Taming the Beastly M.D.

Dynasties: The Barones #4

by Elizabeth Bevarly

Nurse Rita Barone noticed everything about moody cardiologist Dr. Matthew Grayson -- his broad shoulders, his powerful hands, his eyes that saw right through her scrubs, his lips set in a scowl that seduced her into giving up her innocence. But she never noticed that he was the secret admirer who'd been sending her anonymous gifts.

The pragmatic Dr. Grayson felt a fool. A renowned surgeon with a crush on one of his young nurses? No matter how much he dreamed of touching her, kissing her, undressing her, Matthew knew that for the "Beast of Boston General," bedding a beauty like Rita was nothing but an elusive fantasy...or was it?

Genres: Harlequin, Romance, Contemporary Romance, Harlequin Desire, Contemporary, Harlequin Romance

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 25, 2003

About the author

Elizabeth Bevarly was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky and earned her BA with honors in English from the University of Louisville in 1983. Although she can’t recall ever wanting to be anything but a novelist-oh, all right, she toyed briefly with becoming an archaeologist, until she realized how awful she looked in khaki and flannel, and there was a brief fling with the interior decorator thing, until she realized she had trouble distinguishing chintz from moiré, and… (Where was I? Oh, yeah. My brilliant career.) Anyway, her career side trips before making the leap to writing included stints working as a bartender, a waitress, a movie theater cashier, a soap-hawker for Crabtree & Evelyn, an apparel-hawker for The Limited, and a bridal registry consultant for a major department store. She also did time as an editorial assistant for a medical journal, where she learned the correct spellings and meanings of a variety of words (like microscopy and histological) which, with any luck at all, she will never use again in this life.

She wrote her first novel when she was twelve years old. It was 32 pages long-and that was with college rule notebook paper-and featured three girls named Liz, Marianne and Cheryl, who explored the mysteries of a haunted house. Her friends Marianne and Cheryl proclaimed it “Brilliant! Spellbinding! Kept me up past dinnertime reading!” Those rave reviews only kindled the fire inside her to write more.

Since sixth grade, Elizabeth has gone on to complete more than 60 works of contemporary romance. Her novels regularly appear on the USA Today and Waldenbooks bestseller lists, and The Thing About Men was a New York Times Extended List bestseller. She’s been nominated for the prestigious RITA Award, has won the coveted National Readers’ Choice Award, and Romantic Times magazine has seen fit to honor her with two-count ‘em TWO-Career Achievement Awards. Her books have been translated into two dozen languages and published in three dozen countries, and there are more than ten million copies in print worldwide. She has claimed as residences Washington, DC, northern Virginia, southern New Jersey and Puerto Rico, but she now resides back in her native Kentucky with her husband and son and two very troubled cats where she fully intends to remain.

Reviews

[Nurul Badia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ceritanya jauh lebih bagus dari buku pertamanya dan saya suka dengan kisah ala Beauty & The Beast versi Medical Romance ini. Secara konsep, buku ini menjual kisah yang sudah banyak diadaptasi oleh banyak author lain, namun yang membuat saya kagum adalah penuturan kisahnya tidak membosankan dan selalu membuat saya bertanya-tanya dengan strategi pdkt ala dr Matthew Grayson karena ia dikenal Si Bengis oleh semua orang.
Seandainya ia tidak memiliki luka parut di mukanya maka ia akan terlihat luar biasa tampan dengan segala pesonanya, namun luka itu telah menjadikannya sangat tertutup dengan semua orang dan bersikap sinis. Tapi Rita Barone, suster yang juga berasal dari kalangan jetset ini tidak mudah terintimidasi olehnya. Hal inilah yang membuat dr Matthew Grayson diam-diam menjadi secret admirer-nya dan selalu memberikannya hadiah istimewa tanpa sepengetahuannya. Awalnya Rita takut karena dikira semua hadiah itu dari seorang psikopat tapi saat mengetahuinya, hatinya pun mulai luluh berikut makna yang terkandung dalam pemberian hadiah itu.

[What to read next ....... · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beauty and the Beast 😆

One of the best surgeons Dr Matthew Grayson was mauled by a lion 🦁, which left him one side of his face badly scarred.

He keeps his solitude and has the reputation of a really selfish and bad mannered man .

Rita Barone is a nurse at the same hospital 🏥.

She has a caring personality when working with patients in the cardiac unit of the hospital.

Matthew appreciates these ways and buys her 🎁 presents secretly.

The result is complication but in the end , it is a beautiful outcome.

This was good reading, quick , romantic and very cosy 😀

[Ali D · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more than I did. The idea of a scorned Sicilian woman putting a curse on a family is the most believable thing for me (being Italian).

This book started off strong, but it did start to get a little bit boring towards the 75% mark.

But apart from that...it was actually a really fun, quick read! I really enjoyed Rita's character, and her family as well.

If you wanted to read a quick romance, just for fun, definitely give this a try!

[Tetty Marlinda · Rating 2 out of 5]

#176 - 2023
Genre: Romance, Harlequin

[Phaney · Rating 1 out of 5]

2012 Review:

I just… Okay. This is going to be an extremely personal review.

I have to preface this. I was looking at my book review file today, sorting a little, but mostly browsing older entries, and I came across a few books I seemed to really enjoy at the time. That was maybe three years ago, or more. And since that seems like an ample amount of time and I am going to enter massive re-readings for my next project anyway, I secured a few of those other files from my collection as well.

What we have here is something I really liked back then. I’ve got the whole raving review to go with it as proof. I even remembered liking it. … Yeah. Well.

As it turns out? This is a silly book.

I got the distinct feeling that the prologue was just tossed into the book well after it was written, since it was entirely pointless and only pre-established certain points that the book proper then goes about to mention in a less condensed manner. Actually, it would have been a lot better without that prologue, would have left more to a natural story development.

Leaving the prologue behind me, it did not take long until I found myself awfully amused at the fact that despite being a nurse at a busy hospital, our heroine continually spaced out and took her sweet time with everything she did or contemplated. Also, did we really need all those descriptive bits about how oh-so-handsome and pretty our protagonists are? I mean, this was all still from Rita’s perspective. If she’d only gotten lost in admiring the doctor, that would have been one thing, but slipping into the text reminders of her own good looks, of course never in a way that would make it seem she is aware of it, seemed rather embarrassing. And given that she’s rich, attractive and friendly… Why do no other guys pay her attention? I mean it’s stated that no one does. I just fail to comprehend how this works.

I really am kinda perplexed here. Did I not notice last time around how utterly and stupidly repetitive this is? Rita especially comes across like a moron, her thoughts going in circles, full of contradictions. And I am not referring to those that are clearly put in there to appear “cute”. Jeez. And she’s so utterly, depressingly superficial. For all that the author tries to assure us she is not materialistic, yeah, she really is. Oh, not greedy. But prejudiced.

Gotta say, the quotations I picked out last time for my pleasure may have been the only bits of relatively decent or amusing writing in this mess.

Seriously. What on earth was I thinking?

I suddenly find myself wondering how different this book could be if it was about a male nurse and a female doctor. Oh, I’d let them keep their personalities and issues. But the cliché is just painful there. I don’t even need to inject some m/m here. I just want something to break up the utter tedium of doctor/nurse and the actually expressed expectation that a nurse will of course “catch herself a doctor”. Uargh.

Sigh. And we had all those lovely double-standards about women being virginal and men being “well-versed”. Maybe I liked this book back then because I was used to that kind of mindset and it was slightly less offensive to me? Hard to imagine. But it certainly would explain how I ended up mired in man-on-man-land, where gender roles tend to evaporate.

Guess I’m really not used anymore to men trying to figure out what those mysterious signs mean that women might be giving them and how to best interpret them in relation to whether the woman is willing to have sex with them. … Heh. Yeah, I guess that can be done kind of cutely, but I’m not really missing it. ^^

And, dear lord, do I even need to start in on the subject of medical professionals and basic little things like, oh, I don’t know, protection? God, these people are stupid! Rita even realizes as much after the fact, but does she take better care next time? Nope. Nada. Brain still MIA. At least until they are, as it happens, deep in medias res.

So, in the end, the entire plot comes down to an abysmal lack of communication. And that’s a pitiful thing to hinge a plot on.

The romance itself is awfully flimsy as well. I don’t buy Rita’s feelings for the good doc for a second. And on his side, well he’s certainly infatuated with her (in a slightly creepy, stalkerish way), but I am not entirely convinced that the major part of that isn’t sexual. Well, okay, he’s a guy. And that is exactly the kind of thought I hate to have. Bah!

Finally, in the ending scene, the way he teased her about his feelings to the point of actual despair? I would have smacked him. Hard.

So what do I take from this? Well, mostly the disconcerting idea, bordering on dread, that many of the books I remember fondly might turn out to be utter trash the second time around. *huff* I’ll still give ’em a chance, of course, but I suddenly feel a lot less eager. :P

Jeez.

[Dalimar · Rating 4 out of 5]

En los libros anteriores,leí que la familia Conti,los eternos rivales de los Barone habían contratado los servicios de un detective privado para investigar sobre los sabotajes que han sufrido los Barone.Esto no lo entiendo,no se supone que sean los Barone lo que quieran investigar? Pero si lo pensamos mejor,para no llevarle tanto la contraria a la Saga;los Barone culpa directamente a los Conti de los ataques que están sufriendo.Me imagino que los Conti contrataron al detective para limpiar su reputación.

Atención,mi opinión trae un alto contenido de Spoilers,de hecho mas que una opinión es un resumen de la novela.

Ethan es el detective que contratan los Conti,claro ellos lo conocen ya que fue el esposo de Bianca la hija de Salvador Conti.Los Barone no están de acuerdo con que un detective contratado por los Conti,investigue a su empresa y a su familia por lo que le piden a Claudia que trate de seguir a Ethan.Ella se hace pasar por una periodista que quiere escribir un articulo sobre como es la vida de un investigador privado.Claro que Ethan se da cuenta que trata de engañarlo pero le sigue su juego porque a este le encantan las rubias y Claudia es bastante parecida a Blanca su ex esposa.De todas maneras el acepta que lo acompaÑe en su investigacion hasta cierto punto ya que le oculta que el blanco de su investigación es Derrick Barone el hermano de Claudia.Poco a poco va a atando cabos y encuentra varias pruebas que lo inculpan,pero teme mostrárselas a Claudia ya que se ha enamorado de ella y sabe que ella defendería a su hermano siempre.Además piensa que le pasaría igual que con Bianca que un hombre de clase media no puede tener una relación con una mujer de alta sociedad.Claudia por otra parte es una chica que siempre esta ayudando a su familia y que tiene un problema con los chicos que nunca ha podido tener una relación por mas de 4 meses con alguno ya que ella es de un carácter fuerte y con los hombres que ha salido,no les gusta su carácter dominante.Claro que Ethan supera esas barreras.Es tan cute.


En esta novela también esta el esperado re-encuentro con los Conti,sus rivales.Claro que siempre ha discuciones y gritos.En definitivo en este libro los Barone y los Conti no se reconcilian.Recuerden que María esta embarazada de Steven Conti,pero como ella esta desaparecida ni el ni la familia saben de su embarazo.


Aquí al fin sale Emily,la hermana de Claudia que ha perdido la memoria debido a un golpe que recibió en un incendio en la oficina Baronessa.Aquí al fin explican que ella recupero su memoria,pero no recuerda lo que sucedió esa noche en la oficina.Ethan le dice que se haga una hipnosis,esta no esta muy de acuerdo pero cuando Claudia le explica que tiene unas pruebas en contra de Derrick y que ella si recuerda puede salvarlo,acepta sin pensar.Pero recuerda que si su hermano no solo ha estado robándole a la empresa si no que también fue el ,él que prendió fuego aquella noche donde Emily casi pierde la vida.Cuando van a contárselo a la familia,Derrick ha sido secuestrado junto con Bianca Conti y piden 10 millones de dolares por el rescate.Ahí hay otra reunión entre los Conti y los Barone.Así que ya estoy esperando poder leer el libro 12 que el el final de esta Saga y es la historia de María y Steven Conti,a ver si al fin arrestan al desgraciado de Derrick y si los Barone y los Conti se juntan y se olvidan para siempre de la maldición.

Este libro ha estado muy entretenido.De los pocos recomendables de esta Saga.

[TINNGG · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, that wasn't painful at all. I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be sweet, cute, or what. I got that it was supposed to be a beauty and the beast story, sort of. What it was, was almost 200 pages of awkwardness and misunderstandings.

You see, our H, from an old Boston family (family came on the Mayflower, etc), while a child, was attacked by a lion, and he's had a crappy life as a result. He was thrown out of various schools for fighting, he's been made the butt of jokes... Ok, there are assholes out there, but most of the time, you make your own hell. So what - he caught someone staring and sucker-punched them?

So...he's attracted to the h, and he doesn't think her cheerful self would ever want anything to do with a beast like him (well, no, not when you do things like tell her to leave and call her a taxi after taking her V card, but that comes later), so he starts leaving her anonymous gifts, which scare her actually. She doesn't connect the dots, because she has little reason to. Her sister corners him into escorting her to a family function, where afterward, they almost do the deed in the back of the limo, but manage to regain at least a little awareness so go to his place. After they do the deed, he asks her why, and takes offense at her answer (because he overthought it apparently - she just hadn't gotten around to dating anyone), and does the whole "get out" thing.

Strangely enough, while she's upset at this, she doesn't seem to have any issue going about her business - no hiding in her apartment and having a meltdown, nothing. She tries to avoid him, sure, but starts pondering that she's in luv with him. He does corner her and apologize, but then says he thinks they should keep their relationship strictly professional...did I mention she's a cardiology nurse and he's a heart surgeon?

2 weeks later, a blizzard comes through and she spends the weekend with him. Monday, he sends her a note telling her to meet him at a certain restaurant and they needed to talk. They meet, her sporting an LBD that was more L than D (because people regularly do that 2 days after a blizzard), and he a) admits he's her stalker and b) proposes...

Of course, that weekend could have had a lot of talking involved, but I wasn't given that impression. Seems like what they really needed was time getting to know each other. They actually did go out on a date - something conspicuously absent in a lot of contemporary romances - but what did they talk about? I don't want details, mind you, but even a discussion of the weather beats the awkward silence, or miscommunication.

This is part of a publisher series, meaning that more than one author contributes. I don't know that I'd hunt any of the others down, because I really don't care enough to bother, and I likely only got this one because I'd read the author. Also probably found it in one of those bargain piles.

[Marimarime · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5* It's 3rd or 4th reread of this book for me,it's my 'it'romance for bad or rainy days,one of my favorites,very sweet and emotional,there`s more emotions than angst! Oh,I liked their passionate moments,too!
Rita is 25,very nice-not martyr- and you get that vibe of kindness from the way she relates to people-patients or family and of course hero. Somebody is leaving her presents,heart shaped,she works in cordial d.as nurse though she has her million$ fund, but she's unsure if there something to be afraid of,maybe a stalker!
Dr Matthew Grayson has a thing for Rita, it's 3 years that they work in same hospital,he's badly scarred since childhood,self conscious and thinks that people shy from him for that reason but Rita thinks it`s his attitude... When Rita needs escort for family party her sister talks them into going together,persuades Rita in buying naughty little black dress and sexy lingerie...

[Gramedia Pustaka Utama · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buku seri kedua dari Dynasties The Barones. Yah, terus terang serial Dynasties The Barones ini agak membingungkan. Mungkin karena tidak seluruh seri ini diterbitkan oleh GPU.

Anyway anyhow, seri kedua terbitan GPU ini yang paling saya suka. Mungkin karna saya senang cerita medical romance, sehingga cerita berkisah tentang Dr. Matthew Grayson ini jadi fave saya.

Masa lalu sang dokter membuatnya bersikap kasar dan dingin terhadap sesama. Masa lalu inilah yang berhasil ditaklukkan Rita Barone, sehingga sang dokterpun jatuh cinta padanya.

[Mirella Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buku seri kedua dari Dynasties The Barones. Yah, terus terang serial Dynasties The Barones ini agak membingungkan. Mungkin karena tidak seluruh seri ini diterbitkan oleh GPU.

Anyway anyhow, seri kedua terbitan GPU ini yang paling saya suka. Mungkin karna saya senang cerita medical romance, sehingga cerita berkisah tentang Dr. Matthew Grayson ini jadi fave saya.

Masa lalu sang dokter membuatnya bersikap kasar dan dingin terhadap sesama. Masa lalu inilah yang berhasil ditaklukkan Rita Barone, sehingga sang dokterpun jatuh cinta padanya.

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lagi-lagi, buku Guilty Pleasure.
Hehe, tapi gue suka banget. Buku ini yang menggoda gue buat membeli lengkap serial Baronessa. Love it, love it, love it. Huhuhuhu, ceritanya yang rada Beauty and The Beast malah bikin gue berbunga2 sehabis baca novel ini. I want MORE!

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pros:
These are one of those easy mills and Boons type reads which focus on being fluffy, light reads.
Cons:
Not much plot and couple of well educated people acting worse than horny teenagers.

Would recommend for people who like light reads.

[Lady Raven RAVE! · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was a good little story with the concept of beauty and the beast..it might be simple but i think the author did it just right for her readers...

[Christine US · Rating 2 out of 5]

TYpical romance - but sweet story. A play off of "beauty and the beast"

[Dwi_eternity Lestari · Rating 4 out of 5]

dulu pernah baca versi indonya
pas ngerapiin folder nemu deh
pengen baca aja

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

sweet. I like Rita and her response to Matthew and his past. On to the next book as intrigue builds