Title: Patient Privilege
Author: Allison Cassatta
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Novel (286 pages)
Publisher: Silver Publishing (August 18th, 2012)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥3Hearts-liked it
Blurb: Dr. Erik Daniels hasn’t had it easy. He lost love and fought addiction to get where he is, one of the best substance abuse counselors people with no money and no insurance can get. Not the dream life he had in San Francisco, but at least he has something to call his own. Everything seems to be on the right track until Angel, a heroine addicted male prostitute, and the kid’s lover happen to cross his path.
Erik not only sees a lot of himself in Angel, but he also sees a lot of potential in the kid and he quickly realizes he’s willing to sacrifice a lot to get him on the right path, even his own love life.
Product Link: https://spsilverpublishing.com/product_book_info/new-release-c-1/products_id/1185/?zenid=b79494e51cf262ea6f78b46bcdbc383c
Reviewer: Showme
Review: I expected to shed tears, at some point while reading this book, after reading the blurb. Addiction, prostitution, broken hearts and homes sounds like it should come with a box of tissues, if you ask me. I never did cry. There were plenty of situations that screamed for me to but I just never connected with characters to produce tears.
Most of the story is told from the POV of Dr. Erik Daniels, a counselor and recovering alcoholic at a free clinic. He knows what it’s like to lose everything to addiction. He used to have a committed partner whom he loves, private practice and a beautiful home in San Francisco, but lost it all to his addiction to alcohol.
Angel is a drug addicted prostitute with no place to call home. His only reason for being is to get his next high and pay for someplace to crash after shooting up. He has one true friend named Jon who loves him, but Angel isn’t capable of loving himself much less anyone else. Every day is the same for Angel. Selling his body and relieving him of the grotesque memories through drugs. It’s a vicious cycle that he has no desire to get out of until one night he ODs. A night in the ER brings him in contact with Erik and a very dramatic blow up gets Angel in Erik’s rehab center.
There are three different love stories going on in this book. I was kind of into the two going on in the first 2/3 of the book and I was looking forward to seeing everyone get their happy ending. Then everything changed and I didn’t really like how it did. It seemed to happen all at once without any subtle hints or working up to it. Until this, I thought I knew how the book would play out. I wish there had been less time getting me invested in couples that were never going to happen and more time showing me how the couple at the end of the book fell in love. Maybe the author will write the other guy’s stories next and if so, I’d give it a try.
Jon and Marshall both get HEAs in the second book. It’s in the works now and it’s tentatively called “Journalistic Integrity”