the issues become more acute. The romance centres around three friends since school, Owen, Simon, and Jared, who all work at St. Ann's – book one gave us Simon's happily ever after, now it is Owen's turn to find love from a very unexpected quarter.

At the end of book one, Erin, the hospital HR Director and son of the Chair of the Board, unexpectedly revoked the unpopular non-fraternisation policy. This allowed Simon and Hong-Wei to openly date and showed that Erin may not in fact be a replica of his hard-hearted father. Owen found this rather confusing, as he had decided that Erin was a man he only wanted to argue with, not find to be a man of principle.

Erin finally finds the courage to act on his crush since youth and bids on Owen at a fundraiser. Everything else follows on from this bold, but frightening move. We soon get to understand just how awful Erin's life has been, and still is – and Owen has to revise all his preconceived notions and finds Erin to be a man he wants, not hates. I really liked how the trio of friends took Erin into their lives and as the issues of budget problems at St. Ann's becomes urgent, it is teamwork that helps deliver a solution to save the day.

I enjoyed the hospital drama and intrigue and how it mixed together with the nascent romance between the very innocent Erin and the damaged Owen. A strong reminder that what goes on behind closed doors is often very different to the image portrayed to the world.


Sarah – ☆☆☆☆
The second book in the Copper Point Medical series serves up a little less romance and a whole lot more hospital politics. Erin and Owen were highly entertaining when they sparred in the first book and I loved them even more in their own story.

Owen might be my favourite character in the whole series – he’s surly and a bit miserable but funny, loyal, and kind at the same time. He’s an unlikely hero but he’s a perfect fit for Erin. Erin finally found his backbone at the end of the first book and it was fun watching him grow into himself in this story. Both Erin and Owen have survived difficult and somewhat similar childhoods and I love the way they care for each other as adults. Like the first book, this is a pretty low heat read. The focus of this book is probably more on hospital politics than on the romance between Owen and Erin but there are some sweet moments between these two.

This is a medical romance without much medicine. The focus of the story is on the struggle between the hospital staff and the hospital board members who control the hospital’s finances. Erin, Owen, and their friends spend much of the story fighting outdated policies and tracing money that has been embezzled from the hospital. It’s an exciting story but not quite what I’d expected. I love the relationships that continue to develop between Owen’s growing group of friends.

This is the second book in a trilogy and readers will definitely need to read the books in order. Like the first book, this is a sweet and fun, vanilla romance that lacks the heat and the kink I’ve come to expect from most of Heidi Cullinan’s writing. I've really enjoyed this series, but this is quite different from other writing by the author and fans may want to download samples before committing to the series.

Reviewers were provided a free copy of this book to read and review.

While I’ve rated them both the same, I think I enjoyed this one a tiny bit more than the first book in what is so far proving to be an excellent series.

This had none of the preachy element that I felt had slightly taken over the narrative of book one, instead it was all about family, how they can screw with your head and change your perceptions of life.

From the bat, this was clearly going to more than the obvious sum of its parts. It’s not really a fake boyfriend story, there is so much history between Owen and Erin.

I have to say, every single time I read his name I had a pause to catch up that it’s a male character. There is an explanation for his name and Erin is an Irish gender-neutral name for the country of Ireland (Éirinn) but it’s more commonly used as a female name, so it threw me but hey that’s just a personal thing.

Erin himself was a complex character and I loved him, almost as much as I loved Owen, his ogre, his dragon, his defender against whatever tried to hurt him. Theirs is a genuine, emotional connection but, as my lovely friend Dani says in her review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2728458303

"I wanted more tension, especially because the romance that followed was slightly lackluster. Erin is over 30 and a virgin. Owen is a former player. When the two get together, sparks … uh, actually, nope, sparks don’t fly because there are no sparks. And no steam. And I do mean NONE, unless you count two brief groping scenes.
The chemistry which I love to see in a romance is simply absent. Everything fades to black or is referred to off page."

This was a little disappointing, not because I wanted a full-blooded erotic porn encounter to read, but because it meant that element of their relationship was utterly missing.

Erin’s a virgin, the care Owen took with every other aspect of his relationship with him should have been there for the reader in this also, but it wasn’t. It was a throwaway line.

Still, that’s really my only grumble because I loved everything else about this narrative. It’s not a standalone, you need to read book one because there is a series long thread running in the background about the hospital all the doctors work at and I think it’d mean a whole chunk of understanding about what’s going on would be missing.

Now, on to Jared and Nick and I really can’t wait for that one.

I knew Erin was just going to break my hear, but what I wasn't expecting was Owen's backstory and pain. So, both of them just put me through the ringer and I wasn't sure just how this book would end. This book was sweet, sexy, painful, heartbreaking, so angsty and angry, and every emotion you could have. Another well done book by Heidi!

Heidi Cullinan does a terrific job combining multiple genres in “The Doctor’s Date,” the second in her Copper Point Medical series. When apparent enemies pair up to learn who’s responsible for their hospital’s missing funds, they discover they’re more similar than they knew. Is this standalone an enemies to lovers tale? A thriller? A family drama? Or (with its slow-building intimacy) a romance between thirty-somethings that’s appropriate for young adults? Yes, yes, yes and certainly!

Erin Andreas, Copper Point Medical’s HR Director, is still under his father’s thumb, which often makes a painful point as papa squeezes it into his elbow. Dear old dad is on the hospital’s Board of Directors. Erin may have moved away for college, but dutifully returned home, to a museum, where he actually lives in the garret. Hospital anesthesiologist Owen Gagnon, also a Copper Point native, on whom Erin maintains a childhood crush, loves nothing better than to argue with mild-mannered Erin.
When Erin purchases a date with Owen at the hospital’s charity bachelor auction (for way too much money) Owen senses the meek man’s need to escape his demeaning father. Owen stakes possession by kissing him for all to see. Oops.

No worries. Erin may have zero experience with men and hasn’t come out yet, but he’s thrilled his crush notices him. Meanwhile, there’s the matter of missing funds. Will Erin’s dad be implicated? And was the kiss’s sizzling chemistry a momentary blip, or do these two belong together?

I really enjoy how Cullinan describes these men. Owen’s blustery exterior (which hides the heart of a protector) is shown when he tells Erin, “’I’m not challenging you. I’m arguing with you. I told you, I love our arguments. I don’t ever want you to stop fighting with me. You’re the only one I fight with…. Because it shows you’re not afraid of me.’” In contrast, Cullinan tells us, “Erin Andreas was the poster boy for competence porn.”

Although both guys have had awful childhoods, Cullinan keeps it light, focusing on how they help one another – often with humor. Reviewing Erin’s contradictory responses to him, Owen thinks, “The man would drive him bananas. They’d be harvesting them from him by the end of the week.” But Erin is so confused by their deepening relationship, he thinks to himself, that it is as if Owen “wants to slay your dragons for you, but he’s found you miles from the battlefield, battered and singed instead.”
The thriller plot keeps a steady pace. We’re on edge wondering how the hospital’s nasty board of directors will undermine Erin, Owen and their friends. How much danger are they in? This also serves to offset their dismal childhoods, keeping readers aware of the men’s strength of character, rather than old hurts.

And thus, in the midst of a romance/thriller, Cullinan also manages to craft a tale of healing and hope. Eric and Owen are well-drawn characters, as are their friends, who we hope to meet again soon in the next of the series.
Cullinan took on oodles, and accomplished it all in “The Doctor’s Date.”