Title: Never Date a Doctor
Author: Melanie A. Smith
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Release date: February 25th 2020
BLURB supplied by Xpresso Book Tours
What’s the first rule of nurse’s club? That’s right: Never date a doctor. Which
Sasha Suvorin has no intention of doing anyway, since she’s a nurse at
Rutherford Hospital by day and working on her master’s degree by night.
Who has time for dating, much less dating someone you work with? Bad idea much?
That is, until the sexy British Dr. Caleb Thompson starts at her hospital. It
also doesn’t help that he’s exactly her type with his dark hair, blue eyes, and
rockin’ bod. Or that he’s not your typical arrogant and bossy surgeon. But
Sasha isn’t so easily convinced, and she soon discovers Dr. Hottie has a past
that puts a stop to whatever she might have been feeling before anything ever
starts between them.
Unfortunately, working together means facing temptation. Every. Single. Day. Is
Sasha strong enough to resist what might just be the perfect man? And if she
gives in, will Cal’s past stay in the past? Sasha may be used to playing
it safe, but life has a way of teaching its lessons … one way or another.
PURCHASE LINKS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Melanie A. Smith is the best-selling author of The Safeguarded Heart Series and other contemporary romance fiction. Originally from upstate New York, she spent most of her childhood in the San Francisco Bay Area before moving to Los Angeles for college. After that, she spent almost fifteen years in the Seattle Area, and now lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas with her family.
A voracious reader and lifelong writer, Melanie’s writing began at a young age with short stories and poetry. Having completed a bachelor of science in electrical engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a master’s in business administration at the University of Washington, her writing abilities were mainly utilized for technical documents as a lead engineer for the Boeing Company, where she worked for ten years.
After shifting careers to domestic engineering and property management in 2015, she eventually found a balance where she was able to return to writing fiction.
Melanie is also a Mensan and enjoys spending time with her family, cooking, and driving with the windows down and the stereo cranked up loud.
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
What is your name and where do you call home?
I’m Melanie A. Smith and right now
the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas is home, though I only moved here a year
ago. Before that I was in the Seattle, Washington area for fourteen years,
which I really think of as home.
Do you use a pen name? And why?
I do not use a pen name. There’s
nobody I’m trying to hide this part of me from, and I have other ways of
ensuring my privacy. But mostly, I think authenticity is an important part of
being an author, and that’s harder to achieve with a pen name, in my opinion.
Have you ever read a book more than once? And if
so, what was it?
As an avid reader with too many
favorites to list, I’ve read many books multiple times. The one I’ve probably
re-read the most, as it’s my all-time favorite, is The Hobbit (Tolkien). Reading
romance is a more recent thing for me; my first love was fantasy.
What’s the best advice that you have been given
when it comes to writing?
There's one piece of advice I've
heard about writing that I've also heard in many other contexts. Because it's
universally true. When there are so many things to do that it feels like it's
overwhelming to even start, make a list, and just do one thing at a time. Even
if you only do it for a few minutes a day, doing something will get you closer
to your goal every day.
Do you have any hobbies that aren’t related to
reading & writing?
For sure! Some usual ones like
cooking, baking, and watching movies. Some less common ones like
cross-stitching and cake decorating. And others that I don’t get to do as much
as I’d like anymore like hiking and traveling.
What genre would you place you book into?
I only write romance, but to be more
specific, this one is medical romance. That’s a bit of a switch, as the first
four novels I published were romantic suspense, with the fifth being straight
up contemporary romance. Though all of my books are on the steamy side, to the
point where they could also be classified as erotic romance.
Do you have plans for a new book? Is this book
part of a series?
Absolutely! This is the first book
in a series, though each can be read as standalones. Books two and three will
be released this year, and I have a slew of other titles in the series in work.
Are there any book covers you would change?
I literally just changed every
single one of my covers. When I started, I wasn’t a heavy romance reader, and I
didn’t pay much attention to how much a cover really does matter in romance.
Don’t get me wrong, I really loved my original covers, but they were a little
too abstract. Unfortunately, that didn’t clearly communicate that the contents
were romance, and steamy romance at that, so they all got switched to the type
of cover I swore I’d never do – hot guys with abs. But I gotta say, I love the
new covers too!
Do you have a “Dream cast” in mind for any of your
books?
I went to college in Los Angeles and
dated a filmmaker for a few years, which means my brain is pretty much wired to
start casting books as soon as I read/write them. So yes. For pretty much every
book. Though I try not to share my own ideas of who the cast would be, as part
of the fun for the reader is to picture the characters how you want!
Do you ever base book characters on people you
know?
Definitely, though to varying
degrees. I think it’s natural to incorporate elements of people you know, and
yourself, for that matter, into characters. The trick is never to admit who
they’re based on and always leave people guessing in a “You’re So Vain” kind of
way. ;)
How did you get your ideas for Never Date a
Doctor?
The core idea started when I had
some blood pressure issues last summer (I swear I’m not that old. Turns out a
pickle addiction is bad for your blood pressure. Who knew?). In any case, I
ended up at a cardiologist’s office. And the cardiologist was ridiculously
attractive. My writer brain started working on that immediately, and the idea
grew from there!
How did you choose the “Life Lessons Series”?
One of my first ideas for the first
book was to introduce an impediment to the main character getting together with
her love interest. And while workplace romances aren’t always forbidden by
policy, I think most people know it’s not always the best idea. I can attest to
that personally. In any case, it got me thinking about how in real life we have
all these lessons, that we usually have to learn the hard way, but the joy of
the romance novel is subverting reality. In other words, all those guys you
know you shouldn’t date in real life you can totally “date” in fiction. But
that doesn’t mean my characters don’t learn lessons. They’re just not the ones
they expected.
Did you have to any specific research for Never
Date a Doctor? If so what/how did you do it?
I took all of the undergraduate
classes required for medical school, and my older brother is a surgeon, so
between that and my recent experience actually undergoing various cardiac
tests, I already had a pretty good handle on the general hospital/medical
topics. I did have to do some light research on the specific duties of each
type of hospital job included, which I actually enjoyed. I’ll say this book was
the least weird research I’ve had to do, and it’s purposely pretty low-level on
anything technical.
Do you, basic plot/plan for each individual book
in the series, before you actually begin writing it all out? Or do you let the
writing flow and see where it takes the story?
I do go in with a plan, but the
wonderful and maddening thing about creating dimensional characters is that
sometimes they take you unexpected places. So I often have to have a loose
outline of the major things I want to happen, then attempt to steer the
characters there. Attempting to plan the nitty-gritty doesn’t leave room for
anticipating how a character would really react to something, and I never want
to force a plot at the expense of authentic emotion.
What can we expect from you next and in the
future?
Book two of the Life Lessons Series
will be here in May! It follows one of the best friends of the main character
from Never Date a Doctor and will have a bad-boy love interest (one of my
favorite tropes)! After that, book three will jump to the other best friend
from NDaD, heading into another favorite trope of mine – billionaire romance!
So even though this is primarily a medical romance series, I intend to do
something a little different in every book. In other words, there are lots of
fun surprises to come!
AUTHOR LINKS
GIVEAWAY
Thanks for being on the tour! :)
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