3 out of 4 stars
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The Surgeon's Wife by William H. Coles is a dramatic story with an element of romance that centers around Mike Boudreaux, the chief of surgery at one of the largest hospitals in the country, his mentor and former professor during training, Clayton Otherson, and Clayton's beautiful wife, Catherine Otherson. The Surgeon's Wife starts off with Mike rescuing Clayton's patient after Clayton had failed to use the appropriate technique for the surgery. Clayton is full of pride and refuses to accept that his skills as a surgeon have dropped from where they once were, and he even goes as far as performing complicated surgeries for obese patients that he had little to no training for. This leaves Mike struggling to protect his mentor from colleagues that want Clayton's termination.
However, Clayton finally loses a patient due to his recklessness, which ends his career. He blames Mike for not protecting him and hates Mike even more when he finds out that Mike had been in an affair with his wife, Catherine. A lot of drama unfolds between Clayton and Catherine's divorce process, their strained relationship with their daughter, Melissa, and Mike's relationship with Catherine.
Picking up this book, I expected a lot of drama with some twists, and this book did not disappoint. I really enjoyed reading the first few chapters a lot probably because most of it was set in the hospital, and I got to learn a few medical terms. I enjoyed where the book highlighted how some health professionals put personal interest ahead of patient well being, and how some of them think their area of specialization is superior to others, which is very common in a real life hospital setting. The story is a bit short but it keeps moving and hardly slows down. The Surgeon's Wife is also a breath of fresh air with respect to editing compared to books I've read recently, it contained very few grammatical errors.
However, some parts of the book confused me, especially dialogues. It was hard to figure out who was speaking at certain times and this slowed my reading down a bit. I also did not like the development of the love story between Mike and Catherine. There were no hints of them falling in love and it happened too fast and unexpectedly. The scene where Mike and Catherine finally acknowledge their love for each other and act on it was also underwhelming. It was also hard to keep up with the time frame in this book, it would probably have helped if the author had separated unrelated scenes by a line or two for better clarity.
I would recommend The Surgeon's Wife to teenagers and adults who enjoy drama stories and a light read. There is an element of romance involved, and there is no graphic sexual or violent scenes, it is entirely appropriate for younger readers. I would have liked to rate the book 2.5 stars if the rating system allowed it, because of the difficulty to understand some dialogues and how rushed Mike and Catherine's love story felt. However, good character development and my attachment to some of the characters helped me make the decision to rate this book 3 out of 4 stars as opposed to 2 stars.
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The Surgeon's Wife
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