Lucien and I A rivals to lovers, steamy fake dating medical romance (Henry & Me #2)
Reviews
Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the author and then bought my own e-copy! Thanks and support your authors! All opinions are my own.
Book: Lucien and I
Author: Sasha Clinton
Book Series: Standalone
Rating: 5/5
Spice: 5/5
Diversity: Indian American MC, Lesbian character
Recommended For...: romance, steamy romance, contemporary, medical romance, rivals to lovers, fake dating, one bed trope, miscommunication
Publication Date: September 26, 2022
Genre: Romance
Age Relevance: 18+ (death, violence, gore, sexual content, drugs, harassment, parental death, depression, emotional abuse, self harm, sexual harassment, sexual assault, cancer, grief, romance)
Explanation of Above: The book is a medical romance and mentions death, parental death, violence, drugs, cancer, and gore. There is some blood and surgery gore also shown in the book. Grief is shown and mentioned in the book. There is a lot of sexual content in the book and romance. There are some scene of harassment, sexual harassment, and one scene of a sexual assault (a butt is groped against the butt owner’s will). There are mentions of depression and self-harm. There are some scenes of emotional abuse and some mentions of it as well.
Publisher: Indie Published
Pages: 356
Synopsis: Mira Krishnan is a cardiothoracic surgery fellow whose three big goals in life are:
1. Achieve superstardom in the field of heart surgery
2. Crush Lucien Stone by showing him that she’s the superior heart surgeon.
3. Fall in love with someone who is NOT Lucien Stone so she can erase her years-long crush on him.
Lucien and Mira have been rivals since high school, and she’d like nothing more than to wipe that smug, overconfident smirk off his devastatingly handsome face.
But when their rivalry goes too far and they’re caught in the middle of a fight by the program director, Mira’s life changes. To avoid being expelled from the fellowship for failing to conduct themselves in an appropriate, collegiate manner, Lucien and Mira are forced to lie about dating each other so they can dismiss their behavior as extreme flirting. But going on fake dates, vacations, and spending time together makes them realize that underneath all the jibes and rivalry, there's potential for something more…and perhaps, instead of looking into other people’s hearts, they need to look into their own.
Review: I really loved this book! I thought it was a really fun medical romance and it featured the tropes of rivals to lovers, fake dating, one bed, and miscommunication. The book was about two fellowship doctors who are working together in a hospital but have had an ongoing rivalry for years. When they are caught in a compromising position, they both must fake date to save their fellowship. This book would be a great companion to other medical romance books like A Brush With Love and I was surprised by how cute of a book it was. The writing was well done and the world building and character development was as well. The book was also well paced.
The only hang-up for me was that I felt like the book didn’t have a strong hook as to why they had to start fake dating. It was a bit weird but I appreciate how that was called out later in the book.
Verdict: It was adorable! I love it!
Thank you NetGalley for an ARC copy of this book Great book for fans of The Spanish Love Deception or The Love Hypothesis. I loved the banter between Lucien and Mira. I really liked how we knew all along that they liked each other from the moment they met 16 years ago in high school. It’s crazy to me that they would go that entire time without ever bringing the topic back up that they liked each other. There were a few times when I felt like the writing could be a bit better or it was too repetitive.