I liked this for what it was: a medical book. It certainly wasn't a medical romance, and as my first medical romance not what I thought it could be in that genre (the rich doctor's baby, or whatever, y'know) but I enjoyed it. The romance felt a little shoehorned in, but the writing was good. Would read another book by the author, but perhaps more straight up medicine, or just more romance woven in.

While I quite enjoyed it, it's not romance as readers of mm expect. The slow build is almost too tense, and it's possible many will abandon it because Neil and Eli barely interact for the first quarter.

I liked Neil's narration, as I found him genuine and kind.

But is it enough?

His interactions with other secondary characters reveal a lot of personality and emotion, but there's very little plot to deal with.

The last quarter is the best. Eli is a flawed, charismatic character. It's easy to see why Neil has it so bad for him, and is willing to wait, and we watch his growth as a doctor in a lot of detail while he does. Eli's journey to openness and acceptance is stuff of wine and roses.

But is it enough?

Copy provided by publisher via Netgalley, and read with thanks. Out on April 24.

DNF after chapter 2. Slow pace + lack of interest in the main character (or any character) + multiple reviews from others I follow that say it doesn't pick up and the romance is MIA (though there is a HEA). No use wasting my time, to be quite honest.

Great read with a lot of medical matters. It's  a entertaining read with the slowest slow burn ever.
I almost quit. Sorry but I wanted some romance and kisses and stuff..it lasted and lasted. But the story kept me reading I just longed for some connection and in the meantime the pages kept turning and turning With others words it was captivated as hell :) it was good, all the medical cases were good. Everything was good only....shit....the slow burn....damn....it almost did go backwards instead of forward. 

And now....the story....:) 
Neil is a medical student standing in a coffee line wearing a hoodie and jeans and when he sees Eli who gives a medical presentation at the faculty, he thinks he is stunning...when their eyes meet something happened.

Years go by and Neil's works hard, he gets an opportunity to work at the hospital where Eli works....they get involved with Neil's study, internship, and later surgery. They go on trips to medical congress, seminars etc. and their friendship is deepening.

Until 40% there was nothing but camaraderie. Neil had a crush five years ago and he still feels something but he can't do anything with it.
I missed passion from Eli's side... There was only attraction from Neil's side. And through the story I almost forgot about they would ever coming together. Until.....60% then this changed. In a very endearing and heartbreaking way Neil discover Eli's real feelings toward Neil.....and Eli is devastated....
That went straight to my heart....
Only now their deep friendship is in jeopardy....
No way Eli would start something with Neil.... until.....that's the only thing he can do....

I'm feel terrible to admit I skipped through a lot of medical terms and sessions. It was for me of no interest really..I did read some but mostly I didn't go deep into those parts. I was to desperate for the men to come together, I yearned for connection, for passion for love...

This whole story was really profound. It was spread over years...it was mostly from Neil's perspective and for me that was good but I missed Eli's feelings and perspective. 
Both men were focused on their friendship and there were not even flirty escapades. More a deep comrades. Only from Neil's mind there were yearnings and feelings of crashing hearts.
But he respected Eli so much he didn't want to loose him as friend.
And they were friends, they did a lot of things together.

The romantic part of this story gets more satisfying when Eli finally opens up and we get a look from his point of view, how much he struggled through all those years, actually from the moment he saw a 'much to young' beautiful person in hoody and jeans. 
His mind was so beautiful to see, i wished this started earlier in this story, because that was exactly what I yearned for.

A really solid read which I enjoyed enormously The way of writing felt honest (I took all the medical terms for granted) it was an extended story, never dull but it could have more romance in it....and when it finally came, it was like the sun start shining and everything felt more brighter. They have their so deserved HEA.

~ Kindly received a copy given by Netgalley ~

Not the worst I have read but definitely not the worst, just was really slow. I know this book was about drs and everything but there was a lot of medical terminology that wasn't even explained what it was. I am sure there are readers out there that will enjoy this book just ended up being way too slow for me.

When the book starts, Neil is a medical student and then he's an intern, and then a fellow. The book moves through the years a bit, but I found it easy enough to follow so I was never confused as to where Neil was in his journey to becoming an attending doctor. As for Eli, he's a cardiologist who Neil first sees in medical school, when Eli is there to give a speech. Once Neil is working at the hospital, he's path crosses with Eli more and more often. While Neil has been harboring a crush on Eli for years, he doesn't think the feeling is at mutual since Eli has an ex wife and has never once mentioned being bisexual. As such, Neil tries to enjoy their budding friendship without getting too attached, and it works for awhile. 

Obviously Eli has feelings for Neil too. I don't think that's a spoiler as it's in the summary, and that's just how these stories go, right? At the same time, Eli isn't willing to risk either of their jobs or reputations by acting on those feelings and it definitely upsets Neil. This makes sense though; Neil has had these feelings for years and when he finally realizes that they are reciprocated, he's pushed away. Despite this, things do end up okay for the two, but I don't want to go into too many details and spoil the whole story. The details are the story after all.

One thing that I will note though is that the book felt a bit too long, as the author focuses a lot on the medical aspect of the story. While I understood most of the details, it did feel like a bit much in parts. Granted, the author is a medical student so it does make sense. While some of the descriptions could have been left out, having some does make the hospital and its inhabitants feel that much more realistic. What tends to suffer from these details is that the actual romance doesn't really appear until maybe halfway through the book. I was never bored reading the book, but I was definitely more interested in the relationship aspect of the book. 

Necessary Medicine is York's debut, but hopefully she'll write more!

So I really enjoyed the slow build up here, we get to see Eli and Neil's relationship develop over a number of years while Neil works through his residency. 

Neil was smitten with Eli from the first time he saw him giving a lecture while he was still in college, when he ends up at the same hospital that develops into love but thinking that Eli is straight due to his recent divorce he doesn't think anything will ever come of it. When he finds out differently at a conference in Neil's final year, Eli still insists nothing can happen between them because it would be unethical as Eli is his senior at the hospital.

When they almost lose a close friend they both realise that life is too short to deny the happiness they would have together. My only little niggle, and this is just my opinion, the ending felt a little rushed after the slow build up, would have liked to see more of their HEA.

2* Not sure what to make of this. More a book about the reasons you wouldn't want to be a doctor in the US than anything else. 

I honestly wondered what I was reading as I read this, as it was nothing but talk of long hours, no relationships, no life outside of work, people being exhausted, on-call stuff, trying out different areas of medicine, colleagues succumbing to the pressures of work, doctors not looking after themselves, and the likes. The leads met briefly at the start of the tale when the younger attended a lecture given by the older, and over the 5yrs that the tale spanned, they saw each other occasionally as distant colleagues. And then, they shared a hotel room for a week, not on the greatest terms and the younger one saw the older one sniffing one of his shirts, and that was the dawn of their 'romance'. 

Skip another long period of them spending very little time together and it's their wedding day. Hmm. 

Not worth the time I spent on this, unfortunately, as it was boring to the extreme. Sorry.

ARC courtesy of Carina Press and NetGalley for my reading pleasure.

I feel like I’ve been lied to. This book is not a romance. There’s crushing. There’s a little sex. There is five flipping year’s worth of hospital residency life filled with surgeries, conferences, and some sort of monthly diversity meetings. There’s a happily ever after but all the in between of a love story where two people meet and fall in love is missing. All of this is from Neil’s point of view until the epilogue which is Eli’s point of view. 
I mentioned in the above paragraph five years. Necessary Medicine begins while Neil is still in school. This is the first time he ever lays eyes on Eli. Eli is there giving a talk on transplants or something and of course it is love at first sight for both of them. This is where the choppy life happenings that are the majority of the book begin. Well over three quarters of this book is moments in Neil’s life at the hospital. It was jerky. This manner of story telling did not flow well for me at all. 
From the blurb I was expecting some sort of Grey’s Anatomy (tv show) like tale with some sneaky man on man loving going on in the call room. I knew there would be a slow burn aspect to the story.  Didn’t get slow burn, I barely got a fizzle. The romance was severely lacking. Neil and Eli are friends. They don’t even hang out as friends that much. Nope, not a romance.

I really liked the blurb on this and was looking forward to this book. Unfortunately the execution did not work for me at all. It was dry and filled with tedious descriptions of medical procedures, conferences and committees. It is excessively filled with medical terms and medicines and I don't know how the author expects the average to reader to understand half of what she was talking about. I work in the medical field so I did understand it and I was still bored. I was not surprised to find in the author's bio at the end that she is in medical school. It is clear she understands how hospitals work and has a good grasp on medical information but it was like chart notes. Facts, facts, facts. Nothing but facts. No opinions, no observations, nothing that would help readers to build a rapport with the MC's. I did not ever get to know Eli. Neil we learned more about since it's his view were getting but I didn't love him. His behavior was childish and immature in parts in regards to his relationship with Eli. Their friendship and budding relationship is short burst of information. A scene here, a scene there. More like diary entries. They don't get together until close to the end (80% or so) and I just didn't care anymore. The last 10% of the book then throws them fast forward into this hea that I didn't feel one emotion about. It would have been so much better for me had the author cut out 75% of the tedious medical facts and used all that to show these guys building their friendship, falling in love and then getting their hea. That last chapter or two of the book is not the time to do all of that. 

The technicality of the writing was fine. As a result I'm rounding up to 2 stars. I would have dnf'd this though if it was not a review book.

**ARC provided through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

I feel terrible but I actually DNFed this book pretty early.  I am all for the slow build of a story, but this one was so slow I just couldn't get into it.  Another thing that  bothered me was how the characters were written.  This was a book about two MC's who were doctors in a hospital.  They, along with their colleagues at the hospital, talked and acted like immature teenagers.  It was pretty silly if I'm honest  So, for those reasons I couldn't get myself to finish the book.  I didn't delete it from my e-reader so I may still go back to it some day.  But that day won't be soon.

I have to start off by saying that I think the publisher is doing a major disservice to the author and readers by marketing Necessary Medicine as a romance. Basically, a good 90% of it read like a very detailed memoir of a medical intern/resident, with only the last 10% dipping into romance. That’s not to say the main character Neil didn’t have a love interest throughout the length of the book – he absolutely did. But it’s difficult to consider awkward crushing and embarrassing interactions over the course of 3 years as “romance,” especially when the book focused so heavily on his career.

I liked that the anecdotal style kept the book moving at a pretty fast pace, and it’s probably the reason why I was already halfway through when I rejected the idea of the book as a category romance. Identity crisis notwithstanding, in my opinion the ARC I received could’ve used further editing  (which it likely will). Apart from minor cleanup, I noticed the tense wasn’t consistent at one point. The biggest problem for me though was that the book was really bogged down with medical jargon including industry abbreviations and acronyms. And not just a smattering of the watered-down, audience-friendly lingo you hear on TV. While it probably made for realistic chatter, I did feel like I needed an appendix 75% of the time (no pun intended).

    “Any interesting cases lately?” asked Neil after a while.
    “I’ve got a woman with HOCM in the hospital right now. She was in for a procedure to ablate some of the hypertrophic tissue.”
    “That’s pretty cool.”
    Eli nodded. “I don’t see a lot of HOCM, although I would guess I see more than my fair share. I’m co-managing with Wei.”
    “That must be fun.”
    “Oh, he’s a charmer. But he’s good. How about you? Any good surgeries?”
    “I’m starting colorectal. So, it could be better, could be worse.”
    “What are you going to do for your elective block?”
    “Hepatobiliary. It’s really applicable to gen surg practice.”
    “So you’re still thinking general surgery?”

Also this, which was a small excerpt from a case that eventually Eli was called in on to work with Neil.

    It took Neil twice as long as it should have to finish the surgery, because the bowel was so frail. But finally, finally, he had the intestines patched together, and he could start sewing up the surgical incision.
    “Aorta’s still looking good ,” he reported to the Vascular attending, who was hovering at his elbow. “No mystery blood?”
    “No mystery blood. How far did the aneurysm extend? Iliacs?”
    “Common iliacs, yeah. We cut clear down to the bifurcations.”
    “Ouch.”
    “Well, it’s not like the rest of this isn’t going to have to go sooner or later.”The attending nodded in the general vicinity of the rest of the aorta. “It’s all going to fall apart on him. Best replace it while we can.”
    “For now, I’m just going to focus on getting him put back together. You can cut him open again later.”
    “Do you want me to close?”asked the intern.
    “No, this one’s tricky because the tissue is so friable. I’ll take it.”
    The intern nodded.
    Neil layered the muscles and then the skin back together. “How’s his aortic root look?”
    “Didn’t get a good look at it yet, we don’t have imaging on him. My money says it’s dilated, though.”
    “With this kind of widespread aneurysmal degeneration, it pretty much has to be, right?”
    “There are a couple other options, but that’s what I’d guess.”
    Neil hummed softly in agreement as he finished the closing sutures. “All right. Think we’ve got him about patched up for now.”

As you can see, the book was very heavy on details and not just on surgical procedures: conference trips, staff meetings, workgroups, hospital initiatives, you name it. Yes, Neil and his crush Eli interacted during some of these times, but I thought the level of specifics were extremely tedious and detracted from the already nonexistent romance. In short, they had zero chemistry even when they became friendlier over the years.

From the way he behaved with Eli (both professionally and personally), Neil felt younger than his 30-odd years, and Eli… Eli was a complete mystery to me. The few times their conversations turned personal, Eli seemed torn up about the HIV/AIDS epidemic (which struck when he was in high school), and I kept waiting for more of his story to be revealed. I thought perhaps it had scared him into the closet, or he’d had a first love pass away, etc, but nothing ever came of those conversations.

One major positive is that when the romance finally kicked in, it was surprisingly heartfelt and hot. But I can’t lie, it took a lot to get to that point – a whole lot of nothing, followed by a lot of denial and petulant avoidance (ie. more nothing), until they finally acknowledged their attraction in the home stretch.

As a category romance, I’d rate this book a 1 star. As general fiction, I might give it a 3. So I settled somewhere in between with a 2-star rating. You might enjoy this book if you work in the medical field as long as you keep your romantic expectations in check. But if you’re looking to lose yourself in a romance – even a workplace romance set in a hospital – this book isn’t it.

Necessary Medicine is super sweet and nice... and in my head that sounds like a bad thing. But it isn't. It's not bad at all... just nice. 

To break it down a bit, this is a long story with a super slow burn of attraction between Neil and Eli. And just to say, I had a hard time at first separating the two, only because their names sound so similar in my head. But this is all from the POV of Neil. Anyway, the slow burn is so slow. It lasts the entire book. When they finally get together I thought I would explode. When they finally say I love you, I thought OMG it is about damn time! The point when passion and angst and UST finally comes to a head, it's so good because A LOT of the book is just glances and looks, wishing and wanting. 

It was seriously frustrating. 

So what this book is not? It is totally not insta love. Not even close. It's not even that much of a romance in what I would consider one. There is too much medical stuff going on for that, and not enough of that romance fun. But the slow burn is there so... 

But what this book is? It's just sweet and nice and kinda lovely in the way the slow burn moves. This follows Neil all the way through med school, right up to when he decides on where he's going to finally work. It's a slow road... I know I already said slow, but gosh, it really is. But it feels necessary at the same time. It never really bothered me all that much. I just wanted them to move forward. I was anxious because they're so cute together. 

So I enjoyed this a lot. It might not be for everyone as it reads, um, slow. But if you're into those hospital drama shows on TV, it might be something you're interested in. Just maybe keep Google handy... there are a lot of medical terms used while both doctors are going through rounds and doing surgery. It only irradiated me a bit, but that's because I already knew what about 90% of the terms were. If you're unfamiliar with some of the medical stuff, it could slow you down even more. 

Still... I enjoyed this. It isn't perfect, but it was still good. 

I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Unless you have a medical background or have interest in medicine, then pull out some books or grapple with the internet cus this one is definitely medically based. Almost always I gravitate toward medical books...I am in the field, so it interests me in how others view it. The author is a part of the profession, and so has written what is known.

I liked the premise of the book; medical student highly attracted to a superior, but ethics keeps them apart. Happens more often than you think in hospitals (yeah, TV romanticize and goes overboard, A LOT!)

I went into this book knowing it was slow burn, but Oh. My. Gawd!!! This was sheer torture, and yet, on I read, because I was invested and I needed to see the angle the author (new to me and the world) would spin.

And as frustrated as I was at times, I really enjoyed this book. The setting mainly took us back to the hospital of practicing cardiologist Eli Newcombe, who you can tell from the first chapter was grappling with his affections for future surgical doctor Neil Carmona.

As told from Neil POV until the last chapter, we see the former English Lit major as he journeyed through medical school and five long torturous years of training to one day become the doctor in the field he had chosen.

We were introduced to a cast of characters who kept the book interesting and helped shaped both men's lives. It was good to see camaraderie between each person and how they filtered through life and friendship, sometimes skirting on the outside, other times in the heart of the matter, helping and developing.

Eli and Neil were meant to be, no doubt about it. I shared their loss of so many years wishing, hoping and wanting and that hotel room scene...shattered me. But with one true friend in their corner, Neil's perceptor, there was no way they were going to play footy under the table forever.

No, this book may not be for everyone, but it was a good read for me and I applaud the author in entering this foray into romance and writing.

I enjoyed this book a lot and would look for this author again.

If you like medical reads filled with hot guys, you will enjoy this book. It really gives you a taste of what residency is like, and pulls no punches.

This blurb of this story drew me in from the beginning however I was a tad bit disappointed with the actual story line in end. It was very medically orientated which I get because its a hospital set book but where was the wooing? where was the romance. 

I felt like it dragged to get to the main romantic course of the story. A good debut start though, and with time I feel like this author could really get where they are aiming to be.

Necessary Medicine is a stunning debut novel by M.K. York. It delves into the private and professional lives of doctors in a west coast teaching hospital. If you enjoy TV shows such as Grey’s Anatomy or the older series Scrubs you will love this novel. Part medical drama, part romance, this is a sensational story that is enjoyable and exciting.
We follow Neil through his five years as a surgical resident, facing his doubts about his abilities as a doctor but more so as a human being trying to find a balance between work and life. Add to that Neil is a gay man on the rebound after being rejected by his boyfriend, but develops an intense crush on one of the attending doctors. This is an infatuation that Neil absolutely cannot pursue for a number of reasons: Eli is heterosexual, he’s Neil’s superior, such a relationship is unethical, and he’s 12 years older.
Eli, an attending cardiologist, is recently divorced but seems on good terms with his ex-wife. However, he did leave his last hospital position because he couldn’t bear to be near her. Eli seems to have no interest in dating or even pursuing friendships. His work is his entire world, as he says and demonstrates all the time. Eli and Neil are not in the same field of medicine but the see each other around the hospital and at meetings of an important committee both serve on.
The story has a number of settings, the hospital, infrequent social occasions at bars or restaurants, committee meetings, and as Neil progresses through the resident system, learning conventions. The reader has a choice as medical jargon is heavily used in the story: either ignore the terms you don’t know and wait for context to fill in meaning, or spend a lot of time on Google looking them up. I used a combination of the two, mostly allowing context to explain terms and acronyms. The author does a reasonably good job of clarifying terms that are important to the story and letting others slide.
There are a number of secondary characters, two of whom are critical to story and character development. Neil’s best friend Mark is also a resident and Neil’s mentor Pete is an attending doctor in the radiology department. It turns out Pete is a long-time friend of Eli. I loved the development of the main characters and their changes through time, especially Neil’s development as a surgeon and how that affects his personality. M.K. York is not content to leave the character development to the MCs, however, and makes sure Mark and Pete are critical to the story and we know enough about their backstories to understand what’s motivating them. When both men are in peril due to different causes it is up to Neil and Eli to try to do something about the situations. Whether they are successful or not, you will have to read the story to find out.
I had to read more slowly that I usually do, because of the difference in the terminology to the books I usually read for pleasure, but I could not put this book down. It was thrilling, highly entertaining, and when the romance sparks and bursts into heat it becomes as scorchingly hot as any romance novel trying to achieve an HEA ending. Necessary Medicine is a book I highly recommend and hope you will find as enjoyable as I did.

This is a superbly crafted story, impressive for a debut author, and fans of any medical procedure show like ER or Grey's Anatomy will, no doubt, love it for the level of detail it goes into.

It's not, however, a true romance, the romance doesn't happen until the very final 20% of the book, although there is plenty of UST in the lead up to that, but more of a passing thing as part of the general story of how hard it is to be in the final stages of medical training to become a surgeon.

This book is eminently readable, it's engaging and Neil, the protagonist, is a very likable chap, he's dedicated to his calling, he's frustrated at his lack of personal life and he's aching with the attraction he has for a senior colleague.
But nothing happens, absolutely nothing at all, for pretty much three quarters of this book. Yes we get glimpses into Neil's head and his pining for Eli, but that's it, apart from one stolen kiss which causes all sorts of angst.

The romance, when it does eventually come, is so well done I felt cheated to have not had more of it. Neil and Eli eventually realise that love is something that they should be willing to fight and make sacrifices for and, if they don't, they could end up an eminently respected - but incredibly lonely - medical expert.

And the epilogue does go a long way to making up for the earlier deficit. This truly is a slow burn which takes place over a number of years. If you are a fan of those medical dramas, this book will be absolutely perfect. I enjoyed it but I'm not sure I could say it satisfied the romance element for me completely.

I couldn't get into this one. I found the story just not my style.