Lynne Connolly’s review of Billionaire Doctor, Ordinary Nurse by Carol Marinelli
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 12 Aug 08
This one is a kind of cross between Presents and Medical, with the heat level fairly low, but higher than in most Medical romances. And I enjoyed it a lot.
I thought I’d put both covers up, the British and the US version, mainly because I like the British one better, although the model is far too thin for Annie, who has body image issues. The US cover is more accurate, though cheesier.
The heroine is Annie, the ordinary nurse of the (awful) title. She works in a busy Emergency unit and, like most ordinary people, has her dark secrets. In her case, it’s teenage anorexia, trying to keep up with her lovely, more successful sisters, but by the time the story opens, Annie is over that and making her own, unapologetic life. Except that she’s on a crash diet in an effort to fit into the bridesmaid’s dress that is too small for her. And she has a week to do it. She’s fully aware that she’s dicing with danger, and in any case, crash diets make you tired and cranky, so when the new registrar, Iosef, walks into her life, she takes his brusque manner as an insult. Until, after the wedding in question, she falls into his arms.
Iosef, being from a fabulously wealthy family that is always in the public eye, has his dark secrets, too. Ones he can’t tell Annie about and I can’t tell you about because they would be spoilers. One of the reasons we know Annie’s secret early and not Iosef’s is that the reader spends most of the book in Annie’s head. I really would have liked to have known Iosef that way, too, but apart from a few brief scenes, we see him through Annie’s eyes.
Consequently, we understand him, especially when all his secrets have been revealed, but we don’t know him as well, and the romance was, for me, a little one-sided. I wasn’t sure why he’d love her, and at the time, exhausted and battered on all sides, Annie might have been a safe haven for him, a respite, rather than the love of his life.
Still, I did enjoy the way Marinelli showed us a lot of the problems the couple had, and the way what they did reflected the way they were. For instance, Annie still has an image problem, and knowing Iosef is used to flash model types, or assuming it, she buffs up for him, keeping up the fake tan she had for her friend’s wedding, and exfoliating to the max. We know that when Iosef sees her without the trappings, that will in some way persuade Annie that he wants her, not the perfect image of her, and it will make her lose her remaining inhibitions about her body.
There was one long scene toward the end that I would have cut, so I could have given more space to the concluding romance scenes. I did feel that we learned a bit too much about the other members of Iosef’s family. Presumably they’ve appeared, or will appear, in other books, but I don’t recall reading them. Reading this one made me decide to hunt them down.
Grade: B+
Summary:
The billionaire doctor: dedicated, desirable – and rich!
Nurse Annie Jameson is having a bad week – not only has she got to squeeze herself into a bridesmaid’s dress, but she also has to deal with her new boss, Dr Iosef Kolovsky, whose famous family is currently keeping the Melbourne tabloids in business!
Annie is determined not to succumb to the gorgeous billionaire doctor’s charm – until she realises that Iosef has turned his back on his family’s lavish lifestyle and dedicated himself to his work.
At the wedding, Annie and Iosef share the first of many delicious kisses… But if their relationship is to survive the Kolovsky family secrets, Annie and Iosef must ignore the glare of the paparazzi – and start to follow their hearts…No excerpt found.
