Healing Touch by Brenda Rothert

​CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

Publication date: 06/12/2018
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
Cliffhanger: No

This is an adult romance. And I’m not talking about erotica, folks. (Though, there are plenty of sexy times.) No, I’m talking about a book where two mature adults fall in love and act like real, responsible, emotionally mature adults would act. No stupid misunderstandings. No one stubbornly refusing assistance. No alphaholes. No angst. Just two likeable, relatable folks falling in love like real folks in real life would. I can’t even tell you how rare that is in romance land, y’all. It was refreshing. Here’s the stuff I especially liked:

1. Carson is a hospital maintenance man. He’s not a shifter/billionaire/playboy/Navy Seal/step-brother/rockstar. He’s a guy with a real-life kind of job. And let me tell you, despite what other authors might be trying to sell you, there’s nothing unsexy about a guy who knows how to fix stuff.
2. Joss is stuck working at the same hospital with her ex-husband and the woman he cheated on her with. Does she fall apart in their presence and whine about her misfortune? Nope. She sucks it up (like a REAL woman would), and goes about the business of doing her job. And she’s damn good at her job. (There’s some GREAT competence porn here.) She’s also a little snarky and sassy in the process, and I really enjoyed that.
3. The women in the story aren’t out to get each other. (They don’t always talk sweetly to each other, but no one is actively trying to destroy anyone else.) When Joss has an opportunity to stick it to the woman who screwed her ex-husband while they were still married, she doesn’t take the shot. She takes the high road. Joss is totally classy, and remains totally classy throughout the story. What’s not to love about that? (Girl on girl hate is sooooo passé)
4. Carson has some PTSD issues from his time spent in Iraq. Does he keep it all in and stubbornly try to work through everything by himself? Nope. He talks to Joss about it openly and honestly, and even gets a therapist. What a great adult he is! (In case you couldn’t tell, I LOVED Carson)
5. While the women were all mature and mostly classy, the men had a moment or two when they acted like Neanderthals peeing on Joss to mark their territory. But even that seemed like something two guys would do in real life, so I wasn’t at all offended by it.

So, if everything was so great, why not a 5-star rating, you ask? Well...it was almost TOO low angst. There weren’t any major stakes. Everybody was so open and honest and upfront about everything that there wasn’t much tension in the story. I know, I know...I’m always bitching about how I want low-angst reads. But this one was so low-angst that I felt like there was just a little something missing. There’s a difference between low-angst and no-angst, and this one toed the line between the two.

But, overall, I was really impressed with this read. I loved Carson and Joss, and I’d totally be friends with them. You know, if they were real. (The author did THAT good a job of creating realistic characters.)

Long-story-short: this is a great read for lovers of mature, low-angst romance with plenty of sexy times between smart, hard-working, loveable characters.     
  
Full disclosure: We received an ARC from NetGalley, free of charge.

Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
It’s clean and sober. No rehab needed.

Other reading suggestions
I’ll definitely check out the author’s backlist. And for another author of mature, adult-y romance, check out Abigail Strom. You can check out our reviews of Tell Me and Show Me here, and here.

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