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The Philly Doctors #1

Take A Ride With Me

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She doesn’t trust men. He’s convinced she’s his true love. Can he convince her to give love a second chance?

When nurse practitioner Cesca Ampah moves almost 500 miles to a new city to escape the pain of a broken engagement, the last thing on her mind is love, let alone a husband. Her ex-fiance's rejection has given her enough amunition to swear of men for life! Dr. Zadok Cho is a handsome surgeon who’s also a hopeless romantic. He’s convinced Cesca is the woman for him. But she’s been burned before and will not risk it. Can Zadok help her see beyond her past pain, and fall in love with him?

Take a Ride With Me is the first book in The Philly Doctors contemporary Christian sweet romance series.

If you enjoy warm romantic stories that also feature the power of God to heal broken hearts and lives, then you’ll love Take A Ride With Me and The Philly Doctors series.

Read Take A Ride With Me to discover this new series from Cara Joy today.

179 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2022

117 people are currently reading
163 people want to read

About the author

Cara Joy

16 books39 followers

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5 stars
127 (59%)
4 stars
49 (22%)
3 stars
31 (14%)
2 stars
7 (3%)
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
Profile Image for Ja'Net.
58 reviews
April 14, 2024
Amazing

Smiley faces all around. What a wonderful story. God had to get rid of the trash she was dealing with in order to allow blessings to come over her life. Sometimes we can be so upset in our situations our hurt that we miss out because we won’t forgive. We then self-sabotage relationships by sitting in the effects of trauma. I am so glad healing came so she can experience real happiness. I pray this kind of love for anyone waiting on their chance at love. Finally, as a Philadelphian, I enjoyed the references mentioned in the book. I was able to place and imagine the characters in those spaces.
55 reviews1 follower
January 7, 2023
I loved this book! The main characters were so sweet, and the author wrote love and intimacy in a way that was so palpable and authentic. I have been looking for romance books like this for a long time and this is the first Christian romance book that I absolutely loved. the author takes us through the journey of the main character healing through disappointment and pain and betrayal. She finds herself opening her heart back up to love faith and community. I found the love interest to be extremely sweet, genuine, and lovable. This was a 5 star book for me because I could feel the love and through the message.
Profile Image for Cherie l brown.
804 reviews
November 25, 2022
Cesca Ampah and Sr. Zadok Cho met and he fell in love. But trying to love and learn Cesca was no easy feat. She is escaping a broken relationship and a bruised and crushed heart and ego. Because of that bad relationship, her mind is not allowing her to receive any good. Maybe she’s too fat, too un-pretty, too plain, too not white, and maybe just an epic fail by modern standards of beauty. So, why would a handsome and charming and nice smelling doctor want her?
Profile Image for Deneé Arledge.
77 reviews1 follower
June 20, 2024
What a sweet story about love, forgiveness, and God’s healing for those who love Him! The whole story was filled with authentic prayers to God from the characters as they continuously inquired after Him in all things. This made it so much more authentically Christian!

My heart hurt at what Cesca had been through, and I related to her in so many ways. But that’s what makes God’s grace and forgiveness so wonderful! I loved how Cesca continuously sought the Lord even after she made mistakes and struggled emotionally.

Zadok had me blushing with how sweet he was towards Cesca. He honestly gave me a picture of how a real godly man could treat the woman he loves. I needed that at this time of my life. Not that Zadok was perfect, but he was a good man who kept trying to be a good man.

The only thing that threw me off was the format of the book. There were a few times when the POV shifted between Cesca and Zadok without a clear distinction, which made things a little confusing at times.

Overall, I loved this book! I would love to read more of this series and the author in general, if I could afford it. HAHA!
Profile Image for Introverted Reader.
29 reviews2 followers
August 28, 2024
I was having a hard time reading this one. It kept switching POVs in a weird way. Usually there's a break in the page, which it first did, but then they'd switch after a paragraph or in the middle of a paragraph (unless this last one was a Kindle issue).
And there weren't very good paragraph breaks for dialogue; which contributed to the confusion of who was talking.
I did have to sigh at the fact that Cecsa got mad at Zadok and ignored him and his phonecalls/texts because she saw a girl hugging him when they weren't even together. And never probably apologized; cause why did he still apologize when she jumped to conclusions without asking him.
Profile Image for CLorraine.
1,783 reviews21 followers
February 22, 2023
Sweet and Satisfying

When Cesca found herself reeling from her broken engagement she decided a change was needed. She moved to Philadelphia to work at a different hospital. There she met Zadok Cho, handsome and eligible doctor. He was immediately smitten, but with her insecurities, Cesca could not imagine that he would really want to be with her. After much praying and soul-searching, she realized that he was just what she needed. This was an incredibly sweet story with a wonderful leading man.
Profile Image for Barbara Campbell.
1,806 reviews44 followers
March 19, 2025
I participate in several book challenges each year. One of the challenges had a medical theme book for March. The book didn’t have to be about a medical issue but had to at least include medical personnel as a main character. I’m not a big fan of medical books so I was delighted when someone suggested this series.

The main characters are a doctor and a nurse practitioner. And while there’s definitely scene played out at work in the hospital, the story isn’t about any kind of medical issue.

I loved Zadok’s faith and his patience with Cesca. I love that. They built a friendship first. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and will be reading the others in this series.
Profile Image for Dawine.
6 reviews
April 8, 2025
I was recently introduced to Cara Joy, as I was searching for clean/no spice romance novels. This was a great read!

The book follows Cesca, a woman in her late 20s that has relocated following a devastating event. In her new city, she meets Zadok, a kind gentleman on a mission to make her smile and bring the light back to her eyes.

Overall, a good read and entertaining and a quick read (only 163 pages on Kindle). There were some minor areas of improvement such as smoother transitions between POVs, a couple grammatical errors and some redundancy.
Profile Image for Treasure.
434 reviews7 followers
June 18, 2023
an encouraging love story

The creator (God) has the final say, your story might seem hopeless now but there is always a turn around when you depend on God. That’s what this story is about and I enjoyed reading this book thoroughly .

To receive a miracle, you have to take an action of faith!
1,349 reviews1 follower
July 26, 2024
A fantastic book

This story was a real blessing to read. The author brought out in this story what is really the most important things are in a marriage between a couple. Number one in believing in God and letting him have total control. I am so thankful to be able to read a wonderful clean romantic story. Thank you and please keep up the wonderful writing for us to read.
70 reviews1 follower
August 5, 2022
Beautiful Story

This is a beautiful story! I really liked the fact that the author kept God and prayer in the story. I love that God blessed Cesca with who she needed not who she wanted.
4 reviews
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January 24, 2023
Awesome Christian Read

I loved Cesca and Zadox story.
A story about falling in love with a person that designed just for you. It shows when you ask God to send you a person to love and in return that person loves you that God answer your prayers.
Profile Image for Mary Calton Gerard.
1,221 reviews7 followers
February 19, 2023
Exceptional story!

Forgiveness is always a good thing however, sometimes we need to forgive ourselves. I love the author's writing and description of love and intimacy after marriage. The themes are tangible and real life obstacles.
231 reviews6 followers
April 26, 2023
Sweet book

Loved reading about Zadok and Cesca. She was not looking for love when she moved to Philly but then she meets Zadok. He was so sweet to her and broke down the walls she had around her heart. Can’t wait to read more by this author!
Profile Image for Natàlia.
16 reviews
June 6, 2025
I srarted it and finished it today. Wow, I didn’t know that there were books this inspiring with yet Christian background. I’m so happy to have found this story which was uplifiting and moving to see the characters being so close to our Lord and Savior
Profile Image for Erin Rollins-McKinley.
141 reviews1 follower
October 29, 2025
I truly enjoyed this story. The was faith and life was intermingled felt more genuine than some of the other Christian stories I’ve read. It felt like my homegirl was working through healing and told me the story afterwards🥰🥰🥰🥰
16 reviews
July 26, 2023
Enjoyed the book

I just came across Cara Joy. Take a a Ride with Me was a good clean book. I can't wait to read the next book in the series.
56 reviews
August 8, 2023
It was cute, clean and wholesome book,but the names could’ve been different. Overall they were a cute godly couple.
114 reviews
April 26, 2024
Beautiful love story

Loved everything about Cesca and Zadok. Story of redemption, healing, restoration and second chance. Cara Joy weaves God’s grace and faith into her books
Profile Image for Erin.
155 reviews23 followers
June 26, 2024
I enjoyed reading this book. It is such a sweet story. I loved the characters. I thought it was written very well. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series at a later time.
44 reviews
August 2, 2024
Page Turner!!

This book had me from the first page. I started and finished it in one day!!! I have never done that before.
Profile Image for Bay Bay.
61 reviews
August 7, 2025
This was a really short and sweet romance that I really enjoyed. I could relate to Cesca and the insecurities she dealt with and I loved how Zadok loved her through it all. Really good read.
Profile Image for Sharon Rudolph.
2,142 reviews
August 19, 2025
Great book

This was a fun book to read! I really enjoyed the characters, their storyline was so much fun to read.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews

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