The Doctor: Nashville Neighborhood, Book 1

This is the first Nikki Sloane book I've read, and I highly enjoyed it. I'm partial to age-gap romances, which I realize are not to everyone's taste. This is a short book and a fast read; in 40-year-old Dr. Greg Lowe and Cassidy, who turns 20 in the course of the story, Ms. Sloane has succeeded in creating a fully developed and sympathetic hero and heroine. The novel is told entirely through Cassidy's first-person POV, so we get a lot of Cassidy's internal monologue, struggles, and conflict. Nevertheless, we also glean a lot of what's going on from Greg's perspective through sharp, realistic, and often emotionally powerful dialogue.There is a "taboo" angle in that Greg is the father of Cassidy's ex-boyfriend Preston, and that they commence their relationship rather quickly after her breakup with Preston. However, the Cassidy-Preston relationship had been going south for some time (pretty much entirely Preston's fault; he's been ignoring a lot of the time except when he wants to have sex with her; he's not a very sympathetic character for most of the story, but, by the end, the reader gets some insight into his struggles with Greg's negligence due to Greg's workaholism when Preston was a child; and Greg's effort to repair the relationship with quality fatherhood now).Several previous reviewers have complained that Cassie is immature. i don't entirely agree. I don't mean to seem ageist, but she doesn't strike me as particularly immature for a 19-20-year-old. She is relatively inexperienced in matters of the heart, to be sure, and perhaps "green" or naive in a couple of other ways emotionally, but I find her to be reasonably intelligent and sensitive. She strikes me as caring genuinely about both Preston, even after she breaks up with him and when she's angry with him, and about Greg. Even though I'm a guy, I find her quite relatable in terms of stuff I dealt with when I was in my late teens and twenties. Ultimately, she has two particularly important qualities for a good romance heroine: she's assertive and she knows what she wants.Another repeated criticism of this book is that Ms. Sloane succeeds in developing a powerful physical connection between Greg and Cassidy but little or no real emotional connection. I disagree. While it is true that the love/sex scenes comprise roughly 50% of the text (if that's not your thing, I'd advise that you skip this one); the sex scenes are quite potently written; they flow well and capture them in an intimate way. In addition to the usual activites such as mutual oral sex and vaginal intercourse, Ms. Sloane maximizes the erotic potential of mutual musturbation. Greg also devises a creative solution for Cassie and his mutual pleasure when they're faced with an unplanned separation on their date night. (I won't spoil it, but it's pretty hot). There's an appropriately handled (that is, lube + enthusiastic consent) anal scene that works on an emotional as well as physical level in terms of deepening the trust between the two partners.With all that carnal knowledge being exchanged, Ms. Sloane still makes space for real emotional intimacy between Cassidy and Greg. As is essential in any true erotic romance, all the love/sex scenes include emotional moments/aspects/romances that involve either bringing the couple closer emotionally or, in some cases, dividing them emotionally. Ms. Sloane accomplishes this in The Doctor. These are also good emotional exchanges outside the bedroom scenes in this novel, including a point that might be termed the story's "black moment," that demonstrated to me, at least, that Cassidy and Greg are truly in love, not just in love, with each other, so much so that it hurts. These scenes actually brought close me to tears.If you like this combination of elements and tropes, and a fast, entertaining read, I highly recommend The Doctor.

The Doctor was a steamy read featuring an age-gap romance with the slightly taboo/forbidden relationship trope of ex-boyfriend's father/son's ex-girlfriend. At the start of the book, the FMC is in an unsatisfying/unfulfilling relationship and admires her boyfriend's father's appearance. Once the relationship comes to an end, however, she almost immediately pivots to exploring the forbidden fruit of her attraction to his dad who's feeling her just as much as she feels him. Their initial physical attraction does carry the first half of the novel (with a pretty lengthy first-time hook-up scene between them), but the emotional connection didn't successfully build enough for me throughout the rest of the story. Beyond that, as their characters continued to develop, I found myself struggling to root for them as individuals and as a couple.This ultimately made me feel as if the promise of romance didn't fully deliver an emotionally satisfying conclusion. Don't get me wrong--the physical connection between the two character is fire and most of the scenes are great. But without the added layer of emotional heart-to-hearts, it was hard to fully understand/envision why these two work well together. At times, I felt the MMC didn't really come across as being as "adult" as he should've been, considering the repeated references to his 40-year-old-ness. In some ways, this could potentially lend itself to explaining why their relationship works, but it was hard for me to buy into. Maybe what made it hard for me to see him as a great, heroic MMC was that he didn't come across as a particularly good father to his son and occasionally, things he said to the FMC felt manipulative--combined with a few other things, it made it even harder for me to root for him.The writing was strong, and the spicy scenes were spicy. I enjoyed the nosy neighbor playing a part in complicating things, but did find the resolution a little... too convenient and also, awkwardly forced.Still, it was a quick and pleasant read with plenty of spice. I just wish it'd delivered more heart or more angst. If I were to try to recommend books along this same theme/trope to another reader, I'd have to say that I enjoyed Katee Robert's "Your Dad Will Do" and Sara Cate's "Praise" above this one.

I don't know about everyone else, but this reminded me a lot of Penelope Douglas's book Birthday Girl.Which honestly, was a bit of a better read.I struggled with this one, I really did.firstly: our FMC was boring as hell. She only had one partner, her boyfriend, until their break up. and our MMC went from quiet, kept to himself, to dominating and using language unexpected for his character.secondly: how many times do I need to read "is this your fantasy?" it was CONSTANT. Like we get it.the book was fine, the writing style was OK. But the entire time I read this, I honestly felt like I was reading a poorer version of Birthday Girl. sorry.....sorry not sorry? 🤷‍♀️

This has to be one of the hottest books I have ever read. I admit I wasn’t too thrilled with the age gap being between an adult man and a woman so young, but I could let it slide. And it would have been nice to have dual POV, too. All that said, this story was such a scorching read and the relationship between the two main characters felt so real that I can easily overlook those small complaints. I’ve read this book multiple times, which is something I rarely do. But this one just grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. I highly recommend it and the rest of the Nashville Neighborhood series.

This is sexy times ten!! Very far fetched story line. But sill a good read. If you like really hot love scenes, this is your book.

Liked this even though I knew what was going to happen and it had a few cringe-moments.It had lots of spicy moments and I mean, who wouldn’t fall for Dr Lowe? 🤣It had its learning moments though especially about communication and relationship which was appreciated.

Great book to read.

This book is not for faint hearts. I love the story, the characters and writing style. It's a very smutty book, but also sweet and leaves nothing to be desired. Love it

Nikki Sloane never disappoints! This was a fun read, hot as well, very hot, and I loved it!

If you love a good age gap book this is definitely a good one! A easy and relatively quick read but I enjoyed it very much!