How I wanted to love this book, but it was just so slow. I couldn’t connect with the characters and I felt the story was going in a circle. The medical terminology also made it hard to follow along.

Rule Number One: Never fall in love with a patient.
Too bad her body and her heart want to break the rules.

When a darkly handsome man walks into her office for massage therapy, Iz Amato knows she’s in trouble. Not only does her body want to cross every line of the therapist/patient relationship, but her heart has rebellious plans of its own.

An entertaining read if you are in the mood for something lighthearted and easy to follow! An enjoyable read to pass a sunday afteroon. Many thanks to netgalley for an arc in return for my opinion.

I stopped reading after their first encounter. To be honest, I just couldn't get into this book. I didn't enjoy the characters, they had no chemistry and the plot was really boring.

***Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***

The premise was good, but it fell a little flat for me.

A Beautiful Touch is a well written book. The plot flows well and is fast paced. I throughly enjoyed this book. My thanks to the publisher for my advance ebook. This is my unbiased review.

A heartwarming, beautiful, sweet, touching love story. Iz and Sebastian, both from medical background go through the pain of loss, uncertainty and unknowns to find their love for each other.

A wonderful read. Good story with depth and emotions.

It’s always a beautiful thing to come across a good guy hero who from the get go has his lady love’s best interest at heart. Sebastian seemed to fall for Iz, the heroine, at first sight. He was kind, extremely patient, and genuinely seemed to care for her almost immediately. Learning about her past and present situation only endeared her even more to him. He was everything a girl could ask for, folks.

Iz felt the zing of hot chemistry when Sebastian first walked through her massage therapy clinic front door. He was gorgeous, romantic, and a gentleman to boot. I get the professional dilemma she found herself, but not so much how she handled things. She needed to take the advice everyone else logically kept pointing out to her. Honestly, it would have solved their problem. Her constant hand wringing and pushing him away took up most of the story line. At 70%, they still weren’t what I would consider a real couple. Not contacting him immediately when a very shocking and devastating event happened completely dumbfounded me. I thought it would be the wake up call she needed. I was surprised he didn’t take major offense afterwards and write off their non-existent relationship altogether. Instead the opposite happened. This very compassionate, forgiving, understanding man pulled her closer into his world.

Unfortunately, that’s when the writing took a turn that did not work for me. Mechanical, sappy, and just plain off are words that come to mind, which is a shame because before that the writing flowed. At 75%, Iz finally decided to get smexy with Sebastian. He sure was happy about it, naturally, but I just was no longer in the mood, folks. I felt like an uncomfortable spectator when introductions to his family commenced.

So here’s to hoping others love this entire book. I wish this author continued writing success. The first half held my interest as I leisurely strolled along with them. I just found myself rather exhausted, frustrated, then turned off starting around the 70% point. By then it was mostly the writing itself. I find myself wondering now if the problem was a well thought out endgame was missing.

Title: A Beautiful Touch, Series: Love at Lincolnfield (Book 2), Author: Colette Dixon, Pages: 270, stand-alone but part of a series, slow burn, very slow paced, extremely patient good guy hero, instant attraction/love at first sight, not smexy until 75%, hand wringing heroine, writing lost its appeal, lots of massage therapy terminology. Rating: 3 stars

Book 1 - A Beautiful Risk
Book 2 - A Beautiful Touch
Book 3 - A Beautiful Match

(I voluntarily read and reviewed a free copy of this book via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I was not given any payment or compensation for this review, nor is there any affiliation or relationship between this reviewer and the author/publisher/NetGalley.)

A new to me author and what a surprise i had when i started reading and the main character is a Roumanian doctor which is very rare in romance books.

It's a beautiful love story, slow burn you may say, told only in Iz point of view, full of many angsty moments and building up a beautiful love story, this was a book that i would recommend to all my friends that love a slow burn romance.

A Beautiful Touch by Colette Dixon is the 2nd book in the Love at Lincolnfield romance series, and my first book by this author. I found this book to be a roller coaster ride of emotions. Overall this book was well written, and I will be reading more books by this author. Highly recommend.

I reviewed a digital arc provided by NetGalley and the publisher. Thank you.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley!!

I'm a huge fan of stories that involve the medical field.
This is a doctor/patient romance. he is her patient, she knows she should stay away, but she can't.
There was drama, emotion, and more in this book. I can't wait to read more by this author.

Based on the description of this book, I really thought it would be something I loved. Sadly I didn't, and I really think it was just because too many things kept pulling me out of the story; at the end of the day I couldn't get emotionally invested.

The premise of the book is good! Iz, a massage therapist, has a patient referred to her who is recovering from a car accident (Sebastian). As it turns out, Iz's sister is suffering from an unknown medical condition, and Sebastian is a medical doctor. Through everything, they work on healing each other while maintaining (or at least trying to) professional boundaries. There's tension, some laughs and sweet gestures, loss, and a trip to Romania! While the book was really slow to start, the ending was as sweet as all the cakes mentioned in the story.

So I think the best way for me to go about this review is to just do a pros/cons list. Because there were some good things! It's just that, as I said, the cons kept distracting me from the story. I did refer back to my ratings scale, because while I feel bad leaving a 2 star rating, I really want to be consistent.

Pros
-I love that it was set in Chicago, not your typical romance novel location

-The trip that Iz made to buy Sebastian his favorite cake was adorable

-The last 20% with his family in Romania was really sweet (I would have loved more time have been spent here rather than so much time being spent on things in the beginning)

-I loved the proposal. Who doesn't love a sweet proposal with a family heirloom

Cons
Where to begin?

-There was A LOT of unnecessary medical terminology; specifically with the muscle names. My biggest issue was when things were referred to incorrectly or events were either jumped over or wrong (for instance, at one point she uncovers his leg but then starts naming muscles in the shoulder?). With all of this, it made me feel like I was somehow grading an anatomy creative writing assignment. Which was not enjoyable. At all.

-It definitely feels like they fall in lust, not love. I get it, there's tension and they can't be together. But in the time they're working together, not much is learned about each other and the relationship feels really superficial. While Sebastian does some really sweet things for her and her family, and is there for her when she needs him, the romance and HEA felt a little...forced? Or unbelievable.

-Speaking of Sebastian helping her and her family out, what kind of doctor is he? We hear that he's in residency, but what's his speciality? How is it that the ER doctor knows him, but he is also able to work in the lab with the pathologists, and the ICU doctors? Like, what? This is similar to what medical tv shows do in an attempt to generalize medicine and how hospitals work, but a little detail here could have been really helpful!

-The ending was rushed for me. I appreciate that things weren't dwelled on, but with how much time is spent with her sister (Tess) in the beginning, I really expected there to be more to the ending.

-I really, really hated how Iz always gave her sister a hard time about advocating for herself, and then when she gets sick she tries to brush it off and ignore it. Double standard much? Like, (spoiler) your sister just died of this genetic disease and now you have the symptoms too, but let's ignore it and tell your hot doctor boyfriend that you're fine. Sure. Ok.

-What is Iz short for?

-The whole Iz backstory regarding medical school, and how she never tells Sebastian the full story. And also, cadaver labs are MUCH different that working with a live patient. I know many people who can't handle the cadaver lab but go on to be successful physicians.

-There were more details given for unnecessary things, and not for plot points that would have helped flesh out the story more.

-All of the mentions of Iz's empathy were...annoying. It was mentioned to an extent that I borderline wondered if it was supposed to also read as a semi- science fiction or fantasy novel.

All this to say, other people may absolutely love it! I think just because of my (educational/professional) background, this didn't read for me like most books do (e.x. an escape, something happy, something to take my mind off of the work of the day, etc.). I don't necessarily want to detract others from reading it, but the writing style and story was not for me, and therefore not something I would likely recommend.

Another cute book by Collette. I didnt like it as much as the first one but still worth the read. It did start slow for me but picked up later. I liked the characters but the first book was better.

Thank you Netgalley, the author and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

, I read the first book in the series a Beautiful Risk so I wanted to check the next one out. I was a little disappointed that there really wasn't a connection between the two books, no overlapping characters. That's where the disappointment ended. This book started off slow, not in a bad way just a slow build-up, then took off like crazy. I stayed up way too late to finish because I needed to see how it ended. It really was beautiful. I enjoyed this book more than the first.

3.5 Stars. I didn’t understand the whole empathy pain. This feels like an episode of House MD. I’m so annoyed with this heroine. She’s a mess. This book is almost an ad for some of these TV shows , I got tired of hearing about Revelations. Talk about slow burn! I wish the language had been translated. I the reader don’t read or understand the language. It’s a sweet and frustrating read. Loved the hero.

I loved Iz and Sebastian together, both of them were written incredibly well making this gem of a romance perfect. Iz the empathic massage therapist and Sebastian her patient who comes for therapy after a serious car accident changes in life as he knows it. The two are immediately drawn and their journey is one of mutual healing and heavy on the romance. I needed a change from the typical romance stories and Ms Dixon delivered.
Definitely worth the read!

arc from net galley and publisher

I did not expect this story to hit my feels so hard. That climax was so unexpected and I’ve got to say it literally left me shook to the core (sorry for the use of fangirl language here). I came in here looking for the contemporary NA novel but what I got was definitely more. Ms Dixon managed to catch us from our heartstrings in a manner that wouldn’t leave us totally broken but still bare to the world.
I loved how healing the story was without dwelling on the sorrow. Yes a loss like that would kill you but still the manner in which Sebastian made sure Iz got over it was sweet. His whole family was sweet. Like I mentioned before the manner in which the sorrow was dealt was healthy which gives the reader the option that not everything should be a blabbering dramaland mess. Beautiful story with beautiful characters.
I will definitely keep my eye for the rest of this authors books for sure.

Very good book. The story flows easy and it’s a sweet story. A little heartbreak and a lot of love in these pages. Definitely one to pick up.

Based on the cover, I was expecting a light, romantic story, but this book has a surprising amount of depth and drama. I think I've watched too many Dateline stories, because I was half-expecting the mysterious illness to be caused by poisoning!

This book will also make you want a good massage!

The story of Iz and Sebastian. His is her patient, so she knows she should keep away from him.

Soon they are friends, especially when he helps her out with her sisters illness.

Quite emotional at times, especially all the pain Iz goes through regarding her sister. But Sebastian is there for her when she needs him the most.

Looking forward to more books in this series.