Customer Reviews

Critical Care (Mercy Hospital, Book 1)

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Hospitals have never held much charm for me ... until now! I have discovered the cure with Candace Calvert's Mercy Hospital Series and suddenly, the ER is my favorite place to be. Seldom has an author hooked me in so quickly and completely as Ms. Calvert has with her exceptional debut novel, Critical Care, a heart-wrenching glimpse into the gritty reality of a trauma center and characters so flesh and blood, that I literally teared up three times in the first 38 pages. With true-life medical drama, magical prose and enough romantic tension to spike a high-grade fever, Ms. Calvert is, hands-down, one of the best authors I have read in a long, LONG time.

Christian ER/Grey's Anatomy, without the sex and with McSnarly instead of McDreamy.

Claire Avery leaves ER nursing after her brother dies in the trauma room, on her watch. Wanting to make a fresh start she finds a position in a small hospital, focusing on nursing education and stress counseling, rather than ER nursing. As she works to find her place among the staff, she finds herself clashing with Logan Caldwell, the ER doctor. Logan doesn't like counseling or soft staff. He's tough and focused and expects the same from his nursing staff. When staffing issues force Claire back into the ER, she finds herself both at odds with Logan and drawn to him at the same time.

From my limited medical understanding, I found the ER setting realistic and believable. The story shifts between Claire and Logan and two other nurses on the ER staff. Predictably, all of their stories wrap up neatly at the end. As with most Christian fiction, at least one person must reestablish their faith in God before the anticipated happy ending. Themes of abortion and SIDS are explored, as well as divorce and forgiveness.

An easy, light read. Perfect for an afternoon of escape. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

This book quickly found its way to my shelf of favorites. Admittedly, I've loved medical fiction since I was a kid reading Cherry Ames and Sue Barton. But some books in this genre can be ridiculously and annoyingly unrealistic and need to be classified as DNR (Do Not Resuscitate). Not this one. Candace Calvert shows she has a talent for crafting a wonderful story in an accurate setting, portraying believable characters with real-life crises and issues. The medical detail was authentic without being horrific. And the personalities are spot-on. I loved how the nurses referred to Dr. Caldwell (behind his back, of course!) as McSnarly. Unfortunately, I've worked with a doctor or two like that! As the events unfold and the characters work through the circumstances of the story, the patients aren't the only ones who experience healing.

For an infusion of hope, get this book STAT - read it, & repeat dosage as necessary! I can't wait until the next one, Disaster Status, comes out!

CRITICAL CARE is the first book I've read from Candace Calvert. And though it is written with the typical opposites attract storyline, it still made for an enjoyable read.
With the main setting being an ER room at a hospital, we watch as Claire Avery, a nurse educator, deals with the trauma that plagues her past, and has driven her from the hospital she once worked at. We also watch as she deals with developing feelings for Dr. Logan Caldwell, a man that is so single-minded, he sees no need for the counseling she wants to provide his staff after a tragic daycare center explosion.
Claire has tragedies of her own. She has left the hospital she once worked at as an ER nurse, when her brother, a firefighter is brought in and she is unable to save him. Changing gears, she decides to become a nurse educator and relocates to a new hospital, hoping for a new start. Unfortunately, she buts heads with Dr. Caldwell, and his unsympathetic ways. Not wanting his negative attitude to derail her, she continues to meet with staff members and offers them the counseling they need despite his pessimistic comments.
When the ER becomes shorthanded, Claire is called upon to fill in. Dealing with her anxieties while working with patients, she knows she can never go back to the stress and fear of working an ER. It is more than she can handle. But, the more she is around Dr. Caldwell, the more she feels an attraction for him. He also feels an attraction for Claire and tries to get to know her on a more personal level. When Claire learns that Logan is dealing with his own heartbreak, she begins to see a softer, more personable side to him.
Overcoming past fears, past relationship, and the feeling of loss, Claire and Logan venture into new territory as they both decide to understand each other better and grow their relationship on their shared passion of saving people.

Critical Care (Mercy Hospital)Finally a Christian medical drama! Candace Calvert captures your imagination at the very beginning and takes you into the lives of people struggling with their beliefs in a stress filled hospital workplace. This book is very engaging and has you really caring about each character. Ms. Calvert captures the essence of what is faced everyday by people with stong faith beliefs. My only complaint is that it was such a fast read and now I have to wait for a sequel.
Jamie Beesley

Candace Calvert catches your attention from the first sentence through to the last word with a refreshing voice in medical romance. The rhythm of her wording mesmerizes the reader along with authentic technical expertise and lyrical prose. For a debut novel, CRITICAL CARE more than entertains. It peels back a view of the life of nurses and doctors in today's medical system. And yes, like another reviewer, I read all the Cherry Ames nurse stories when I was a young girl, and Candace brings us back to that good story telling ability to place us inside the characters' experience. We do escape into the world of Claire, Erin, Sarah and Logan, and we come away with a genuine understanding of God's way not always being our way but the best way. It's a lesson we forget, and it is one each of the characters struggles with. CRITICAL CARE also uses story telling to show readers how vulnerable we all are to post traumatic symptoms because we have failed to deal with the ever mounting stress in our lives. It's our culture to "buck Up and keep marching," but there is a cost to that mind set, a serious cost. People are not ever-ready bunnies, yet firemen, policemen, paramedics, nurses, doctors, armed forces--they especially are expected to be iron-hard machines when dealing with life and death situations. It's an unreasonable expectation and more books like CRITICAL CARE help us adjust our expectations to more realistic levels. Hurrah for Candace Calvert!!! You've just won another fan.

I have an Amazon Kindle as I have mentioned in the past. I haven't bought one single book yet, because they have free publications all of the time. Well, I just finished reading Critical Care (Mercy Hospital, Book 1) and it was great. I about couldn't put the kindle down to do other things, like blogging, cleaning my house, and all of the important things :) I love the story, it makes you feel hopeful of things in life. Dr McSnarly will completely surprise you along with Claire and the one eared cat. Even if I wouldn't have received this for free I would consider buying it. I hope that everyone that reads this gets as much enjoyment out of it as I did.

I got the Kindle version, and I loved the book. The characters and setting were very interesting and informative. I hated to see the story come to an end, and look forward to other books by Candace Calvert. It is a joy to read a good book with Christian values that doesn't have curse words and crude romance details. I highly recommend this to other readers.

Candace Calvert has written a fast paced medical romance novel that you will truly find hard to put down. The characters are well developed and the and the hospital scenes well researched. The Christian message is real and believable yet not at all overpowering - spirituality and character are simply natural and important dimensions often lost in many fiction novels. I serve on a local hospital's foundation board and found this story to be quite authentic and true to life. The romantic relationships are well constructed making them both captivating and convincing. I think you will really enjoy this one - honest to God!

Some of my first "grown-up" books were those paperback nurse romances that my local library kept on a shelf right next to the children's section (that was in the days before teens had their own rooms at the library). I liked them so much that I decided I was going to be a nurse when I grew up, a goal that lasted until I took (and hated) high school chemistry. The self-knowledge I've gained since then confirms that giving up that goal was the right thing to do, even if the reason was wrong. In any case, this book, Critical Care by Candace Calvert, reminded me of those old books.

Critical Care is primarily a romance novel. Her name is Claire and she is a nurse-educator who used to be an ER nurse. Her nurse-educator credentials are newly-minted, compliments of an inheritance from her brother, a firefighter who died in the ER where she was working. Needless to say, she wants no part of ER work and charts a career course as far away from it as possible. His name is Logan and he is the doctor in charge of the ER. They meet when she is called to the ER to do crisis intervention with the staff after a daycare explosion. He doesn't believe in counselling and all that touchy-feely stuff. They are attracted to each other nevertheless. Like many of those old nurse novels I used to read, he is demanding and hard to work for--but it is because of his deep care for his patients.

Critical Care is Christian fiction. I'd say it follows the typical Christian fiction romance model of at least one of the characters having to find God before they can live happily ever after. I'm also pleased to say the book has a definite pro-life message.

While Critical Care is a romance, and is primarily about the two lead characters, two of the other nurses get a lot of lines, and since this is the first book in a series, I'd guess that the next two will be about them.

I enjoyed Critical Care. There was nothing terribly original about it, but it was a light, fun read; the perfect way to veg out.

I'm only giving the book three stars and I'm sure that's going to cause this review to end up being one of the more negative. To me, three stars means I enjoyed the book; it was good. I very rarely give five stars and four star books have to be more than forumula romances, and this one, fun as it was to read, is basically a formula romance.