Limits,  Susie Tate


Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre: Romance

I loved book one in this series and Millie and Pav both feature there as secondary characters. Rosie, Jamie and Libby from that book are secondary characters here along with the vivacious Kira.

Millie is painfully isolated, has a real social issue among her other problems. Seems she was a child genius, pushed by ambitious political parents into schooling way ahead of her years and peers. She never learned to mix with others as a result. Her parents were bullies in other ways too, sapping at her fragile self esteem and now she's an incredible medical personnel trapped in a job way below her skills officially but where they are recognised and valued so unofficially she does all the work a consultant would do. She's been having therapy but is a long way from being who she wants to be. She's trapped in her own self limits.
Pav is her total opposite but by a series of incidences begins to see Millie isn't the person he nicknamed Nuclear Winter. Millie envies him, is attracted to him but knows he, like the rest of the staff apart from Libby and her colleague Don, would never want to even be friends with her, let alone more. And then things change. To begin Pav does have an ulterior motive, but he very soon sees Millie isn't stand offish, isn't looking down on others but plain terrified. After an incident leads to her totally falling apart in front of other staff he sees beyond her facade, and tries to help. Libby too and the irrepressible Rosie, work on bring Millie forward, helping her get past those limits.

I so felt for Millie. Social anxiety is genuine, many of us have issues where the thought of meeting others has us in a sweat, hearts racing, blood pulsing, just knowing that we don't have that easy connection, that simple conversation is anything but, that trying to talk to someone unknown will result in the usual brain jelly and lack of speech. Millie's reactions are way beyond most though, and the way Susie gradually brings her forward, showing us how the CBT, the people she depends on, the gradual widening of those she can trust bring her forward is wonderful to read and felt so very real.
I loved Pav, he saw beyond the obvious to the gem that was Millie, and its was a treat to read this romance. When he spoke to Millie's parents I was cheering him. Its a great read, I loved seeing the familiar characters from book one, loved seeing just how difficult Millie found things others breeze past, loved how Pav's family changed when they got to know the real Millie.

The epilogue too was just perfect. Just enough to let us see how things would work out, but not enough to feel the story gets past the interesting part.
Stars: Five, a great fun read, and a terrific follow up.

ARC supplied for review purposes by Netgalley and Publishers

If you haven't read of any of Susie Tates previous books you're in for a real treat. This book has the characters from Beg Borrow or Steal, you do not have to have read this to enjoy Limits but I'd advise you to as it is also a fabulous read and it's so good to catch up on previous characters.
Millie a Radiologist is known as 'nuclear winter' due to her cold attitude and ability to make even the most senior consultants uncomfortable. Pavlov is a happy go lucky surgeon with a love them and leave it attitude to women, he is intrigued by Millie and is determined to find out why she has such a poor attitude towards everyone. Millie is in fact very shy and suffers greatly from anxiety and panic attacks having had an appalling childhood she just does not know how to socialise in any sort of company.
The journey we embark on with these two wonderful people and their friends is wonderful funny, heartbreaking and above all uplifting, to see Millie begin to blossom as Pav falls in love with her is just perfect.
I finished this book with a smile on my face and a feeling of sheer joy. Fabulous!

Another winner from Susie Tate.

From the outside Camilla 'Millie' Morrison looks like she has it all. Beautiful, immaculate clothing, always perfectly made-up, not a hair out of place, amazingly intelligent, ridiculously wealthy. On the inside its a different matter. Crippled by low self-esteem and debilitating shyness she has no friends and her colleagues call her 'Nuclear Winter'. The only people who seem to tolerate her at all are a five year old call Rosie and a 70-something year old senior radiologist called Don who acts as her supervisor.

Pavlos Martakis is a gregarious, popular, loud, confident, uninhibited consultant surgeon. Millie's complete opposite and yet she is drawn to him like the proverbial moth to a flame. As the wit who coined the nickname, he feels a little bit guilty but her cold manner and the way she refuses to even look at people when she dismisses their requests for a scan on one of their patients really annoy him.

Millie has done some ground-breaking research and Pav is desperate for her to present her findings to the Hospital in the Grand Round and more widely at medical conferences but so far Millie has refused all requests for a presentation. Pav isn't used to being rejected, especially by women, and he really can't see why the stuck-up Dr Morrison gets away with her rudeness and refusing to present.

As always Susie Tate has written a sweet, funny romance with endearing characters with some fascinating medical insights thrown in for good measure. I challenge anyone not to love Rosie, or Grammy, or Pav's mad Greek family, or dear Don. Even Pav, although a bit self-centred at first, is totally sweet and so protective of Millie.

I just loved this book and had to start reading it as soon as I got the ARC. The only disappointment is that now I have to wait ages until the next book - fingers crossed it's Kira and the mysterious B.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.