The Doctor’s Dilemma

Kaysie Lister is a werewolf secretly working her way through a human medical residency while having to hide the fact that she can turn into a wolf. Humans still carry some pretty ugly assumptions about werewolves, including the belief that they can’t be trusted around injured people. So, Kaysie keeps that part of herself hidden while learning everything she can about human medicine. Her ultimate goal is to finish her residency and take that knowledge home to help supernatural patients. What I really liked about her being a doctor is that it isn’t just a career Rory slapped onto her character. It actually matters to Kaysie. She works hard for it, she’s good at it, and helping people is genuinely part of who she is.

We get to see that almost immediately when a woman arrives in the ER convinced her boyfriend has turned her into a werewolf by biting her. Kaysie knows pretty quickly that the man is human and the werewolf story he’s been feeding this poor woman is complete bullshit. Ma’am, that is just a regular human asshole. But while the situation itself is ridiculous, Kaysie never treats the woman like she is. She recognizes that regardless of what caused the bite, this woman has been hurt, and she takes that seriously. It was a great introduction to Kaysie because underneath all the supernatural craziness, she is compassionate, capable, and determined to take care of others.

Unfortunately, Kaysie’s carefully constructed human life is about to get blown straight to hell. She has spent years dealing with Aries, a famous fae musician who is convinced she belongs to him despite Kaysie repeatedly making it very clear that she does not. She isn’t his mate. Kaysie already had a fated mate, Brendan, and he died eleven years earlier. At the beginning of the book, she has never been given a second-chance mate and has pretty much accepted that she may never have one. Aries, however, apparently missed the portion of the program where NO is a complete freakin’ sentence, and his obsession eventually threatens the quiet life and medical career Kaysie has worked so hard to build.

That sends Kaysie back toward her supernatural family and straight into a situation that becomes much bigger than one obsessive fae refusing to leave her alone. There are disappearances, secrets, magical manipulation, brainwashing, people who aren’t necessarily who they believe they are, memories that can’t be trusted, old enemies, new threats, and enough interconnected supernatural bullshit happening that I spent a good portion of this book suspicious of damn near everybody. This definitely isn’t one of those paranormal romances where the supernatural world is mostly hanging around in the background while everybody worries about who is going to kiss whom. There is a lot of actual story happening here.

Kaysie herself was one of the biggest reasons this worked so well for me. This woman has been through a lot, and the things that happened to her aren’t conveniently tucked into her backstory and forgotten whenever the plot needs her to be fine. Her past affects the way she reacts to being pursued, controlled, protected, touched, and loved. It also affects the way she sees herself. Kaysie will bend over backward to protect everyone around her while somehow believing she should carry every horrible thing that happens entirely by herself. There were several times I wanted to reach into the book, grab her by the shoulders, and tell her, Ma’am, you are not personally responsible for every terrible thing that has ever happened within a fifty-mile radius.

Her relationship with Magnus—Mac—was easily one of my favorite parts of the entire book. Mac is an ancient vampire and Kaysie’s best friend, but “best friend” almost feels too small for what these two are to each other. He feeds her, worries about her, protects her, takes care of her, and knows when she needs someone beside her. Kaysie gives him that same kind of acceptance and safety in return. Their relationship is deeply loving and incredibly intimate without being romantic, and I loved that Rory never treats that kind of love like it is somehow less important simply because they aren’t sleeping together. They are family because they chose each other.

Then there’s Nick. Oh, Nick. For a while, I genuinely wasn’t sure what Rory was doing with this man. There is definitely attraction between him and Kaysie, and things do become sexual, but there are also moments when his behavior had me side-eyeing the hell out of him. Kaysie establishes boundaries, and he doesn’t always respect them. There were moments when I was simultaneously thinking, Okay, he’s kind of hot, and I do not trust this motherfreaker. Without getting into the spoiler-heavy reasons why my instincts were screaming at me, I’ll just say that if you find yourself having the same reaction, keep reading.

The romance that really got me, though, was Kaysie finally getting the possibility of a second chance with Deacon. Brendan isn’t simply a dead first mate tossed into her backstory to make her sad. Kaysie loved him, and what happened between them is complicated, painful, and still very much part of her. Brendan became someone who hurt and killed innocent women, and Kaysie had to make a decision that ultimately led to his death. She knew what he had become and knew he had to be stopped, but she also knew there had once been a good man there—the man who really was her mate. She has spent eleven years carrying the grief and guilt of that choice.

That’s why Deacon worked so well for me. He doesn’t come into Kaysie’s life and magically erase Brendan. He doesn’t demand that she stop loving the person Brendan once was, and he doesn’t treat a dead mate like competition. Kaysie is allowed to carry that part of her life with her while still moving forward. Deacon lets Brendan remain part of her story while helping Kaysie see that her story didn’t have to end there, and that got me right in the feels.

I also loved that Kaysie and Deacon being mates doesn’t mean one of them suddenly has to become somebody they never wanted to be. Kaysie has spent years becoming a doctor and has no desire to throw that away simply because fate hands her an Alpha. Deacon, meanwhile, doesn’t particularly want the traditional Alpha life everyone assumes he should want either. Their relationship leaves room for both of them to decide what they actually want their future to look like. Kaysie doesn’t spend years surviving everything life throws at her and working her ass off to become a doctor just to suddenly go, Welp, guess I’m a Luna now. I appreciated the hell out of that.

Then Rory went and gave Mac his own mate, and Ruby ended up becoming another character I really enjoyed. I don’t want to spoil everything surrounding her because Ruby becomes increasingly important to the larger mystery, but I especially appreciated that she isn’t treated like someone who needs to be fixed. Ruby is autistic, has anxiety and selective mutism, and the people who truly see her learn how she communicates instead of demanding that she communicate the way they want her to. Jessie in particular respects her space, her boundaries, and her intelligence instead of talking down to her.

And Mac with Ruby? Yep. I was sold. Watching this ancient, intimidating vampire become completely protective and gone over his mate made me ridiculously happy. Apparently I have a weakness for terrifying supernatural men who find their person and immediately decide that person is now the center of the universe. Shocking absolutely no one.

What I loved even more was how Kaysie, Deacon, Mac, and Ruby eventually fit together. Kaysie and Mac already have that incredibly deep, non-romantic bond, while Ruby and Deacon have their own version of it. Then somehow the two best friends end up mated to each other’s person. Nobody has to lose someone they already love just because romantic mates enter the picture. Their family simply gets bigger, and I absolutely loved that Rory carried that all the way through instead of eventually separating everyone into neat little couples.

Apparently the solution to complicated supernatural relationship logistics is simply get a bigger freakin’ house. I fully support this plan. And now I’m extra attached to the four of them as a little found-family unit. I’m also voting for Mac to solve the only remaining problem by making immortality a group project.

The mystery running through Doctor’s Dilemma is where things get considerably more complicated. There are multiple POVs and several storylines happening at once, including Jessie’s, which initially seems almost disconnected from Kaysie’s. Then identities, memories, brainwashing, supernatural abilities, and the seriously screwed-up things happening in this town begin colliding. I’m deliberately not explaining exactly how Jessie connects to Kaysie because figuring that out is part of the mystery, but Rory definitely had my brain working overtime.

And that leads directly into why this landed at 4.5 stars instead of a full 5 for me. There is a lot happening in this book. A lot of characters, POVs, supernatural species, established relationships, family connections, backstories, memories, identities, magical abilities, and separate plot threads are being juggled at once. Most of it eventually comes together, but there were stretches where I had to stop and mentally sort through exactly who was who and what the hell was happening. The Kaysie/Jessie/Jessica situation especially got me. Some confusion is absolutely intentional because the characters themselves don’t know what is real, what has been planted in their heads, or which memories they can trust. I actually enjoyed that part of the mystery. But there was a point where I crossed from Rory is deliberately screwing with my head into Wait… did I lose the plot somewhere and accidentally merge two women into one person?

Kaysie’s guilt and self-blame also circle back several times throughout the story. I completely understand why. It is fundamental to who she is after everything she has survived, particularly what happened with Brendan, and I wouldn’t want that removed from her character. There were simply a few places where I felt like I already understood how deeply she blamed herself and didn’t necessarily need another reminder. By then I believed her guilt completely, so some of those moments began to feel repetitive rather than adding something new emotionally.

Those issues were enough to keep this from reaching that 5-star, I-have-no-complaints-and-my-BookDragon-is-refusing-to-shut-up-about-it territory for me, but they weren’t enough to knock it down to 4 stars either. I was invested in Kaysie, emotionally attached to these characters, wanted answers to the mystery, and genuinely loved where their relationships ended up. The emotional payoff, particularly with Kaysie and Deacon and the found-family dynamic between Kaysie, Deacon, Mac, and Ruby, was one of the strongest parts of the book. 4.5 stars feels exactly right.

For spice, I’m going with 4/5 peppers. There is explicit on-page sexual content, and this definitely isn’t a closed-door romance. However, the sex never becomes the main event at the expense of everything else happening. There is a substantial plot surrounding the romance, with the mystery, supernatural politics, trauma, danger, family, magic, and character development carrying plenty of weight. I also wouldn’t count every sexual situation in this book as “spice,” because some of the sexual content is connected to manipulation, coercion, trauma, or other darker circumstances and is very clearly not there to be sexy. For the actual consensual spice, 4 peppers fits for me.

And despite the few things that kept this from being a full 5 stars, this was still a great read for me. I got so engrossed in everything happening that most of my day somehow disappeared, and every time I thought I should probably put the book down and go do something productive, I just kept reading. Eventually exhaustion won the argument, and I literally fell asleep with my tablet still in my hand. 😂 Apparently my body was done reading before my BookDragon was. If a book can keep me that invested even when I’m fighting to keep my eyes open, it’s doing something right.

Overall, Doctor’s Dilemma gave me far more than a straightforward paranormal romance. There are werewolves, vampires, fae, fated mates, second chances, magic, mystery, brainwashing, some seriously questionable people, trauma, healing, found family, and one doctor who is apparently capable of taking care of everyone in existence except herself without adult supervision. It gets complicated, occasionally downright confusing, and there were places I thought could have been tightened, but underneath all that supernatural chaos is a story about different kinds of love and the people we choose to call family.

Kaysie deserved another chance at happiness without having to erase Brendan to get it. Mac deserved someone who could love him after everything he survived. And I loved that finding their mates didn’t require either of them to give up the person who had already become family. Now, Mac. About that immortality plan…

Review By: SASSY
Owner • Creator • Queen of the Chaos
SassyReviews.com
Read, Reviewed, & BookDragon Approved… or Not.

ARC REVIEW NOTICE: I received an ARC/review copy from the Author in exchange for nothing more than my honest opinion. As always, any opinions or thoughts expressed here are entirely voluntary, 100% my own, and were not influenced in any way. This review reflects the version of the manuscript I received and read, as it was written on September 11, 2026. Any edits or changes made to the book after that date are not reflected in my review.