Andrew's Outback Love (Outback Australia #1) by Susan Horsnell 
Series: Outback Australia #1
Published by Self Published on July 3rd 2018
Genres: Contemporary
Pages: 120
Format: eBook
I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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Dr. Andrew Lowman is an Australian Eye Specialist who has made it his goal in life to restore sight to those who would otherwise endure life with poor eyesight or blindness.
Medical facilities are not easily accessed in the wide-open spaces and isolation of the outback where the air is hot, flies are plenty and life is tough for those on the land.
Thanks to the Royal Flying Doctor Service, Andrew and his team are flown in to a cattle station near Bourke, NSW, where they conduct a regular clinic for the Aboriginals and others on the land in the area. Their time is divided between two stations and the town of Bourke itself. Andrew and his team follow this routine every second week giving the outback a service it wouldn’t otherwise receive.
Meet the team:
Dr. Andrew (Drew) Lowman – Eye Specialist
Dr. Cameron (Cam) O’Brien – Anaesthetist with a reputation for being a playboy.
Dr. of Nursing - Dr. Ruby Waters – An Aboriginal woman who grew up in Bourke and wants to give back to the people.
Nurse Allison (Ally) Sykes – Works out of Dubbo with the RFDS and is having a difficult pregnancy.
Nurse Linda Freemont – A nurse with the RFDS – first in Broken Hill, then in Dubbo. She replaces Allison when she is forced to resign due to difficulties with her pregnancy.
Dr. James Rigon – A qualified Doctor and Pilot with the RFDS.
Dr. Finn McAllister – Also a qualified Doctor and Pilot with the RFDS.
Drew is smitten with Linda from the time she arrives but could a relationship work?
Join the team as they deal with emergencies, rescue a young boy and celebrate recognition.
Become a part of the outback – the land, they call home.
Follow the lives of the characters as each story unfolds.
I loved the backdrop and premise of the story, but the length of the story made the romance fall short.
I love the idea of the Royal Flying Doctor Service traveling to the remote areas of the outback and in this story dealing with giving sight back to the indigenous population. In the story, the doctors fly from one area out to one of the remote cattle stations where people have walked miles to see Dr. Andrew Lowman. After their first stop, they travel by four-wheel vehicles for 2 to 4 hours to get to each of their next stops, working their way back toward Burke. It is amazing and scary to think about just how far some of these people are from not just a hospital but simply an available doctor.
The backdrop of the Australian Outback is wonderful although I would like a little more description of what Andrew is seeing of the scenery out the plane window or what the outback looks like as they travel and simply more narrative of the different areas and also to meet more of the indigenous peoples who have come to see Andrew.
In this first book, we meet the other members of Andrew’s team. We are also meet the people at the various cattle stations and how the various surgeries are set up. The pilots aren’t just pilots, they are also trained emergency doctors so they can step in when needed.
My biggest issue with this story was the romance aspect. First it was too short a story to give us anything but insta-love and introduce all the characters and the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Secondly, Linda comes in to replace a pregnant nurse who needs to be on bed rest and she is soooo beautiful that all the men on the team are tripping over each other to be Linda’s sole focus, even after she tells them that her last boyfriend was abusive and tried to kill her. But Andrew is still disappointed when she wants to take things slow and maybe date other people when he has to be at the hospital in Sydney because the last boyfriend turned out to be nuts. She quickly changes her mind after they spend about two days apart and suddenly she wants to be his girlfriend and they are off having sex.
Now, if this was a different type of story, I might think that Linda’s sudden desire for exclusivity might have something to do with the 22,000 acre cattle farm that Andrew purchases for $1M or that if you investigated deeper than Linda’s perfect features, you might find that her ex-boyfriend shot her because she was a crazy stalker and not the other way around. But this is a romance so we need to accept that Linda is traffic stopping gorgeous and that also means she must be brilliant and dedicated and all those other things that Andrew lists about why he likes her, all this after barely meeting her. Yes, I am jaded. It is not that beautiful women can’t be smart, but I don’t like the presumption that magazine perfection makes her a better, smarter person without any time getting to know her.
The next book features Ruby, who is one of the nurses, we know she is smart (she has a doctorate) and dedicated (she insisted on a job with the RDS so she could help her people). Ruby is also an indigenous woman, and because of her, more of the local people turn up to get the help they need. She a hold-nothing-back woman with an infectious laugh. I am looking forward to getting to know Ruby better in this next book. Goodread said this story is 210 pages but Amazon notes it at 141 pages. Her romance is with police officer who she knows but doesn’t like, so it will be an enemies-to-lovers story and hopefully will gel better than Linda and Andrew’s romance.
