The Doctor’s Secret
Blurb
The brilliant but brooding new doctor encounters Copper Point’s sunny nurse-next-door… and nothing can stand in the way of this romance.
Dr. Hong-Wei Wu has come to Copper Point, Wisconsin, after the pressures of a high-powered residency burned him out of his career before he started. Ashamed of letting his family down after all they’ve done for him, he plans to live a quiet life as a simple surgeon in this tiny northern town. His plans, however, don’t include his outgoing, kind, and attractive surgical nurse, Simon Lane.
Simon wasn’t ready for the new surgeon to be a handsome charmer who keeps asking him for help getting settled and who woos him with amazing Taiwanese dishes. There’s no question—Dr. Wu is flirting with him, and Simon is flirting back. The problem is, St. Ann’s has a strict no-dating policy between staff, which means their romance is off the table… unless they bend the rules.
But a romance that keeps them—literally—in the closet can’t lead to happy ever after. Simon doesn’t want to stay a secret, and Hong-Wei doesn’t want to keep himself removed from life, not anymore. To secure their happiness, they’ll have to change the administration’s mind. But what other secrets will they uncover along the way, about Copper Point… and about each other?
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Excerpt
“Are you all right?”
Breathless, dizzy, Simon glanced up at Hong-Wei. Oh, he was so close. So handsome. Simon could still feel the ghost of the heat of Hong-Wei’s chest against his back, that temporary feeling of being cradled. Now Hong-Wei stood in front of him, one arm braced against the brick as he leaned in close, his face full of concern.
Simon ached for him. He knew he shouldn’t, knew he couldn’t,but in that narrow space, with the object of his affection a literal breath away, there was no way to stop himself.
Especially when Hong-Wei’s hand rose to stroke Simon’s face. Nothing more than a brief, lingering brush, but Simon shuddered all the same, his lips parting on a gasp as he stared, caught in Hong-Wei’s gaze.
“I’m sorry I got you involved.” Hong-Wei rested his hand on Simon’s elbow. “Are you hurt?”
Unable to make a sound, Simon shook his head. He couldn’t move, couldn’t look away.
Simon chided himself for letting his fantasies run amuck. Hong-Wei was simply checking on him after an intense encounter. Any second now he’d smile, release Simon, and they’d go to the OR for surgery.
Except Hong-Wei didn’t smile, and he didn’t let him go. If anything, he moved closer. His smell engulfed Simon: spice, crisp linen, and Hong-Wei. Simon’s hands itched to fall to Hong-Wei’s hips, and he had to ball his fists, resting them on his thighs so he didn’t reach out. Hong-Wei leaned closer, his lab coat draping around them as his arm bent against the wall. His gaze never left Simon’s.
Wu is into you.
Simon couldn’t exactly argue with Jared’s assessment any longer. The question was, what did he want to do about it?
Never mind, that wasn’t a question. Simon wantedhim like he’d wanted nothing in his life. But he didn’t know if he shouldhave him. Not the doctor he worked with. Not with Andreas’s policy hanging over his head.
What he shoulddo was an easy answer. Funny how knowing that didn’t motivate him to move at all.
Hong-Wei touched Simon’s cheek again, stroking with more purpose this time, his thumb scraping Simon’s chin, lingering on his neck. “Should I stop?”
Copper Point: Medical Series
Copper Point may be known as a small northern Wisconsin town famous for not wanting to change, but things are certainly shaking up at St. Ann’s Medical Center, the city’s quirky, county-run hospital. Secret romances, fake relationships, second chances at love, scandalous liaisons in an elevator—all while longstanding and shockingly deep corruption are exposed. St. Ann’s young new leadership and upstanding team of doctors will lead the way to truth, and to love.
The Doctor’s Date
Releasing June 18, 2019
Pre-Order on Amazon
The hospital’s least eligible bachelor and its aloof administrator hate each other… so why are they pretending to date?
Dr. Gagnon doesn’t do anything but argue with the HR director…until learning Erin’s secret makes him long to protect his former enemy the only way he can think of: by pretending to be his lover.
The Doctor’s Orders
Releasing August 20, 2019
Pre-Order on Amazon
Once upon a time Nicolas Beckert was the boy who stole kisses from Jared Kumpel beneath the bleachers, but now Jared’s a pediatrician and Nick is the hospital CEO who won’t glance his way. Everything changes, however, when they’re stranded alone in a hospital elevator. Ten years of cold shoulders melt away in five hours of close contact, and old passions rekindle into hot flames.
4 of 5 Stars
This is a great start to the new series! I am always a fan of super sweet feels and Hong-Wei and Simon have that in spades. The angst is not relationship driven and fairly quickly resolved which also makes me happy.
The small-town setting is charming. I adore the rallying around each other and the ‘everyone knows your name’ atmosphere; although it does make things a bit rough for Simon and Hong-Wei when they want to date against the hospital rules.
Simon and Hong-Wei are perfect together…they complement and strengthen each other both personally and professionally. Ordinarily, I’m not a fan of ‘instalove’ but it works in this instance. Their relationship progressed quickly but felt organic.
The friendships forged between Hong-Wei (Jack), Owen and Jared were endearing and their banter and ‘competition’ were entertaining. All the supporting cast really enhanced the story and set the stage for a great series. I’m looking forward to both Owen and Jared’s books.
About the Author
Author of over thirty novels, Midwest-native Heidi Cullinan writes positive-outcome romances for LGBT characters struggling against insurmountable odds because she believes there’s no such thing as too much happy ever after. Heidi is a two-time RITA® finalist and her books have been recommended by Library Journal, USA Today, RT Magazine, and Publisher’s Weekly. When Heidi isn’t writing, she enjoys cooking, reading novels and manga, playing with her cats, and watching too much anime. Find out more at heidicullinan.com.
Crafting Copper Point
Thanks so much for having me today! I’m here to talk about my latest novel and first installment in the Copper Point: Medical series, The Doctor’s Secret. Today I’m going to talk a little bit about the making of Copper Point, the town all the novels in this series (and potential spin-off series) is set.
Because I planned all three books in this series in advance, and because I wanted the community to be a big part of the series, I had a lot of fun building the places characters would go and populating them with characters. Certain places appear in all three books, as do some of the secondary characters. I told my editor I’d really played myself and wished I could go back and write the story of how the lesbian couple in the series met, because I love them so much.
The town itself is set where in real life the city of Ashland, Wisconsin is. It’s a remote area, where Copper Point would be the largest city around for quite some time and yet not be terribly big. I gave it a university because that change the makeup of it slightly; I live in a town that is doubled in size by the presence of Iowa State University, and without it Ames would be Copper Point sized. Bayview University is significantly smaller and isn’t situated on a major interstate thirty miles from the state’s capital. But I did borrow a lot from Ames, in the sense that no matter how big it pretends to be, it’s still a small town.
I know from experience how important a hospital is to a town of that size, and to the area around it. I’ve watched the politics around hospitals with a keen eye ever since I married someone who works in one, but in areas this removed, medical care becomes a serious issue very quickly. Recruiting people to live in such an area can be tricky. That made for some interesting dynamics in the story as well.
The other great thing about crafting Copper Point was that while I closed this series off with book three, I left the door open for more books in complementary series. I don’t have official plans for Copper Point: Main Street, but that could absolutely happen. Ditto Copper Point: University. Someone suggested Copper Point: EMT, and man…I’d have to get myself some more education before that! But who knows.
For now, these three books will more than do to give you a taste of Copper Point. I hope you enjoy the trip! I wanted to make these books easy to read, though it’s me, so there are always some issues and a little angst. Please check out The Doctor’s Secret and The Doctor’s Date and The Doctor’s Orders. Copper Point is waiting for you!