Brook Ogden is busy professionally. She is a licensed
mental
health counselor with a consulting practice as the Breakup
Doctor. Brook helps patch broken hearts. She has a radio
show giving advice on matters of the heart. Recently she
started a group session on Saturdays with nine gals and
guys
dealing with personal relationship failures. Her private
life is a mess and getting messier. Two recent breakups
in
her own life has left her hurt and confused.
Miserable, lonely and humiliated after breaking every one
of
her own breakup rules after being recently dumped,, she
meets Chip Santana, a former client at a party. He has a
primal effect on her, A bartender, he is tall, dark
handsome and very sexy. They get "up close and personal
in a
naked kind of way" on the beach and are interrupted by a
deputy who arrested and jailed them.
Brook had been dating Ben Garrett for the past three
months
and he is a sweet guy. Busy designing and building a high
end luxury home for a family in Cedar Key he is away all
week
but they always were together on the weekends. He wines
and
dines her and they take their relationship slowly. When
his
mother has a serious fall and is hospitalized, he needs
somewhere to place his gorgeous Great Pyrenees , Jake.
Brook
offers to take care of his dog and I thought Jake was a
marvelous and funny character. As a dog lover, he was a
plus
in this story and his antics had me belly-laughing.
BEDSIDE MANNERS is a story about heartbreak and the
reality of breakups.
Filled with zany characters, I enjoyed Sasha, the BFF
from
childhood and her on-going sweet relationship with Stu,
Brook's brother. They are adorable together. Sasha tries
so
hard to offer good advice to Brook, but no way does Brook
listen. I did not like Brook at all and question so many
of
her decisions. Most cringe worthy was her decision to let
Ben
go and her sexual escapades with abusive Chip right after
is a
total disappointment to me. Brook tries to help people
who
are hurting from heartbreak. But she does not take the
time
to properly deal with the issues of her own breakups. She
seems unable to follow her own good advice. I think it's
time for Brook to straighten up and fly right, pick up
the
phone and call Ben and tell him to come over and bring
Jake.
Brook Ogden has never encountered a broken heart she
couldn’t patch together. Her counseling practice as the
Breakup Doctor—on call to help you shape up after a
breakup—is so busy she’s expanded to offer group sessions.
(Turns out there are far more than fifty ways to leave
your
lover.) Her radio show and advice column have made her a
local celebrity, and even her personal life, after some
gruesome breakups of her own, is in recovery: Ben Garrett
started out as a revenge date against an ex, but has
turned
into so much more.
But when sizzling-hot Chip Santana, an old client she once
shared a rather unprofessional midnight roll in the sand
with, comes back into her life asking for her help, Brook
can’t say no. Yet while she’s busy stitching up his
relationship troubles, Chip reveals much more than a
therapeutic interest in her.
In the standoff between her heart and her hormones,
Brook’s
cool, collected Wise Therapist persona begins to crack
like
thrown wedding china. She’s yelling at recalcitrant
cheating
husbands. Offering crazy advice to radio callers. She’s
even
hugging her clients.
When the situation goes critical, Brook’s forced into a
decision she isn’t ready to make—and the Breakup Doctor
has
to decide what kind of casualties she’s willing to accept.