The Best Medicine
Strictly Business Series, #1
By Elizabeth Hayley
ISBN#780451475527
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Andra
Synopsis:
The first novel in a sparkling and sexy new contemporary romance series about four best friends looking for love in all the right places—and the one woman who discovers that it takes more than an impeccable bedside manner to make dreams come true…
Lauren Hastings is finally ready to enter the real world. At twenty-six, she’s about to get her master’s in psychology, and she’s well on her way to beginning the career of her dreams—until she suffers public humiliation and has to endure something she thought she’d never have to deal with again: a part-time job.
A gig at Trinity Hospital isn’t exactly Lauren’s definition of a good time, but Dr. Scott Jacobs quickly changes her mind. He’s straight-up gorgeous, and he always gets what he wants. And that includes Lauren. It’s an ideal arrangement for both of them. No strings. Just fun—at least at first.
But feelings quickly begin to run deeper than either Lauren or Scott is willing to admit, causing issues neither of them want to confront. After all, who wants to risk the perfect relationship on something as terrifying, as messy, and as unpredictable as love?
Review:
Overall, I enjoyed The Best Medicine, finding that I liked the story the further I got in the book. However, I must say one of the most annoying things about this book is that for approximately the first half of the book I found Lauren’s actions and attitude “young” for her actual age. She seemed to act like a teenager/child, yet she is in her late twenties…..and has almost earned her master’s degree! As an example:
Lauren states to her friends: “My mom works for a doctor who’s a total dipshit, and I plan on spending my time there driving him insane. End of story.”
Really??? A grown woman talking like this about her new boss? And, the new boss is giving her a chance after she was arrested and this is part of her way of earning money for restitution. I was even annoyed (both at Lauren’s mom and at Lauren herself) at the part where her mom had filled out Lauren’s employment paperwork and Lauren is fine with just signing where her mother has put post-it notes. All I had to say was…time to grow up Lauren.
Luckily for her and for my reading enjoyment, she did seem to move on from this infantile type of behaviour and mature….thus allowing me to finish the book instead of quitting part way through. Especially, since I thoroughly appreciated the hot, steam, sexy scenes. Boy can this author write!
While the beginning was disappointing, I did find the evolvement and maturation of both Lauren and Scott interesting and engaging. Though of course, they were both in constant denial. Take for example the scene where Lauren is out with her gal pals and she indicates that she will not want any strings to any relationship she is creating with Scott. So she invites Scott and his guy pals out to the bar she went to with the gals in an effort to prove that it is just a friend with benefits relationship they are developing. Though of course, her friend Simone can see right through this (as did this reader)….feelings are starting to develop. It was interesting to see that both needed to work through personal issues (and serious ones at that) before they were able to move in to more adult, healthy relationship. The issues were brought up with the appropriate amount of reverence and sensitivity. I thought they were well written and appropriately explored within the context of the story.
I did enjoy Lauren’s joie de vivre (a French phrase to express a cheerful enjoyment of life). The way she kicked Josh’s butt for physically and verbally assaulting her in the bar was totally awesome. It is never okay for a man to act the way Josh did. Even though it did get Lauren kicked out of the pub and arrested and she would not even press charges against Josh. This act alone showed her depth of character. Lauren’s appeal on the pediatric ward or her ease of talking with just about anyone (Scott’s mother for example) allowed for her charismatic personality to shine through.
The chapter titles were very witty….and added a certain something to the flavor of each chapter.
Given that the gal pack is of four women and this is the first of the series, I shall go out on a limb and guess that the other stories in the series are about Lauren’s other gal pals. I enjoyed the writing style of the author; I was engaged and interested in the story so…. I will wait patiently for the next installment of this series to see if the next story has the woman begin with a maturity more in keeping with her age? If you like a well-crafted story, with hot guys and sexy gals, well written (aka HOT) love scenes then pick up The Best Medicine, you won’t be disappointed.
