The Doctor's Secret

By: Heidi Cullinan

Narrated by: Iggy Toma

Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's Summary

The brilliant but brooding new doctor encounters Copper Point's sunny nurse next door...and nothing can stand in the way of this romance.  

Dr. Hong-Wei Wu has come to Copper Point, Wisconsin, after the pressures of a high-powered residency burned him out of his career before he started. Ashamed of letting his family down after all they’ve done for him, he plans to live a quiet life as a simple surgeon in this tiny Northern town. His plans, however, don’t include his outgoing, kind, and attractive surgical nurse, Simon Lane.  

Simon wasn’t ready for the new surgeon to be a handsome charmer who keeps asking him for help getting settled and who woos him with amazing Taiwanese dishes. There’s no question - Dr. Wu is flirting with him, and Simon is flirting back. The problem is, St. Ann’s has a strict no-dating policy between staff, which means their romance is off the table...unless they bend the rules.   

But a romance that keeps them - literally - in the closet can’t lead to happy ever after. Simon doesn’t want to stay a secret, and Hong-Wei doesn’t want to keep himself removed from life, not anymore. To secure their happiness, they’ll have to change the administration’s mind. But what other secrets will they uncover along the way about Copper Point...and about each other?

©2019 Dreamspinner Press (P)2019 Dreamspinner Press

Barf

Lame version of “Our Town” featuring an Asian main character.

So many ways this book could have gone well and yet the focus was some dumb hospital rule regarding hospital employees for which THE ENTIRE TOWN came into the hospital.

And what is up with the narrator’s voice for the Dr.? Almost robotic, at best a walking dictionary.

Solid start

When I saw that Cullinan was releasing this book I was salivating. I love hospital dramas and Cullinan is one of my favourite authors so had really high hopes for The Doctor’s Secret.

Hong-Wei is a hot shot surgeon. He can pretty much choose where to work and what to do. But after the pressure from his residency he wants some peace and quiet the small hospital in Copper Point offers. He didn’t plan on falling for Simon, his surgical nurse – or worse expect the no dating staff policy the board recently implemented at the hospital.

Parts of this story I really loved, and other parts I didn't like as much. Let’s start with a few things that made this book for me; the characters. There were so many great ones, both main characters and the supporting ones. I loved the friendships, the vibe of the town and how close they all were. I also loved how being gay, bi or lesbian was a non-issue for (I think) everyone. That it was all part of everyday life and just was. There were no raised eyebrows, stares or snide comments. It was nice to say the least.

The relationship between Simon and Hong-Wei didn’t feel quite right. I mean I can see the attraction between them and they fit together. I just feel that Cullinan missed the mark a little with these guys. The pacing felt off, at first there were stolen glances and shy words – both afraid to be seen together. Then, they were both all in, in the “following you to the end of the world” kind of way. There was no middle ground, no real building of their relationship. It was also a lot of telling how they felt, how their relationship developed but we were never really there for it, didn’t experience it. I missed that.

One of the things I really disliked about this story was the whole "no dating co-workers" rule. I mean come on! This is the 21st century and firing people depending on who they date just don't feel right - at least not to the point where people don't riot against it and just accepts it. Let me give you an example, there was a couple that had been together for five years, the relationship policy was implemented and poof they were both fired. !! Their relationship pre-dated the stupid rule and they still get sacked? Maybe I'm an idealist, but that shit just isn't done. It was hard for me to get passed it. And this stupid policy was the root of most of the issues for Simon and Hong-Wei so that made me even more mad.

Then there was the ending - I wasn't a fan it (I don’t mean the HFN ending, but how they got there). I mean Hong-Wei and Simon deciding to leave Copper Point felt like giving up, letting the board and their stupid policy win. I mean I get that it's not always possible to slay the dragon - especially when power-hungry men loving to exact control is in charge. But they didn't even try, try to put up a fight, try to change the policy. Fight for each other. If they can’t fight to stay together, how can they hope to last? To top it off, it was all magically resolved on its own, mostly. It felt anti-climactic to say the least. For have caused so much trouble and drama and to have it all fizzle out.

Iggy Toma did a great job narrating this book and drew the listener into it. He’s not only a narrator but a performer as well. One who adds so much feeling to Cullinan’s words that it made you walk the halls of the hospital beside Simon and Hong-Wei, meeting patients and hanging out with friends. I also came to realise one of my previously unknown biases, and I'm grateful to Toma for that.

Toma has different voices for his characters - just like he always have. However, in the beginning I wanted him to have switched the voices between the Simon and Hong-Wei. I wanted Simon to have the deeper voice and Hong-Wei to have the lighter one – that was how I heard them in my mind. At least until I realised that was because of my bias; where Asian's (and yes, I'm generalising here) have lighter voices. So Hong-Wei having the deeper voice felt wrong. Until it didn't. When realising this I have to say that I'm glad Toma narrated the voices this way - breaking the norm and daring to be different.

The Doctor’s Secret had a lot of potential and many great characters, so while this book wasn’t among my favourites I am still looking forward to what else this series will bring.

A copy of this book was generously provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review for Love Bytes.

Great Story to get lost in!

Easy story to get lost in. Well done! I’m looking forward to the other books in this series. Excellent narration.

starts strong but main point of contention was weak

I really enjoyed the first half of this book. The second half was about how people can pull together to create change, which was good, but… the policy that needed rescinding was new. There was an attempt made to show that The Powers That Be could be contemptible jerks who could and would enforce the messed up policy with impunity, but it still felt like overturning a new policy would be an easy fix. That might be on me, because it was so obviously a dumb policy. Part of the point was about WI, in reality, decimating unions and in the story it took a group of friends uniting then town unity to overcome TPTB.

I appreciated how the problem wasn’t anti-gay sentiment and the town rallied for their brown gay surgeon & his boyfriend, treating their relationship as valid as any other couple’s. (Although the surgeon had to be a magical minority to get this treatment…) I just couldn’t buy that the board would be on the verge of losing 4 key staff and still be jerks about a brand new policy. Ok, so TPTB wanted mostly to be able to control the hotshot new surgeon, via the policy, but it never had real support or history to entrench it, so I spent the second half of the book being annoyed when I was supposed to be pleased about people rallying in defense of people over policy.

There is a lot of good community building in this book, and Iggy Toma is a great narrator, so it’s worth a listen, but it was a bit frustrating.

Hampered by Preachy Political Correctness

This was a good story with a message that I wish the author had enough faith that her readers would grasp without her bludgeoning us to death. A first generation Asian immigrant who is also gay and attempting to find his way in a small midwestern town is an engaging storyline. However, Heidi, for goodness sake give it a rest and let the story do the work! White man bad! Immigrant good! Person of color always good and oh so superior! Woman good, man bad! Drop the sledge hammer for crying out loud. If you want people to buy into an open and unbiased society, spouting endless stereotypes about white people is not going to win anyone over. Iggy Toma is always a good narrator although he does seem to lean into the worst instincts of the author just a bit.

Feels incomplete

The central characters are great, but the book leaves you asking a bunch of question that remain unresolved in the book. These aren't really cliffhangers for a possible sequal, but rather just unanswered questions that I think would have been integral to the plot.

The book introduces a colorful cast of secondary characters, only to then take absolutely no advantage of them and at times the supporting cast feels an extension of the central duo.

It would need some extra plotlines added for its supporting cast so we get a better feel of the hospital and the "world" of the book.

contrived plot

I liked the story a lot, but I never fell into it. the anxiety was higher than it deserved.

A Lovely Romance

I enjoyed this book immensely. Heidi Cullinan is a wonderful author, and this book was no different than her other books when it comes to the quality of her writing. The characters were well-rounded and interesting, and I enjoyed their interaction and the development of their relationship. The medical aspect of the book was exciting and well done.

Great listen

Heidi Cullinan and Iggy Toma are my dream team in MM romance. I wish they had more releases to satisfy my addiction. The story was great, though I was hoping for a bigger bombshell on the secret premise. I respect the authors decision to not make it any heavier than it was though. Not everyone has a love for all things dark and bitter. Iggy did an amazing job of conveying Simon's shy and hopeless romantic personality in his voice and the characters were all around very well written. 10/10

Good beginning

The book started out excellent but went off the rails around chapter 8 when the author seemed to become obsessed with Asian culture and forgot there was supposed to be a plot. I quickly lost interest after that because the whole book seemed to reach its climax when a serious emergency was resolved in the previous scenes. The book should have stopped while it was ahead. On another note, the narration was fantastic. It just couldn’t make up for the bad writing.

Very much a Cullinan book!

The author had written a whole series of gay stories that deal with everything from asexuality, to race, undocumented immigrants, wealth etc. All of which get wrapped up with the prejudices of both the reader and society. She does it with great empathy and style. I’ve enjoyed each one in turn and re-listened many times. Obviously some more than others. They are well read too

So Sweet

I found this to be a sweet love story, light on the angst which was nicely resolved. I'm hoping there might be a follow on for Erin's tale.