Title: Broken Heart Syndrome
Series: The Broken Heart Series
By: Susie Tate
Publication Date: April 4, 2014
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Shy, reclusive Frankie and her best friend Lou obsess over Thomas G. Longley, as they reverently refer to him, for their entire first two years of medical school. So when he publically humiliates her at the student bar she is devastated.
Ten years later, Frankie has to work in the testosterone driven environment of Cardiology before she can start her palliative care training and, to her dismay, Tom is her boss.
Thankfully the subject of her long-term crush doesn't seem to remember her and, given her ability to blend into the background, she’s not really surprised. What does surprise her is how cruel he is. Sure he squished her self esteem like a bug at Uni, but the Tom she spent many a pointless lunch break or library session covertly watching seemed easy going and quick to smile; not an uptight, overly critical bully.
Between passing out whilst assisting in theatre, struggling to force the team to see their bed blockers, and being covered head to foot in the bloody vomit of ‘Scary Glenda’ (A&E’s most frequent, frequent flyer), she can’t wait to get through the six months.
Although she’s too timid to tell Tom to jog on when she is his only target, when it’s her patients that he starts trampling she decides to grow a backbone, and Tom begins to see that she is not the cold, aloof woman he once thought.
As the misunderstandings of the past come to light, Tom realizes that the ‘complete-bastard’ routine he has been clinging to out of hurt pride might not have been his most stellar idea. He has a fight on his hands to win Frankie over and, unfortunately, it's not just his past behaviour he's fighting against. You see, Frankie knows all about being pushed around. She’s dealt with enough verbal and even physical abuse before to last a lifetime and she’s not going to be fooled into thinking that this ruthless alpha male has turned over a new leaf.
Even if he could convince her that he's not really the bully he projected before, her low self-esteem would never allow her to believe that a man like Tom could really be into a boring, bland, nondescript girl like her.
Luckily for Frankie, Tom is used to getting what he wants. He’s determined to make her see herself clearly for the first time in her life and he's just arrogant enough to believe that he can break through her defenses.
But Frankie's past is not ready to let her go quite yet. There's a reason that she spends next to no money but is always skint: a reason that she keeps her flat door open: a reason that she holds herself back from him.
Maybe he won't manage to convince her and he'll allow her to push him away. Or maybe (as Lou rightly puts it) he should 'stop being a pu**y and man up already.
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Broken Heart Syndrome
Chapter 1
Takotsubo cardiomyopathy
2003
If you yearned for, and daydreamed about, someone enough, could you drive your subconscious mind insane? Could you lose your grip on reality and start hallucinating?
‘Frankie? Hello, can you hear me?’ Lou trilled as she waved her hand in front of my face. I was staring over her shoulder at the rapidly approaching figure, trying to determine whether he was, in fact, a figment of my fevered imagination. ‘Frankie?’ she called again, her voice now tinged with concern. ‘Jesus, you look like you’re going to pass out.’
She turned to follow the direction of my gaze, and we were now both looking up into the gorgeous (if somewhat bloodshot), sky-blue eyes of Thomas G. Longley.
Title: Sticks and Stones
Series: The Broken Heart Series #2
By: Susie Tate
Publication Date: November 24, 2014
Genre: Contemporary Romance
For Lou it was always Dylan.
She loved him from the moment they first met across a cadaver in the dissection room at medical school. The most gorgeous man she’d ever laid eyes on, with more Welsh charm than you could shake a stick at; she was a goner.
But Lou, despite her beauty, was just too extrovert to interest Dylan, who was convinced that a quiet, shy girl, like Lou’s best friend Frankie, was much more his style.
‘Have at it mate but I’ve got two words for you: high maintenance.’
‘Don’t think I’d mind putting in the hard yards maintaining that piece of arse,’ one of Dylan’s more disgusting rugby mates replied.
‘Well good luck to you,’ Dylan returned, looking completely relaxed now that they were discussing Lou and not his precious Frankie. ‘I like mine heavy on the sweet and light on the ball-breaking bitch, but each to his own.’
After overhearing that exchange, Lou buries her pain and pines for him in private, but she can't give up their friendship. One night, eleven years later, she finally gets what she has been longing for, but the next morning realizes he was too drunk to even remember.
For Dylan it was always anyone but Lou.
A born surgeon, Dylan resents having to down his orthopaedic power tools for a six-month spell in Elderly Care. He thought that at least working with Lou would make his skiving easier; after all she’s always helped him out before. And so what if he’s been having these weird dreams about her since he woke up in her flat? It’s not like he’d ever actually go there.
So when he mistakenly believes that she’s put his career in jeopardy he loses control and his vicious insults, publicly made, cut Lou to the bone. It’s only after he loses Lou’s warm smiles, dry wit, boundless energy and outrageous banter from his life that he realizes the extent of his stupidity.
Maybe sticks and stones can break bones, and that’s something Dylan’s surgical skills can deal with. But when it’s a heart he’s broken…
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Sticks and Stones
Chapter 1
Silent tears
The first sensation that Dylan registered was the warmth under his hand. As he swam up towards full consciousness he also noticed the softness on his face and the delicious smell surrounding him. His head was buried in soft, wavy, blonde hair with an incredible, yet weirdly familiar, fresh citrusy scent, and as he looked down he saw that his hand was splayed possessively over a toned female stomach.
He groaned. Why oh why was he always as horny as a three-balled tomcat? Whoever it was he’d shagged last night, he knew it would bite him in the arse. If he weren’t careful he would succeed in alienating the entire female staff of every hospital in South Wales before his rotation was over. The last three months he had been at his most prolific, spurred on by the mind-numbing boredom of Elderly Care.
Title: Beyond Repair
Series: The Broken Heart Series #3
By: Susie Tate
Publication Date: October 11, 2015
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Everybody loves Katie; with her bubbly personality, her beauty, her never-ending supply of care and support for her patients and friends, and her huge sense of fun, there’s very little to dislike. Yes, she’s a bit scatty, she tends not to sweat the small stuff (like an engine light on her dashboard – that is until her Mini won’t actually start any more), and she can talk the hind legs off a donkey, but none of that stops most people from thinking she’s pretty damn adorable.
Well, most people, other than Sam, that is.
Sam is anything but bubbly. His surly demeanour is the complete opposite of Katie's, and over the six years that she’s known him one thing has become very clear: Sam cannot stand her. The fact that he makes her nervous doesn’t help the situation. Around Sam her verbal diarrhoea seems ten times worse, the snort that she tries to hold in when she laughs refuses to be suppressed, and her clumsiness assumes clown-like proportions.
If only he weren’t quite so intimidating, she might be able to act like a normal human being, but his sheer masculine beauty is enough to throw her off before she’s even spoken to him. Then there’s the fact that he looks at her like she’s something he’s scraped off his shoe. The combination is enough to short-circuit her brain.
Katie may be bubbly and bright but unfortunately her past is not, and it’s started leaking into her present. She hides her fear from her friends as they have problems of their own, but when Sam finds out the potential danger she’s in, for some reason he is furious.
Then again, there’s a reason Sam is the way he is. He has his own demons to contend with. Shutting himself off and burying his pain has been working well for him over the last six years since leaving the Special Forces, so the last thing he wants is to spend any time with the one woman that cuts through the numbness he surrounds himself with and actually makes him feel again. But he simply can’t stand by if Katie is in danger; he can’t allow her to be hurt. Unfortunately there are other ways to be hurt, and by getting closer to Katie, Sam may inflict more damage than her past ever could.
Because Sam is damaged, and some things are beyond repair.
This is a full-length contemporary romance / romantic comedy with its own HEA and no cliffhanger.
Warning – Beyond Repair differs from Susie’s other books in that there is some violence within the story. If this, combined with some swearing at times, is not for you, then it may not be your cup of tea.
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Beyond Repair
Chapter 1
Don’t worry about it; I’ll order curry
‘Auntie Katie?’
‘Yes, honey.’
‘What’s the point of this?’
Katie sighed. ‘The point is that there is no point,’ she replied, feeling the cold seeping through her coat into her back.
‘You’re weird,’ Jack said, his tone that of a patient but exasperated parent (a little insulting, seeing as he was in fact only eight years old).
‘You’re the weird one. You’re a kid for Chr*st’s sake; you’re supposed to love doing stupid stuff. Anyway it’ll be worth it when Benji freaks out.’
‘Auntie Katie, I don’t think you’re supposed to say “Chr*st” in front of us when you’re babysitting, and you’re definitely not supposed to be trying to freak us out.’
‘Oh come on,’ she scoffed, ‘you can’t wait to see the look on his face either.’
‘Flap flap. Flap flap,’ squealed Baby Thomas, who was lying sprawled on his back on top of Katie’s stomach and chest, his arms and legs spread wide inside his snowsuit like a cute, chubby starfish.
Susie Tate is a General Practitioner now but has also spent years in hospital medicine. When she's not working she's looking after her four yummy boys under six (okay, well one is actually over thirty-six but it's the mental age that counts!).
It may be a bit unusual for a doctor to be writing contemporary romance, but she wanted to use her experience to write what she hopes are funny, occasionally heartbreaking stories with a real insight into what goes on behind the scenes in medicine.
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