Seduction and Betrayal: Novak Springs

Daring Love, Book 3

De: Dawn Brower

Narrado por: Tammy Leon

Dr. Ian Ellwood has worked hard to become one of the top heart surgeons in the country. His father would have preferred he went into sports medicine, but Ian had loftier goals. What he did not count on was falling in love with a nurse who would ultimately break his heart.

Lila Mooney has never gotten over Ian. She left him when it was too hard to stay, never explaining why. Now that they are once again working in the same hospital, she cannot avoid him. After Ian realizes why Lila left him, he is determined to win her love again. Seduction is a possibility, but he considers it beneath him to use it. Ian is a temptation that Lila has trouble resisting, but her bitterness may be too hard to overcome.

©2022 Dawn Brower (P)2023 Dawn Brower

Tear jerker

This second chance romance is amazing. I couldn’t stop listening to it. The characters were great and well put together. The narrator did a really good job. The hardships that the main characters went through really tear at your heart. I really enjoyed the story it was also great to see some of the characters from other Dawn Brower books.

secrets and closure

Nurse Lila and Dr Ian had a history. They are together in a different hospital. Old resentment and passion rise with every meeting.

The story started with the conflict. Once the secret was revealed, everything just went uphill for the two. Nice short story of the couple who surrounds/assisted the Novak family.Good for one sitting.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Sweet and Engaging

This is the third novella in the Daring Love Series. Ian and Lila's story is well written, fast-paced, and engaging. Tammy Leon did a good job narrating this audiobook. I enjoyed it. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Good Read

Seduction and Betrayal
Book 3 of Daring Love
Dawn Brower

The story and characters are well written and developed. I enjoyed the drama, chemistry and journey. Good read.

Ian and Lila

This is Book 3 of the Darling Love series. Each book can be read as a stand-alone story. This is Ian and Lila’s second change love story. The story is well written, and characters well developed. It was an enjoyable audiobook. The narration was well done. I received a free copy of this audiobook from BookSprout and am voluntarily leaving my review.

Ian & Lila

The third book in the Daring Love series, Dr. Ian Ellwood and nurse Lila Mooney's second chance story. The story is well written with a very good storyline that I enjoyed listening to. The story is well worth both listening to and reading.

Reasons

This is Ian and Lila's story. They loved each other, but then she left. When they end up in the same hospital, what will happen? Can they forgive each other? Can he really forgive her?.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Just So Bad; Let Me Count the Ways

I've listened to the other two stories in this series, and I haven't been wild about them. While I've read or listened to a lot of this author's historical romances—and enjoy them for the most part—I'm a newer convert to her contemporary romances, and I find myself much more lukewarm about them. This one has so many issues that I feel like I don't even know where to start. Let's start with the most simple one, I guess. The narrator for this book is absolutely terrible. Seriously, I'm not sure how she gets work as an audiobook narrator. Her voicings are never good, but how she voices dialogue for both men and women is absolutely abominable--no one talks as she voices them!—and the narrative descriptions aren't much better.

The hero and heroine are a doctor and a nurse, respectively. I am a registered nurse myself, so I do tend to be drawn to medical romances, but I am exceedingly fussy about them as I dislike hospitals or the medical/nursing world being portrayed inaccurately. How it was portrayed in this book was so wrong on several levels. The first scene nearly had me pulling my hair out at the roots! The way the heroine nurse was treated by her nurse manager and the heroine's response was so incorrect and so unprofessional I was nearly gasping for breath. Sometimes, I think authors forget that nursing is actually a profession guided by ethical standards that mark us as professionals. Neither of these women was that. The heroine is a night shift nurse, yet she deals with specialist doctors. I worked night shift for years, and I think I can count on one hand the number of times I saw a specialist on the night shift! The heroine is also a nurse who works both in Pediatrics and Maternity. That's not typical, especially on night shift. Usually, we only work on one floor, and Peds is usually quite separate from Obstetrics! I also thought it was strange how this nurse was depicted as being so poor to barely be able to afford a rideshare, let alone a car. She's a nurse in Washington state, and nurses there actually make pretty decent money! I know because I'm a nurse in the state just below it!

From what we understand of the hero during that first scene, he had asked her out, but she hadn't wanted to … so they didn’t. So far as I can recall from that first scene, they never had a genuine relationship of any type besides workers at the same hospital. Which is what makes what happened next odd. The book fast-forwards to sometime later when the heroine has a new job in a new location. The hero also happens to get a job at this hospital, and he treats her terribly for a year. We only see one small scene of this; we more hear of it from her perspective. Apparently, even though they were never a couple, he has held a grudge against her and treats her so unprofessionally—again, medicine is a profession with ethical standards. The way these two treated each other was in no way professional or remotely collegial—and she seems to be okay with that, even though it makes her uncomfortable. Seriously? Makes my back teeth grind.

Then the book shocked the heck out of me, and certainly not in a good way! If you have any triggers about rape or physical violence against women, DO NOT read this book. While we don't see the sexual assault on screen, we do learn a few too many details that would make any victim of sexual trauma very uncomfortable. But, making it worse, the author has a scene where the heroine runs into her rapist some years later! And not only that, he's actually physically assertive and then abusive to her right out there on the street, or wherever they were! Please do not read this book if you have any sexual trauma! I don't really feel like it was terribly germane to their story. The author could have chosen something that isn't so hurtful to so many women and men as the cause of some of the friction between the couple. I also didn't like how the author portrayed how the victim was feeling after this horrible run-in with her rapist. Far too soon, she was laughing, joking, and flirting with the hero. Oh, my god, please! It made my skin crawl!

So many things were just not handled well in this book. I do not feel like I can recommend it at any level.

TRIGGERS: rape (off-screen, but some details relived) and physical assault by the rapist in the current storyline