3 Stars. This book was about Sydney Stevens, a fourth year med student. When her hospital, Franklin, closes, she gets moved to a new hospital. The new hospital has an old flame, Emmett McCabe, who she left without saying a word. They have history, a lot of history, and this is making their jobs as fourth year med students, difficult. They are both place in the emergency room and have to work closely together and deal with all the history and tension between them.

I thought this book was just okay. There was a lot of medical terms and surgery, which I did not enjoy, as it went over my head. I am not in the med field so all my medical knowledge is from TV shows like Grey's Anatomy. The chemistry between the two characters was good, but seem to build out of nowhere. A lot of their chemistry was based off a past relationship and it seemed like they went from not wanting to be together to being together in no time. I feel like there was not enough to develop the characters. This was not my favorite Radclyffe novel. I have not read one of her novels in a while but I feel like this was not her best work.

I always love reading a new Radclyffe novel and ‘Passionate Rivals’ kept my interest until the end. I found myself enjoying the medical and hospital aspects of this book as much as the romantic elements. As I have come to expect, the writing was excellent and the characters strong and impressive women.

I was given this ARC from Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books to review.

A lesbian romance from one of the best known writers in the field. This title blends existing well known characters in Honor and Quinn with new young students looking to find their place in the system.
I had read one Honor/Quinn novel previously but I think it would still work as a standalone without any prior knowledge.
This was a light enjoyable read but for me there were too many coincidences - such as the neighbouring house becoming available to rent. The sheer number of lesbian characters also felt a little too much given real world stats but I can see why the author would make that choice. Throughout, I also felt that their relationship was inevitable and I didn't have any real sense of peril that they would not end up together.

As an avid reader of Radclyffe's novels I was delighted to receive a free eversion of this to review from Netgalley. Passionate Friends is the latest in the PMC medical series and it was good to see how Honor and Quinn were getting on. The main focus of the book though is the complex dynamic between Syd and Emmett, which Radclyffe depicts with her usual skill and flare. The hospital scenes reminded me of Greys Anatomy but you do also get that she really knows what she's writing about and her medical training comes through on the page. For that reason I always enjoy her medical dramas more as her knowledge and passion shine through, following a trauma surgeon also adds to the drama. A real page turner and a believable romance.

this was an amalgam of the two tropes lovers-to-strangers-to-lovers and enemies-to-lovers, both of which i really like. however, this book just didn't particularly work for me. there didn't seem to be enough of a connection between emmett and syd, which is definitely a missed opportunity when you think about all the potential incendiary tension there was simmering between the two of them. it felt like interactions between the two were weirdly sparse, skipped over in favour of interactions with more minor characters.

Radclyffe is known for her stories about what life is like for the doctors trying to make it in the medical profession. With this book we now get to follow surgeons Emmett McCade and Sydney Stevens who are both after the same job. They met earlier at the start of their journey to becoming surgeons and never forgot or thought they’d have a chance to see where their attraction to each other would lead. Radclyffe also gives us a chance to revisit Honor Blake and Quinn Maguire from ‘Fated Love’. I can’t help but like Radclyffe’s book, all of them. The only thing with this book is the amount of time dedicated to actually doing the various operations. I sometimes felt like I was really there in the operating room with them. Another great read I’m happy to add to my library. Very enjoyable.
ARC via NetGalley

Budget cuts and healthcare has an impact on patients as well as healthcare providers. This read had me thinking about the shortage of doctors especially in small towns and rural communities. The medical drama is uptempo with much detail related to simple and complex operations. What an eye-opening and educational read. Emmett McCabe is on track to be Chief Resident with no reason to be concerned until Sydney Stevens enters the scene. There is history and due to Sydney's reluctance to talk about the past, they take a couple of steps forward and a couple of steps backwards even though they both know a spark is there. The stories behind the story were just as interesting as the doctors attempted to work together. Slow-burn romance with to strong and likeable characters.

Not enough Honor and Quinn. I could leave my review at that but I suspect I should probably give a bit more detail.

I wasn't going to read this initially, finally having convinced myself that I didn't need to read yet another story about a tall, driven, black-haired and blue-eyed butch with commitment issues (due to a tragic past) fall for someone who's first impression of her is that she's an arrogant dick. (One of the descriptions of the butch surgeon star of this novel might actually be lifted from another Radclyffe story). Then I read somewhere that Honor and Quinn from Fated Love etc were in it and I caved, I'm a sucker for those two! I would have been better off just re-reading 'their book' and skimming Night Call and Crossroads for the bits they're in in those because the rest of this was disappointing.

Finally a Radclyffe book I really enjoyed reading. The last 2 Radclyffe books left me uninvolved and unimpressed. The last one I couldn’t even finish because I thought it was so boring. This book I really liked the story and the all characters. The character are well developed. I cared about them and wanted to more know about their story. The story had all the elements of one of her older stories.

I also like that Honor and Quinn were brought into the book and were blended into the story. Sometimes when she includes characters from older book she has a couple of chapters thrown in with them having sex then moves on. I like that she didn’t do that in this book, instead they were placed in the story to add to the main character’s story.

The ending seemed a little rush. Almost like the deadline was approaching and she just had to get it done. That said it also might be because I didn’t want it to end and wanted more about all the characters in the book. I hope she writes another story about all the characters involved in this book because it wasn’t enough for me.

I can finally recommend a Radclyffe book again. I’m glad because she one of my favorite authors.

There are two parts in this book. I really love the second part and, I wish the first had been shorter.

The first one is mostly medical drama, hospital politics and setting numerous characters (most of them I didn’t care about). That part wasn’t my cup of tea : not enough interactions between Sydney and Emmett, too long (seriously, I thought I wasn’t going to be able to finish it) and just plain boring to me – although if you enjoy hospital drama, you might like it more than I did.

Thankfully, the romance picks up in the second half of the book and once it gets going it’s a pretty good one. The two main characters are very compelling : two strong women, at the top of their field, with great chemistry and an intriguing shared past we were teased with most of the book.
I was very curious about the reason Syd had ghosted Emmett and I wasn’t disappointed with the revelation. It was heartbreaking and well done.

All in all, I liked this book but not as much as I would have if the first part had be more about more the romance and less about the hospital.

No one can compare to Radclyffe when it comes to medical romances. In fact, my only criticism of this book is that there was too much "medical stuff" in this one - I found myself skipping over the procedures. Emmett and Syd are great together and I hope they show up in subsequent PMC novels. I loved the integration of the med students from two programs - just the right amount of competition and angst.

Truly classical Radclyffe-another winner. The story line is based in the PMC Hospital (if you are a fan of Radclyffe you will know that is where Quinn and Honor worked-so yes we get a few scenes with them again (thank you Radclyffe!).

This story line is mainly around Emmett and Sydney, two women who knew each other at the start of their medical careers but circumstances pulled Sydney in a different direction. After 4 years, the two come together again because 2 hospitals/staffs were merging. Not only do the two meet again but they are competing for the same goals (that only 1 will get – 5th year chief resident).

The book starts with a bang and keeps moving. It is very fast paced, a lot of the action is around the ER, trauma and OR environment, engaging lots of characters (Dani just made me think of Sandra Oh’s character on Grey’s Anatomy, loved it!). Radclyffe’s scenes of the fast pace environments and her detail description of the medical action proves she is the Queen of medical backdrops!

Emmett and Syd are two characters you want to root for and hope that Syd can let Emmett back into her life. It is a slow burn to romance with a lot of medical action, so be patient (no pun intended) for the romance to build. As always, the dialog is engaging, the story moves at a good pace, and hey we get a peek into Quinn and Honor again, how much more can you ask for <smile>.

And yes, there is but one flaw, in my opinion, that even after I finished the book it ‘kind of’ stuck with me. The scene of Emmett and Dani in the kitchen discussing breakfast, and the lack of grocery shopping, a flip comment of ‘we need a wife’ kind of irked me. Maybe next time use a reference more generic then coming across that A Wife is responsible for grocery shopping. Come on it’s the 21st century, go with home deliver or something-I know very very nit picking but like I said it just kind of rub me the wrong way <smile>.

In the end, this is another WINNER from Radclyffe which is why she is one of my favorite authors and is always and auto buy for me. This one will go into my ‘read again’ bookcase.

I received an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, but would have written the same opinion if I had come across this book on my own.

To see my Amazon review, it will be under CC-A Winner (once the book is released). I would rate this at 5 stars, even with my nitpick comment <smile>

Radclyffe is in her element writing medical stories. The fact that she had Quinn McGuire and Honor Blake from Fated Love, my all time favorite book, in the story was a different plus. Med students Emmet McCabe and Syd Stevens had a short but passionate past. Then Syd was gone. Five years later Syd show up in Emmett’s hospital and they are both up for the chief position. This was a good storyline. It had angst and passion. Every thing you expect from Radclyffe. Excellent read…

I received a copy of this from netgalley in exchange for a review.

This book wasn't for me.

In a way I feel bad for giving this two stars, because I am giving it two stars based purely on my own personal preferences. The writing was solid, nothing offensive really happened and it contains a lot of strong female characters interacting in interesting ways with other strong female characters.

It just wasn't suited to me, I think. I don't like ultra ambitious characters, and this book is absolutely full of them. I'm also not entirely keen on a constant focus on how stressful everything is, and this book also has a lot of that. I'm not entirely keen on scenes where one of the main characters sleeps with somebody outside the main pairing, and this book has that explicitly in the first scene.

The only non-personal criticism of this book I have is that I wondered in halfway through a series, which was ultra confusing, but otherwise it was just a large chunk of not to my tastes. It definitely has an audience out there, I hope it finds its audience out there, but I wasn't it.

Another golden classic from Radclyffe. I love Radclyffe butch characters. We are back at PMC hospital with familiar characters from previous books. Emmet and Sydney meet again after a short affair several years before. While the two of them learn to work together and become friends we slowly find out what happened years before between them and what mysteries Sydney carries with her. I'm always delighted with this fictitious world where almost every woman is a lesbian or bisexual.

Thank you to NetGalley, Radclyffee and Bold Strokes Books for an ARC ebook copy to review. As always, an honest review from me.

If you’re looking for the book version of the medical drama, Grey’s Anatomy but with mainly lesbian relationships, Passionate Rivals is for you.

Emmett and Sydney knew each other form years ago. They had a few passionate nights but went their separate ways. Now, as resident doctors are forced to switch hospitals due to budget cuts, the two are working side by side each day.

I absolutely enjoyed the authentic feel of the book. The friendship and competitive nature of the residents seems real and lends an ease to the story. The writing is not overly dramatic, because the day to day life of medicine is dramatic enough. It feels like a behind the scenes look at a day in the life of a resident doctor working at a hospital. Incredibly captivating!

However this doesn’t feel like that much of a romance novel to me. Yes, there are relationships and sexy times, but the majority of it is navigating the world of being a doctor. That will naturally include romance and relationships at times, but I wouldn’t classify it as a typical romance book.

Also, it’s the fourth in the series, but I think it can absolutely be read a stand alone. I hadn’t read any other the other books before and had no trouble. I’m definitely putting the other three books on my TBR list now!

All in all, a super enjoyable read that I highly recommend.

Passionate Rivals by Radclyffe

“Phenomenal, riveting, sexy, passionate”

This is the first book I have ever read by Radclyffe and omg, I feel like I need to go and read every book she has ever written now.
From the beginning of the story I was so engulfed with the story line and Emmett and Syds life I needed to know how it needed. I didn’t put this book down, at all! I read it straight through. The structure of this book is so amazingly written, and the character coming to turns with their pasts and what they want for their future is phenomenal.

I would 100% recommend this book for anyone who is interested in a book with strong lesbian characters.

Thank you to Netgally and Bold Strokes Books, Inc for the chance to read and review this novel.

I couldn't get into this one--probably my fault for attempting to read a medical romance, but a quarter of the way through it was all hospital politics and the two leads had still barely spoken to each other. I've enjoyed some of Radclyffe's books in the past and I'm sure I will again, but this series may not be for me, because I was bored by all the doctor-y details.

Who can write a good romance? Radclyffe!!! Who can write a good book with a medical setting? Radclyffe!!! Put those two ingredients together and you have “Passionate Rivals”.

Emmett McCabe is about to complete her 4th year of residency at PMC Hospital in Philadelphia. She has excelled in all phases of her residency and should be named chief resident. Emmett and all her fellow residents at PMC are surprised and upset when they learn that another medical program’s residents will be integrated within their program effectively immediately.

Sydney Stevens is a 4th year resident of this transferred program and is also a rising star. Five years earlier, Emmett and Sydney had a passionate, though brief, relationship, then Sydney disappeared from Emmett’s life. When they meet again, there is confusion, hurt, immediate physical attraction and anger between the two. These are great ingredients for a Radclyffe novel.

I am thrilled that Radclyffe resurrected characters from three of her earlier novels – “Fated Love”, “Crossroads” and “Night Call”. Quinn and Honor are two of the main characters from those books. From the onset of the story readers can immediately connect to Radclyffe’s characters. They are so well defined and developed, both physically and emotionally, that readers can close their eyes and picture them.

Radclyffe’s storyline is smooth, fast-paced and clever. She was a doctor who practiced in Philadelphia and can bring the medical scenes to life in a vibrant and exciting manner.

Although I have mentioned that Radclyffe used characters from an earlier series, “Passionate Rivals” can be read as a stand alone. However, readers will enjoy this book so much that they may wish to read the others.

I rate “Passionate Rivals” with 5 out of 5 stars.

I was given this ARC in return for a fair and honest review.

It was a pleasant surprise to learn that this book was a continuation of the Honor series by this author. This is a series I read voraciously. The story itself was a good one, and the writing was very good and held my interest throughout. The only issue I had was that the plot was somewhat formulaic, and there was not a lot that was original. I didn't dislike the book, but I didn't love it either. Would give this 3.5 if I could. Just not a 4.0 for me.