Widow Deirdre Steen has spent the last five years making sure she’s the best chief nursing officer Yukon Valley Hospital has ever seen. It cost her a personal life—and protected her heart. But now her childhood friend, Dr. Calvin Garrett—the one who got away—is temporarily lending his emergency medicine skills to their rural hospital in Alaska’s interior. The community’s relentless matchmaking network loves a challenge, which leaves Deirdre with one viable option: a fake dating pact with Calvin until the spring Breakup Festival and his inevitable departure to his regular job and his life in Seattle.
Calvin moved away years ago rather than watch his best friend marry Deirdre. Now, amazingly, she’s in Calvin’s bed and the center of his world. Yet a woman like Deirdre deserves forever—as well as a man who didn’t finish as runner-up the first time around.
Can an Alaskan spring thaw help two wounded healers thaw the ice surrounding their hearts and fulfill this second chance at love?
PJ's Thoughts:
Jillian David takes readers back to small-town Alaska with a new story in her Yukon Valley, Alaska series. This time, it's a second-chance romance between Deidre and Calvin, former best friends with some hefty emotional baggage between them.
I really enjoyed this book. Reading it was like taking a trip to Yukon Valley, experiencing all rural Alaska has to offer, and catching up with good friends. The author does an excellent job of staging, within the hospital, in the town, and in the wilderness.
I love the foundation of friendship between Calvin and Deirdre. Even with the cracks in that foundation formed by their years of separation, it still provides a solid basis on which to build. David explores deeply emotional facets of both characters as they grapple with feelings of desire, guilt, grief, and hope without allowing the story to get too heavy.
As with book one, the citizens of Yukon Valley play pivotal roles in this second book, especially of the meddling matchmaking type. Well meaning, yes, but also hilariously nosy in their attempts.
If you like a story that explores second chances with the one who got away, moving forward after a spouse's death and best friends-to-lovers, all wrapped up in a charming small-town romance with humor, a bit of danger, community spirit, fake dating, hospital situations, and a hard-won happy ending, pick up a copy of Paging Dr. Breakup. It's a humorous, heart-tugging, enjoyable read.
Thanks for the lovely review. Have not read anything by this author yet. But, absolutely love the idea of stories set in Alaska. I believe it must be a magical place with wonderful things to see.
ReplyDeleteI second everything Annette just said!
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