There are romances that, if you want to review them, you must do so right away, because they are so bland that you will forget everything about them within the next few days. Such a book, for me, was NYC Angels: Unmasking Dr. Serious by Laura Iding, the third installment in the multi-author NYC Angels series.

Some months ago, Dr. Daniel Morris, eminent pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon and single father, was in a car accident with his seven-year-old son Josh. Josh was severely injured and still can’t walk. As the novel starts, Dan takes Josh to his first session of physical therapy. The physiotherapist is Molly Shriver, who works at the same hospital as Dan does and enjoys an excellent reputation.

Dan is much surprised when the therapy appears to consist of nothing more than playing games and some massage; he is outraged when the therapist orders him to get Josh a wheelchair, which he’s refused so far. Dan is suffering from a very bad conscience because he feels he is partly to blame for the car accident, and in addition he used to be a workaholic dad who mostly left Josh to his nannies. Now he wants to do better, but has next to no idea how to go about it. So he swallows his pride and accepts Molly’s suggestions, even going so far as to get into a wheelchair himself for some outings. It doesn’t harm that he considers the psychotherapist very attractive indeed.

The problem with this book is that there is nothing original about it. Both Dan and Molly are basically nice people who – you guessed it – have been burned in the past, but now quickly succumb to their attraction to each other. Molly’s good influence on the Morris family consists mainly in getting them to play games together in a variety of venues. Dan is a quick learner, however, so whatever tension there is soon moves on to some practical issues – who will babysit Josh? – and some emotional issues – can I risk being falling in love, or will this be a disaster again?

The style is very mundane – no teasing, no quirkiness, just everyday situations, described in everyday phrases and commonplace sayings.

Josh is an okay child character, not too precocious but not very interesting either. The other minor characters are basically flat, with two women showing annoyingly one-dimensional bitchiness.

At no point did I become interested in either these characters or their stories. On finally closing NYC Angels: Unmasking Dr. Serious after having finished this review, I do not expect I will expend another thought on the book. So let me recommend straightaway to give this one a miss.