Overall Grade: B
Tropes: single dad; nanny; cinnamon roll hero; grump/sunshine; forced proximity; insta-attraction; slow burn; forbidden
Louise Bay’s The Doctor Series, which follows various family members as they chase dreams and the women they love, culminates in Dr. Single Dad. This book is one of my favorites of the series because Bay has drawn her characters, Dax and Eira, into likable characters who you cannot help but cheer on and celebrate. For me, this is the strength of this story: Dax and Eira, along with Dax’s family, are engaging characters. The struggles of this story are the development of Dax and Eira’s chemistry and subsequent relationship. Yes, this is a slow burn, but it isn’t the type of slow burn that tortures its reader. Once Bay has brought Dax and Eira together, she allows them to accept their attraction. However, the challenge of this story is the unevenness of Dax’s rendering. At the start, Bay has crafted Dax to be driven and career-focused. However, he comes across as almost a spectrum character with few feelings. Yes, Eira, as his nanny, draws those feelings out of him, but it’s a quick flip of the switch, and he’s an entirely different character in one moment. This seemed too sudden, making it difficult to believe their story arc. I would have liked to see Eira melt his personality in smaller measures while continuing to build their attraction, and Bay had the space to do this. Even more, she made an interesting choice, granted an ethical one for her characters, but I felt it broke up the forward motion of her plot. I thought the plot jumped the shark a bit.
All of that to say, that, overall, I enjoyed reading Dr. Single Dad. Eira’s capacity for humanizing Dax and their eventual happily ever after with the background of Dax’s family make for an engaging read.
In love and romance,
Professor A
Professor Romance 