Customer Reviews

Lady and the Scamp / The Doctor Dilemma (Harlequin Duets, No 58)

5 star:		(0)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

From the back cover:

LADY AND THE SCAMP by Candy Halliday
It's a dog-eat-dog world...

Attorney Cassie Collins is in big trouble! Her mother's prize pooch has gotten up close and personal with the mutt next door, and pups are on the way. Nick Hardin, owner of Earl the mongrel scamp, refuses to take the matter seriously. Instead he uses his outrageous radio show to poke fun at lawyers who file suit against the Romeo and Juliet of the doggy world. Hostilities escalate until the two humans finally figure out it's much more fun to make love than war...


THE DOCTOR DILEMMA by Dianne Drake
TLC...The best medicine there ever was...

Meet Dr. Jack Sutton and nurse Lacy Archer--they're supposed to be running a small-town medical practice, but the craziest things keep happening. Jack can't wait to get back to the big city, while Lacy's making Sunstone her home. And in the midst of handling everything from birthing bovines to using a pair of black panties to cure the hiccups, they're falling for each other. But will Jack have the right prescrition for Lacy's case of true love?

And my review:

I enjoy a funny love story as much as the next person, but unfortunately, both of these tales suffered from annoying characters that killed any enjoyment of the humor.

In LADY AND THE SCAMP, both characters irritated me. When I learned that the heroine, a fully-grown woman (near 30), was still living at home and completely under her mother's thumb, I had no respect for her. If you can argue cases in court, surely you can tell your mother to stop running your life. And start paying your own bills, doing your own laundry, and cooking your own meals. The hero was such a strutting arrogant chauvanist. When I got to the point where the heroine discovers the hero swimming naked, I had no interest in the story. Two stars.

I liked the heroine in THE DOCTOR DILEMMA, but I couldn't stand the hero. First thing he does when he meets the heroine? Orders her to bring him coffee and lunch. Does he apologize, change or back down when she rightly calls him up on his chauvanism? Nope, just reiterates his orders. Not requests, but orders. Nothing will make me stop reading faster than a "bring me a beer, woman" kind of hero. Totally not sexy. And the fact that he had an injured leg, and thus a hard time walking to the cafe himself in no way justifies him treating a woman like a servant. It would have been totally different if he'd ASKED, "would you mind picking up some lunch for me--my leg makes it hard to walk". Ordering her to "bring me some lunch" is not acceptable. And the way he kept whining and complaining about everything made him seem childish and petty. Frankly, I felt the spirited heroine deserved far better. Two stars.

For a story to be really enjoyable, the characters have to be loveable. They have to be people the reader cheers for. A reader has to want to see them find happiness, not get their comeuppance. The latter was the case in these stories. Not recommended by this reader.