I really enjoyed this story. It was originally a shorter version included in an anthology so if you get that deja vu feeling while reading that may be why. This is an expanded and revamped version but the basic story is still the same.

Joss and Carson are two people who have been burned by love in the past. Joss a little more recent so her wounds are still fresh. To make matters worse she has to see and her about her ex everyday since they work at the same hospital. She's a doctor and Carson is a maintenance man but there connection is deep. Can they get beyond their pasts and social differences to make a relationship work?

I recommend this one.

A very easy read. The story read fast - with lots of action between sheets - clean version. The two main characters are both healing from past relationships - and there are times it seems they are just too touchy / angry about what took place.

An enjoyable read. Two souls broken from their past, find each other and heal while falling in love. Loved Carson and his broody alpha personality and loved how Joss is strong and goes after what she wants. This story is sweet and sexy with low angst.

Dr. Joss Drake’s love life is really in the toilet. What’s worse is her ex-husband the nurse he cheated on her work just a few floors down in the ER and everyone Tulane University Medical Center knows this. So she basically keeps her head down and concentrates on her research project that she fought to get approved.
Carson Stephens is pretty okay with his quiet uneventful nightshift position at the hospital. He’s seen enough action while serving a few tours of duty to last him a lifetime. When he happens across Joss, his nights liven up and so does his desire to shred the quiet solitude he’s been living.
In this book things moved pretty fast, one minute Joss and Carson are awkward around each other and in the next, sexual innuendos are flying and they’re in bed together. In the author’s notes she states that this was initially written as a short novella but she then expanded a bit on it. There were times when I felt like something was missing from the story but for the most part it was an okay read. It was quick and fun and I liked the characters. It’s kind of a love at first sight or instant love story.

I started reading this story but couldn’t finish it. Why you might ask? This is strictly a personal reason for me. I didn’t get passed the doctor flirting with the nurse. Touching her etc.... I’m a night shift nurse and I don’t want to see or read about this kinds of stuff. Liking a book is purely subjective.

4.25⭐
Healing Touch was such a sweet, tender, engaging and enjoyable romance. That had two really likable main characters. Who shared plenty of chemistry, and a few hot moments. Not to mention some banter, fun and a cheating ex. And I'm really glad Brenda Rothert decided to expand on and develop this story. And I'd happily recommend it to others.

Enjoyed it

What I liked:
The writing style
The characters
Dual POVs
Standalone
HEA

I look forward to reading more from this author.

4.5 Star Review Healing Touch by Brenda Rothert 
 
This was not a particularly long read and as with other books I have read by Brenda Rothert I found it to be well written.

Healing Touch is a second chance at love story which I really enjoyed. Joss has been hurt in the past and is wary of getting involved again, totally understandable since her husband left her for another woman.

Carson is the Mr Fixit at work and he is attracted to Joss but feels she is way out of his league.

When Joss meets Carson, she feels that there is something unique about him and although wary, decides to give him the benefit of the doubt and take a chance. But will Joss’s ex mind his own business or interfere?

One click now and find out. A quick, sweet romance that left me wanting more.

Joss is a doctor at a hospital in New Orleans, and she has recently divorced her husband, also a doctor at the hospital, after he left her for a nurse in the emergency room where he works. Carson is a handyman at the hospital who was recently discharged from the military. They are both feeling a bit broken by previous relationships, but they share a spark that they want to explore. I swooned at the insta-love because I'm a fan, but I felt their central conflict was wrapped up way too neatly, and I hated the way people who should have stayed in the past kept inserting themselves into this love story.

This was a great "second chance" romance for both characters. I'm glad the author turned this short series into a full novel - the issues the couple had to work through were realistic and it wasn't just happily ever after for them. Overall, a great read from this author.

This was such a swoony read. Insta-love is very hard to pull off and make it believeable, but Brenda Rothert hit the ball out of the park with this one. I loved both of these characters so much. Carson had his flaws, but instead of running away from them, he did whatever he could to make sure that he was the man Joss needed him to be. Joss was such a strong, admirable heroine. She had every right to act differently from the way she did, and I don't think many women would have taken the high road like she did. I enjoyed how Carson and Joss worked through their problems together and made communication an important part of their relationship. We can all learn some valuable lessons from this book. And while it was so romantic and swoony, this story was also deliciously steamy. I would never say no to more Joss and Carson!

So, So, GOOD!!!!!!
This book proves money doesn't buy you status, manners, charm or anything good. I really loved Carson, Ex Army, fought over seas saw things that no one should ever have seen and got his heart broken, And to make matters worse his father was a no good drunk. Carson Stephens is nothing like his father.
Dr. Jocelyn Drake is with a doubt a strong woman. She was married to an ER doctor who works in the same hospital as her.
What I loved the most about Carson is that he's a hard working man. He may not have alot of money to shower Joss with gifts. But his heart is huge and that's all Joss wants.
Joss loves Carson. She was married to a Dr. who turned out to be an idiot, he had money and that didn't matter to Joss. She just wanted a man to love and want her for her. Together they make a perfect pair

I loved everything about this book, It was such a great read. I love that Carson was broody and hot without being a player and an asshole. In fact he was actually super sweet for the most part. And there is nothing I like bette than reading about a kick ass heroine who is just awesome. There was no over the top angst and the story flowed really well. I couldn’t put it down!

Joss is a doctor who has the humiliation of seeing her ex-husband and his mistress nurse around the hospital. When handyman Carson walks in on her checking herself out in the mirror, things start getting friendly. Carson has issues as a returning veteran, and Joss has issues with the working environment. The two are good together and it was interesting to see her kindness and his strength work together to form a solid bond. Enjoyed the story, and would highly recommend this book.

I have been waiting for this book since author introduced it on WattPad.
Pro: I already knew I liked the MCs and they were loyal and faithful and book is safe from cheating between MCs.
Con: this wait between the reads have destroyed the appetite I had for this book as a reader. I enjoyed it. However I didn’t ravish it. I wasn’t holding my breath can’t wait to finish the book to know what happens with them. This was really my shortcoming rather than the book’s.

Going into the book I want to tackle the negative first. Why the book ended up being just a 3 star for me.

There was a massive issue that was a barrier between MCs. It evoked their first fight and it was not something minor.
Now with these two, they were thrown in together by fate. So clearly they couldn’t have had the talk of future going into the relationship. I accept it. So, I look past the first fight and the reconciliation BUT I was extremely disappointed at these two adults when they didn’t sit down for a minute to discuss it post fight!

They kept sweeping it under the rug hoping for what? The heroine, did she think she could stay with the hero despite the differences? Or did she think he’ll see her way eventually? What did the hero think? He was way to consideration and sensible to ever expect heroine to give up her dream to be with him?

Except that’s exactly what they did! Heroine proved by the end she couldn’t accept hero, the one she loves madly, passionately by sacrificing her dreams.
And hero like a child kept on thinking only he’d be enough.

Now please don’t get me wrong. I understand both. However I didn’t appreciate the way they went over it. The heroine repeating time after time hero is more important to her than her dreams, he can’t live without him and all of a sudden after a trauma (i understood the timing of her realisation, but the timing of her blurting it out to hero put a huge dent on the caring, living image the author has created for the heroine) she tells the hero, sorry pal, off you go, i just realised my dreams are not negotiable, and hero suddenly realised he wants in on her dreams? Believable? Barely! Sweet, romantic, loving? Absolutely not.

Suddenly it went from heroine settling for hero to hero settling for heroine. One of them is always settling. There was no smooth transition to sharing the common dream! My question was at the end, if the hero didn’t want any part of that dream who’d she share it with? How could she not even last for even a good enough time on her decision to love the hero more than anything? It was what? Couple of weeks/months? It was a new relationship, still growing, still finding common grounds and she was already going back in her words.

I’m not blaming her for wanting her dream. It is important. However this is stark opposite of the picture the author painted. She’s the giving, the caring, the sensitive loving one, yet she’s the one to go back on her love? I just simply couldn’t connect at the end.

Now to the good part.

Hero, despite being not interested at relationships when they met was not a manwhore. ONS here and there, sure. That’s normal. He has huge respect for women. He was an absolute gem.

Heroine had a little low self esteem. She has been cheated by her ex husband and has to see that said ex and his girlfriend at work everyday. However she accepted hero’s adoration for without any qualms. There was no “were not good enough for each other” shit.

From day one, it was a relationship for them, they just decided to work on things whenever it pops up. I mean seriously, who made the three date rules? And who said you’d have to follow it?

Heroine was very gracious to her ex and his girlfriend. She didn’t have to be. The werenot only disrespectful, but both of them had so much issues and so low self esteem they constantly came back to heroine to hurt her.

I personally think the author did an excellent job with the OW (not to hero, no OW drama for hero peeps). She WAS a selfish and shallow young woman and then there was the guilt of being the party on cheating. Best defence is to mock the one you wrong rather than admitting you have done something not only wrong but also worthy of punishment. And she does get comeuppance. She was never good enough for heroine’s ex. I think he though heroine would throw a fit, may be cheat on him too, and they’ll get even and she’d tale him back. He never wanted the OW for long term. He dropped her when she needed him most and the woman grew.
She actually took heroine as a model and decided to grow up and be mature. Even after what her partner (heroine’s ex) put her through, she decided not to say a negative thing about him publicly because he IS in fact her baby’s father and if nothing else they need to be co-parents. She and the heroine knows what a waste of oxygen he was, but the world didn’t need to hear it from them to project it on the baby.

I didn’t completely get the OM though. He was a narcissist, and extremely selfish. I figured that much out. I wonder if he was a serial cheater. I felt as I have mentioned earlier, he evaluated people around him with himself as a scale. I think he never realised heroine wasn’t the one to be lured back with something material, like a lavish holiday or expensive items. What heroine need, morals, loyalty, character, he didn’t have to offer. He was extremely jealous of hero BUT was relieved at the same time that heroine is no longer celibate past breakup. In his mind they’re now on even ground. They both had other people, bow they can move past his “silly” mistake and go back to how things were before. I felt he never was punished for his callous treatment of heroine, or the OW for that matter. Unless we can call him not getting either at the end of the book a comeuppance.

Hero’s conflict with OM was unnecessary IMHO, and the related angst too. The heroine made it crystal clear the past belongs in the past and she’ll not take back a cheater. However, it didn’t detract from my pleasure. I liked the way he was determined to handle and treat his PTSD because he does love his woman and he can’t really be a good boyfriend if he’s not well.

Safety: completely safe for me. Heroine is divorced, Hero was engaged in the past. They both were absolutely ready to move on and had only eyes for each other.

Triggers: heroine’s ex cheated on her off page). Both the ex and the woman he cheated with are very present through the book.
Hero has PTSD.

As with any Brenda book, I am left wondering why it has to end...why, Brenda?! At least we got the full story from the Night Shift anthology, but as with any Brenda book, I didn’t want it to be over. I LOVE how Joss and Carson’s story develops. I even end up liking Nurse Nips...surprising, I know! But who can fault her...Dean’s the real d*ck. He shows his true colors...again. I am proud of Amanda’s revelation after Genevieve is delivered though - impressive! Overall, I loved the story the first time and loved it even more once I got the whole thing. WattPad peeps were right, Joss and Carson DESERVED the rest of their story. Rothert, you have blessed us again. Thank you for listening!

Carson and Joss both work at a hospital in New Orleans. Joss has recently divorced her husband who also works at the hospital and was cheating on her. Carson is a veteran who prefers to keep to himself and just get his work done.

They were both interesting characters, and I understand the author originally wrote this as a short story. She expanded upon the original, and I think that was done well. It doesn't feel like random scenes thrown in. The story arc does flow fairly well.

Joss and Carson do jump into a physical relationship rather quickly, though, and I would have liked to see some build up and more connection before that happened. There is character development throughout, but I think there could have been a bit more establishing friendship/getting to know you at the outset.

Healing Touch is a sweet kind of love story. Joss and Carson are two people who tend to keep to themselves but somehow find themselves drawn to each other as each work late nights at their hospital. The pediatric doctor and the maintenance man never saw the other coming, but once they did they almost immediately filled the other's lives with a much-needed ray of sunshine.

I liked that both Joss and Carson had their doubts, since they did indeed come from different worlds. But they also had a drive that made them more alike than not. Despite their differences in job titles, in the end it was the peace, the pure devotion they were able to offer the other that made their love uniquely theirs. There are a few wrenches thrown in to test their relationship but the heat between them was more than enough to overcome any obstacle in their way.

Worth your time in between heavier reads, I give Healing Touch a solid 4 stars.

My heart swelled and warmed that these two found each other but it also broke knowing all the things they've been through. How much can love heal?

This book had me hooked from the first word to the last. I didn't want to put it down. I loved it!

Good story, I like the emotional impact we get. The character development is good; I liked when Joss finally put her d-bag ex in his place. I couldn't even begin to imagine having to work in the same place where my ex and his new side piece are also employed. Her first encounter with Carson had me laughing, although that wasn't the intention (just imagining the scene is what had me laughing). I enjoyed the chemistry between Joss and Carson and how their friendship developed over time.