Love, Lies and Lab Coats Volume 1

In Dee Bostic’s extravagant and irreverently humorous hospital-based contemporary romance Love, Lies and Lab Coats, the events and relationships that unfold at South Hill Medical Center in Spokane, Washington, make even the plotlines of General Hospital and The Doctors appear tame and commonplace. Plus, there’s enough mystery and drama to keep Dr. Mark Sloan and friends busy for several episodes of Diagnosis Murder, which makes for a rip-roaring novel that is packed with action, intrigue, and surprises.

Travis has spent years struggling with his mental health, seemingly trying almost every diagnosis and medication going. “This time he has been diagnosed as Manic Depressive and the time before that it was a bad case of depression. Another shrink told him he had Seasonal Affective Disorder, and to try to get more sunshine.” Having dropped out of medical school and given up on his dream of becoming a doctor due to these difficulties, he makes a living as the chief medical technologist at South Hill Medical Center.

While it’s not the work he hoped to doing, Travis is very good at his job, and he and all his quirks are accepted by his colleagues. Unfortunately, the work environment takes a turn for the worse when Brent Jamison, a former friend, accepts the post of chief cardio-thoracic surgeon at South Hill. The last time Travis saw him, Brent promised that he would make Tarvis’s life miserable one day, and the fact that they’re now colleagues provides him with ample opportunity to do so.

Life’s not all doom and gloom for Travis though—despite Brent’s best efforts to ruin his professional reputation and personal relationships—as there’s romance in the air at the medical center. He’s growing close to Cindy, a fellow technologist, and it seems that there might be some happiness in store for him at last. For his part, Brent has his own romantic issues, although his entanglement with professional escort Danielle is far less wholesome and significantly more troublesome than that between Tarvis and Cindy.

As the four central characters and their various colleagues revolve around each other at the medical center and in wider Spokane, and as copious patients come and go in the course of seeking often life-saving treatment, the many instances of mistrust, misfortune, and misunderstand cause plenty of excitement and tension, and there’s an ever-building sense that events are leading to an explosive conclusion for all concerned.

Travis is a pleasant and quietly competent medical technologist who always has patients’ best interests in mind. He has been somewhat beaten down by life, circumstances, and his mental health issues, but he has never given up, and both this and his blossoming romance with Cindy are heartwarming. By contrast, brash and boastful, Brent is the kind of character that people love to hate. He’s ruthless, ambitious, and more than willing to take the credit for other people’s work, and given his propensity for violent outbursts, his tumultuous romance with Danielle is a particular cause for concern.

Reflecting the dynamic nature of the hospital environment and making clear the staggering work that healthcare professionals perform on a daily basis, Love, Lies and Lab Coats is both action-packed and informative of real-world scenarios. There are plenty of thrills and spills throughout the story, and the sweet romance between Travis and Cindy offers a good counterpoint to all the medical and personal drama. A word of warning though: the novel ends on a sudden cliffhanger, but hopefully it won’t be too long until the next installment in the saga is available.