Lessons in Love at the Cornish County Hospital 

By Jo Bartlett

This series is the fictional account of several of the workers at St. Piran’s Hospital. It focuses specifically on two couples: Gary, a staff nurse, and Wendy, the head of housekeeping; and Danni who works in emergency medicine and her boyfriend Charlie, a children’s book author. Working on the fourth book in this series, Jo Barlett presents a lot of background about the various characters. Sometimes I felt like I had been dropped into the middle of a soap opera; and at other times, I admired Barlett’s handling of characters and situations that are serious.

Wendy had been married to Mike, unquestionably a philandering, narcissistic jerk who was the father of her two young adult girls. Now he is in a relationship with the much younger Chloe. Wendy struggles with doing the right things for her daughters as they form bonds with Chloe who is pregnant. Danni is also pregnant and is carefully cared for medically as an older mom with a first child. Both Gary and Charlie are caring and loving mates, but the women take the stage in this novel. 

With relationship and medical issues, there is both trauma and drama for Chloe. Eating disorders affect several characters. Wendy struggles with jealousy over Chloe even though Wendy no longer loves or is attracted to Mike. It hurts that her daughters see Chloe as the fun “mom.” Meanwhile Chloe suffers from a deep seated and unfulfilled desire to be loved.

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Rating: 4/5

Category: Fiction, Romance, Women’s Fiction

Notes: 1. #4 in the Cornish County Hospital series, but could be read as a standalone.

    2. Only 6 instances of swear words and no open bedroom doors.

Publication:  October 3, 2024—Boldwood Books

Memorable Lines:

…borrowing tomorrow’s trouble was a sure-fire way to suck all the joy out of life.

If death could come from a thousand small cuts, so could the death of a relationship and it felt like that day was getting closer and closer.

Everything they’d been through had taught her that love really could be found in the most unexpected of places. There was no such thing as loving too many people, or being loved by too many people in return.