REVIEW: Finding Forever With the Single Dad by Becky Wicks

Finding Forever With the Single Dad by Becky Wicks: Lucie left home to go to medical school in America and then stayed away by going to various dangerous locales around the world helping. After a horrendous disaster in Peru, she knows she needs a temporary break to get herself together again. When a temporary GP position opens up near her hometown, she feels this may just what she needs. She will get to help her Gramma May who was there for her as she grew up. Lucie has long felt guilty that her Grampa had to keep working to help care for her. He died before he and her Gramma could do the traveling they once planned.

She is surprised that her former best friend , Austin Johnstone aka AJ, is now working as a therapist with patients using a trained canine assistant as well as traditional methods. Jetson is more than just a typical dog. He can sense a lot about people before they even might know. Lucie finds out when she suddenly left AJ behind years ago that he hadn’t ended up with Claire who Lucie overheard saying mean things about her. Instead he married Ebby and they had two beautiful children, Ruby and Josiah. Ebby passed away several years ago and AJ’s sister has been helping out.

Lucie ends up fostering a dog named Maple after her previous foster mom had to give her up. Maple helps Lucie with some of her ongoing nightmares just by being able to feel she needs comfort. The dogs and the children have fun times. Lucie is afraid to get too close since she knows she will have to leave in the near future. Can she keep her feelings for AJ under wraps when he still seems to be afraid to let go of Ebby’s memory?

The romance is a very slow build and PG rated. Both main characters have never truly dealt with the distant and recent past. They drag around a lot of guilt on top of it all. It is sweet that they both want to protect the two children.

Even though I love romances, this book that focused so much on dogs and what they are capable of touched me on a very deep level and made me smile. As the story and the author’s notes reveal there is even more research being done on how they could help humans. Even though I love people, when there was a recent news story about a local K-9 officer who died in the line of duty I cried.
Becky Wicks is a new to me author. Her use of authentic medical situations drew me into a tale I read in one sitting.
 

Book Info:

Publication: August 22, 2023 | Harlequin Medical Romance |

When a GP returns home to Yorkshire, she doesn’t expect to get involved in her ex’s canine therapy business…or to fall for the single dad and his adorable twins! Find out more in this reunion romance from Becky Wicks.

An adorable family…

…she’s always dreamed of?

After a traumatic incident working overseas, Lucie returns to Yorkshire as a stand-in GP. There she finds Austin—her former best friend and secret crush!—is now a canine therapy psychiatrist and widowed single dad of twins. Lucie can’t risk falling in unrequited love with Austin again, not when she’ll be leaving soon. But when she learns that Austin is hiding affection for her, too, dare she make her temporary home a forever one…?