This was supposed to be Saffron A Kent’s lighter book after Gods and Monsters… ha ha no surprise it’s not the 'reduced sugar' read AT ALL...So please call up whoever told you that NOW and say “lies lies ….bold faced lies...I hate you, thank you, c’mere and let me hug you for putting Simon and Willow in my life."
Medicine Man is a beautifully complex, loud, agonizingly masterful story screaming to be told...and when the tale of Willow and Simon is all told up it will echo like an echo like an echo into the walls of the mind before it absorbs into memory... if ever…. It’s magnitude took me by surprise a bit to say the least.
About the book:
I am categorizing this mainly a Taboo at it’s finest because it pushes the envelope for many reason. To begin with it deals with the stigma of mental illness. Kent does not soften any blows with Willow’s depression….it is a hidden disability and silent blunt force trauma at its worst... just like when humans are in a bad car accident all mangled skin and bones….this, I think, is how someone is feeling when relapsing into depression; a severe crisis of neurobiological systems and full arrest of one’s very existence…. There is a part where Willow is so limp and paralyzed...the world around her is becoming this angry erratic ball of fire composed of strange people, sound and fury hurled at high speed. The sun is labeled as the enemy; the cruel happy rays accosting her skin, beating her down, then repeating their assault deliberately...it made my heart sink as far as how jarring and tragic someone’s internal thoughts could be when dealing with a really bad bout of sadness.
“There’s a sun stuck in my head. It’s bright and glaring. It hurts my eyes, my skull, my very bones. Because the sun is inside my head. Inside. My head. And yet, it feels like sun is glaring down at me, leaching away my strength, drying me up, leaving me a mass of heavy bones”.
Also if you read the blurb and other reviews...this is fable about a geeky snow princess who wears funny shirts, bunny slippers, loves Harry Potter, adores lime jello (I should just stop right there).. falls in love and lust with the ice king, Simon; The all powerful 'shaman of village Heartstone'. He is super hot, equally nerdy and needs a healer himself. Their secret trysts and rendezvous is the inferno amped up culminating in rapid heart-pounding, lightning storms in your britches love scenes. .. it’s illicit, morally in major grey zone, probably illegal, some might find it offensive….and personally I'm so beyond the beyond in love with it....That friends is all I have to say about the taboo element...
More thoughts….
Ok so this is the fourth book I’ve read by this author and I honestly think Kent in general defies categorization but I’m finally seeing some pattern emerge as far as her personal style goes. She has these heroines who don’t bend to the antiquated stereotypes of cute females wanting to be slung over the shoulder by manly men and ravished (although that is the end point sometimes but not the goal :P)...her heroins though still quirky, innocent and very endearing before you know it will end up driving the reins of the relationship and propelling the story forward. Kent protagonist’s also do not fit the usual slender beauty queen tall ladies you might find in romance. She instead promotes these body positive women that are not the smallest or the tallest or most symmetrical….but that is everyone of us and I am thankful for the diversity and representation here.
By the same token the men of SAK are not precisely the mega confident males with a Superman impulse to constantly save the day. In Medicine Man, Simon, as well as her other book heroes, the men are the strong willed type, but have many insecurities, doubts, impulses, demons.... they are the ones often desperately in need of saving. I really look for that in books; a struggle, a tension created by life that the protagonists need to overcome together…. She delivers on that broken humanity so beautifully...not asking for my money back anytime soon :)
Her writing also tends to contain a lot of pathetic fallacy where thunderous weather reports seem to describe the mood and fit the physical description of here character’s face to the Tee. I found a lot of that in The Unrequited especially and even more with Medicine Man. It's wildly cool...more of that please...
These are some of Simon’s rainy day attributes in the book:
"Tall, dark and classically handsome, with eyes the color of my favorite clouds. Formidable and unapproachable. And thundering."
[his eyes]...They were probably drenched in the rain clouds to get that rich, gray color."
To end this Medicine Man as well other works by Saffron A Kent is forging a new sub culture in romance...this mix of Taboo (but is it really Taboo or just personal bias some harbor and re-brand), slow burn romance, revamped fairy tales, women’s fiction something rather...I’m not sure what it is except that it is a unique and wonderful world I get sucked into when I read her books. You reader will too when you go through the gates of Heartstone hospital where the story of Willow and Simon darkly lovingly unfolds. You will gain deeper understanding and insights of about many things that live/die/rise again on the Inside and be irrevocably lost in Kent’s magical storytelling. And once you have been there awhile you may never want to leave... getting more deeply entrenched..sinking in the quick sand of words... finally you will not be asking about the exist to the Outside, instead you will inquire if the straight jacket comes in purple with little hearts on it...I wonder if they still make those…
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Popular Highlights in this book
Medicine is in his blood. Like illness is in mine. My blood is tainted with poison and his is laced with the antidote.Highlighted by 706 Kindle readers- In most cases, mental illness is not the absence of rational thought, but the presence of irrational ones, despite all rationality.Highlighted by 674 Kindle readers
- Love shouldn’t make you lose your mind like that. Love could be hurtful, but it shouldn’t be toxic. It’s too pure for that. Too magical.Highlighted by 577 Kindle readers
From the Publisher
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| Paperback | Special Edition Paperback | Hardcover | |
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| Price | $24.99 | $24.99 | $29.99 |
| Details | Custom Interior Formatting | Custom Interior Formatting | Custom Interior Formatting |
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Customer Review: First book by Saffron Kent and I am a fan!!!
Paula
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"My blood is tainted with poison & his is laced with the antidote."
Medicine Man isn’t my first book by Saffron A. Kent and it surely won't be my last! She has an immense talent for writing romances surrounding taboo relationships—such talent that regardless of the taboo nature of the romance, you are rooting for the characters. Furthermore, I knew going into Medicine Man that the story would be a well written, sexy read. And I was right. Medicine Man centers around the relationship between a therapist and his patient. It’s certainly sexy, and Saffron A. Kent amped up the heat with each secret meeting between Willow and Simon. But skeletons can only remain hidden for so long and as Willows time in the private faculty winds to a close, she begins to doubt her surety that Simon’s with her for more than the sex.The Characters:Willow is a very conflicted heroine --she’s had a loving upbringing but suffers from severe chronic depression. Simon is also conflicted, and his life has had moments of tragedy that made my heartbreak for him. The chemistry between them starts the moment their eyes met and fighting it soon becomes impossible. While Willow’s truths are in short supply with everyone else, she is soon giving Simon nothing but the truth… so much truth, in fact, that it’s inevitable they would find themselves in a physical relationship. As forbidden as their clandestine affair is, neither could keep they remain unaffected by the other. Simon sees Willow as a warrior and he desperately wants to see her succeed where others in his life have failed. Willow is somewhat immature; however, she is also fifteen years younger than Simon. I enjoyed the characters. Their chemistry is well written into the story and you’ll be rooting for them from their first night.The Writing:Medicine Man is told predominately from Willow’s POV—however, readers are gifted insight into Simon's characters with chapters spliced into the story from his POV. The taboo relationship was what sold me on reading Medicine Man— well, that and just how talented Saffron A. Kent is as an author. I love Dark and/or Forbidden/Taboo reads so I was excited for her newest release and couldn’t wait to dig in. Yet, much to my dismay, Medicine Man wasn’t my favorite book that Saffron A. Kent has written. I struggled with the pacing of the story – at times it was too slow and other too fast. Also, I strained because it was one of the few books I have read recently that didn’t suck me right in. Nor did it hold my attention throughout the story. I was invested enough in the story to want to know how the book would wrap up, so I never considered not finishing the story. And I truly think that Medicine Man be well received by fans of Kent and the genre audience as a whole. I just read a lot—sometimes more than a book a day. So, while it’s a four-star read for me, I bet there are far more people who aren’t as critical of the book. Who would enjoy the quality writing and the taboo nature of the book, and not break it down the way a blogger does. Saffron A. Kent definitely knows how to write a sexy book, so if you haven’t read one of her books before, you’re definitely missing out and you should pick one up asap!!!
Top reviews from other countries
Leyendo Forever
A book full of beautiful anguish
Reviewed in Mexico on February 19, 2021
