Dr. Daniel LeDeux and Samantha Starr had met several times over the past two years, since Daniel had moved to Louisiana. Daniel had left Juneau, Alaska after the death of his mother, and losing another young patient to cancer; he couldn't take being a doctor anymore, and since he's been drifting along. His identical twin brother Aaron is faring better; easy-going and flirtatious, the polar opposite of now gloomy Daniel. Daniel had been rather dazzled by Sam, who cannot stand the idea of doctors because of her ongoing divorce battle with her truly despicable ex-husband; if Daniel weren't a doctor on the other hand...

Sandra Hill is a favourite author of mine, and although I have read her vampires, Vikings, historicals, I had never read any of her Cajun Novels, although I knew of Tante Lulu, a most unforgettable character. THE CAJUN DOCTOR started out really well for me. I felt for Daniel, and Ms. Hill made me care for him, then he became somewhat depressed, which I understood, but he also became rather boring, flat. Sam, I loved! She has serious ex-husband problems, and her life becomes hell when her stepbrother comes to her for help; this was actually my favourite part of the story. While I understand Ms. Hill hadn't meant THE CAJUN DOCTOR to be a romantic suspense, I think it could have been expanded a bit, because I felt some things were rushed, but then again that was not the real purpose of the exercise. Daniel is very judgmental of the South and Cajuns, and also of Sam, whom he deemed a spoiled, rich girl, which was far from the truth; Daniel, to be honest, wasn't precisely a charmer, but thank goodness, it got better.

THE CAJUN DOCTOR is an over-the-top extravaganza the likes of which I don't believe I have ever seen. Sam takes in rescue animals of all sorts, and while it was entertaining, the antics of the menagerie got to be a bit much after a while. There is a bevy of exceedingly eccentric characters, which are wildly entertaining, but at times I felt they filled the empty space around Sam and Daniel's labyrinthine road to romance. Said romance which started with shared erotic dreams (!) -- I was never quite sure if that came from Tante Lulu or not -- and the love happened because, well I guess, Daniel got his head out from where the sun don't shine.

Sandra Hill is a wizard at describing the world her characters inhabit, and THE CAJUN DOCTOR isn't any different: the bayou and the swamp country appear as vivid as a colour photograph, I loved the Cajun accent and all the flavours of the South. The prose felt very spontaneous, almost in a stream of consciousness style. Ms. Hill is not especially known for her subtlety, which I usually find uproarious and I love her demented sense of humour, but here I sometimes felt overwhelmed by the zaniness. Maybe my subconscious had been trying to tell me all these years that this series was not for me, or most likely I was probably not in the right frame of mind for THE CAJUN DOCTOR, but it will not change the way I feel about dear Sandra Hill.