Spanish Doctor, Pregnant Nurse

3 stars — Well bummer. This one was actually going a bit better. It had its flaws, but I was leaning towards 3.5 rounded up, maybe even 4 stars. And then it went downhill at the end. Boo. Ah well. So here’s the thing. The blurb does not give a great introduction to this book. For one: when the book starts, and when our MCs meet, Harriet is married. I mean, sure, her marriage is basically over, but it’s been so long since I first read it, I completely forgot and was thrown. It was a bit uncomfortable, but it didn’t cross my cheating boundaries (which is a button issue with me). And besides all that, the baby stuff? Happens way at the end. It sounds like it’s going to be this big part of the plot, and while it was part of what tanked the book for me, it really didn’t happen until the end. I don’t know why I’m explaining all this, I just hate when blurbs are misleading. ANYWAYS. So at first I appreciated Harriet. She’s dealing with some complicated stuff right from the start of the book, but I could feel how dedicated she was to her job, and I admired her as a nurse. She rubbed me wrong with her stubbornness about her own health, and how hypocritical she was about that, but it was a flaw I could forgive — made her more human, you know? BUT. But. Her stubbornness and hardheadedness just ramped up until I couldn’t take it anymore and lost my respect. She was so wrapped up in her own head, she made assumptions left right and center, and ultimately tanked her relationship with Ciro. If it had just happened once or twice and she learned from it, I probably would feel a little differently. But it ultimately led to her initially choosing to keep her pregnancy a secret for NO REASONABLE REASON, and I was done. Ciro was pretty solid. The problem, inevitably, is that we didn’t get ANYTHING from his POV. Which, I always prefer dual POV. I don’t know if that was to further the miscommunication plot, but it was a shame. I could tell that he was being misunderstood though, and I was sad about that. He had his moments of jumping to conclusions, but in general he was a hero I could root for. The one other thing I really enjoyed about this story were the moments in the ER where they were working together to help someone. There were sort of 3 separate stories, and I was kind of hooked in those moments. Welp, at least I can get rid of this book too! But I’m glad I’ve got some other books to read before I try another book by Ms. Marinelli. I could see what drew me to her books 15 years ago, but I’m not sure my tolerance for the rest is high enough.