Medical Romance: Just What the Doctor Ordered!

Hi all

Last night, in an attempt to retain my warm and fuzzy post-wedding glow, I watched one of my favourite films – the cuter-than-cute One Fine Day, starring the always-delicious George Clooney.  As maverick reporter and single dad Jack Taylor, he’s the perfect combo of wicked and dreamy. However, I will confess that even then, my favourite George Clooney character is still Dr Doug Ross! There’s just something about Clooney in scrubs that gets my pulse racing beyond anything. (What can I say, I work on the Medical Romance team - having a penchant for hunky men in scrubs comes with the territory…!)

Speaking for myself, medical TV dramas – from ER to House to Grey’s Anatomy – have provided some of my most memorable, heart-wrenching and edge-of-the-seat television watching experiences. (The Grey’s Anatomy ‘Code Black’ double bill, anyone?) And I’m clearly not alone in loving the combo of sexy heroes, strong women and life-and-death situations - the 22 million plus members of the House Facebook fan page just can’t be wrong!

Luckily, Romance HQ tapped into this vibe a long time ago with our Medical Romance series – if you crave emotional, exciting reads and truly sexy heroes, you can get them in six hits every month! But what I wanted to throw open to you guys today is the extent of the crossover between fictional and televised medical drama – what translates, what we can learn about balancing drama and romance, and how the Medical Romance series can be inspired by current popular tastes.

Firstly, what carries over perfectly?

Easy – the gorgeous heroes! Personally, I don’t think it’s possible to get more heroic than a Medical hero – they actually save lives every day. They also tend to be smoking hot - we’ve already established that Doug Ross is my personal favourite TV doc, but if I were playing hot-doc Top Trumps, Dr McDreamy would be a very close second in the ‘sexual healing’ stakes…! (Obviously you can beg to differ though  – anyone want to nominate another contender for hottest doc?)

Luckily, I can read about sexy medical heroes galore every day at Romance HQ – from playboys to brooding bosses, Medical Romance has it all. Or so we like to think! But are we ticking all your hero-loving boxes? Are there any other TV docs you’d like to see used as inspiration more often? Or are the old favourites the best?!

What fictional medical romance can learn from on-screen medical drama...

One of the questions we most often hear from authors is how realistic is too realistic in terms of medical detail. It seems to us at Romance HQ that the best medical TV dramas manage the balance between medical drama and medical romance perfectly – whilst there’s the occasional splash of blood, they usually evoke the high-octane medical setting without going into gory detail. Instead, working together on patients is the perfect opportunity to show how the medical drama drives a relationship forward. The characters become more than just professionals – as they fight to save lives, they’re revealed as human beings too. (I also love the way that the more intense the battle between life and death is, the more chiselled and gorgeous the doctors seem to get…!)

We’re totally open to interesting and unique medical drama – and personally, I love this educational aspect. (The things I know about childbirth after my time editing Medicals are eye-opening, and very useful: if I ever have children, I’ll be signing up for a water birth STAT!) And clearly, I’m not the only one - why else would House be so insanely popular if it wasn’t, apart from the gorgeous House himself, because of its fascinating exploration of obscure medical conditions?

But in a Medical Romance, gore for gore’s sake just won’t wash. Without the clear TV visuals of a sexy couple smouldering over a patient’s body, it risks detracting from the central emotional pull of the relationship. The prescription here (sorry, can’t resist the pun!) is, as with TV dramas, that medical drama be used to bring the couple together, rather than shock tactics.  We’d love to know your thoughts on Medical detail – how much is too much for you?

Finally, how can medical TV dramas further inspire the Medical Romance series? 

All our series are committed to evolving in line with readers’ tastes and as you know from my blogs, we like to hear what you want to read about. So, calling all Medical Romance readers out there - we’re confident we offer the same classic emotional themes, gorgeous heroes and thrilling medical drama as the medical TV series, of course with a more specific emphasis on the central romance. But what else could we do to ensure that reading our Medical Romances provides the same exciting experience as settling down with the most recent box set of Grey’s Anatomy - are there themes you’d like to see us tackle more? And, for those of you who haven’t read a Medical Romance yet (and here’s hoping you give it a whirl after reading this blog!), what else would tempt you into the series?!

So, if you’re an avid Medical Romance fan or simply a medical TV drama obsessive, we’d love to know your thoughts!

Love Flo x