TW for book: Disordered eating
The Worst Guy was the first book I read in 2022, and I hope it’s setting the tone for the rest of the year because I loved it. It’s an enemies-to-lovers story with tons of competence porn. It’s also The Grumpy One/…the Introverted One, I guess? There’s no sunshine here, and I honestly appreciate a heroine who doesn’t have to be the sunshiney one.
Sebastian Stremmel is a trauma surgeon and curmudgeon. He knows he’s often grumpy, and he’s not apologetic about it. I want to make it clear here that while curmudgeonly, Sebastian is never abusive or cruel and I think that’s a really important distinction. Sara Shapiro is a plastic surgeon at the same hospital. One day she and Sebastian get into a heated argument over the fact that he put a staple in a trauma patient’s face (which she now needs to repair) and during the course of the argument they accidentally destroy an exam room (it is a freak accident, no one is violent here).
It looks real bad though and as part of their reprimand they need to see a therapist together to work on why they can’t work together effectively (which puts them in forced proximity situations). They argue constantly, sparring with banter and insults. They get under each other’s skin. Inevitably they wind up having incredible hate-sex.
There were a lot of reasons I loved this book, the first being that I love Sara’s character. Usually The Grumpy One hero is paired up with an overly perky, Pollyanna-ish Sunshiney Heroine. Sara is not this at all. This is how she describes herself:
I was really good at my job, yet stupid old imposter syndrome kicked my ass on the daily.
I was scrappy as fuck and more delicate than anyone had the right to be.
I was vain as hell yet bristled at being judged on my appearance first, my surgical pedigree second.
I swore fluently and often.
I came across as inconsistent and moody. Hot and cold.
I was thirty-nine years old and a pickier eater than most toddlers. That, plus a chronic list of digestive issues meant no one could take me anywhere–but don’t even think about not inviting me.
I like that Sara is consistent and complicated. At one point she says about herself “I came by the mess honestly,” and I think being able to identify yourself as kind of a mess sometimes is powerful. I too exist on a spectrum where I have to be a ball-busting bitch at work, but often feel exceptionally emotionally fragile when at home. None of us are just one thing.
Sara mentions being a picky eater, and I want to discuss that aspect of the book. She has a reputation at the hospital for being aloof. Even Sebastian has more friends than she does, and tries to integrate her into his friend group (once he realizes he doesn’t hate her at all).
Sara is recovering from bulimia and she has lingering medical issues from suffering with an eating disorder for twenty years (gastroparesis, irritable bowel, acid reflux). She has to be very careful about how and what she eats, which means going to dinner parties and restaurants can be complicated. She doesn’t want to disclose her ED to her peers because she knows that female surgeons are held to a different standard than male ones.
As the novel progresses we see that, just as Sara’s introverted nature is a protective mechanism, so is Sebastian’s grumpiness. Once he realizes he can let Sara into his small, core group of trusted people, he reveals himself to be funny, charming and vulnerable. Both he and Sara have a lot of hurt in their past, and with the help of their therapist they make strides to be able to share that pain and how it’s affected them. Yay for positive therapy representation!
Then there is the competence porn. There is so much detail about the operations of various surgical departments, not to mention hospital politics that it made the book feel incredibly real. Both Sebastian and Sara are devoted to their professions, and the level of detail this book provided made me feel like I was working alongside them.
Overall, The Worst Guy has a troubled hero and heroine who are wonderfully imperfect and have a lot of issues to resolve. They do resolve them in a satisfying way while having incredible “you drive me up a wall” sex. Add to that a realistic depiction of their profession and a heroine who isn’t afraid to be “a mess,” and you had a book that really worked for me.
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I’m a huge Kate Canterbary fan and I’m glad to see one of her books reviewed here. While I wouldn’t rank WORST GUY with my all-time Canterbary favorites like FAR CRY and MISSING IN ACTION, I liked it and would definitely recommend it. Canterbary excels at presenting complicated people whose professional competence often masks their emotional insecurities. She’s also very good with the dynamics of female friendships (although I think she relies a little too much on texting). I would also advise Canterbary newbies not to get overwhelmed by the number of characters who are introduced in WORST GUY because all of Canterbary’s books (regardless of the series) are interconnected, so most of the characters either have already featured in previous books or are obviously being set-up for a future book (for example, I’m sure Sebastian’s resident doctor—O’Rourke? I can’t remember right now—will be an MC in a future book in the Vital Signs series). Canterbary also has a big back-list, so if you like WORST GUY, you can go on a real glom of her books.
Also, as a cover model maven, it would be remiss of me not to mention that cover—although, in this case, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I need hardly say more. The cover model goes by the name Rodiney—can’t find his last name—but he’s a cover model du jour these days and on a bunch of covers…and one can see why, lol.
I don’t think I’ve read anything by this author but this review has me intrigued enough to give her a try – I love to see the introverted and socially awkward girl get the guy ( I don´t really identify with the bubbly extrovert heroines 😉 )
@DiscoDollyDeb: That model IS very handsome – but these days I’m just so grateful any time I don’t have to look at another cartoony cover that just screams early 2000’s “chicklit” to me and often does not match the tone of the book at all. I find I tend to dismiss them when I´m browsing for new reads and I´ve probably missed some excellent books just because of their covers this past year.
Curious if this can be read as a standalone? I seem to have a knack for getting pulled into the second book in a series. This one has been all over my Twitter feed so I was already interested before this review.
OMG, I just finished this last night. I loved it. The H/h were great and nicely done. And this is one of the rare medical books that seems to get it right. At no point did I say to myself, this is not actually how it is done. I am getting ready to look up Ms. Canterbary’s backlist. I hope they are all this great. Seriously, even though I am peds, my family includes anesthesia and neurosurgery as well in house exposure as a student and house officer and this was so familiar feeling. On a side note – I had to stay late to finish charting yesterday because I kept sneaking a page or two between patients instead of finishing the charting as I went. Total BDBC.
@squee-me: All of Canterbary’s books contain stand-alone romances, but all of them are interconnected in the sense that characters recur throughout the books. You can read THE WORST GUY as a stand-alone, but all the stories start back with Canterbary’s Walsh Family series about a group of siblings who work in a family architecture firm that specializes in restoration of historic buildings.
@Elva: totally agree. I hate illustrated covers!
On the topic of male cover models, I have strong feelings. The one on the cover above on Worst Guy is great. He looks comfortably posed, he has not had every filament of body hair removed, and most importantly, he is not dehydrated to the point that veins and muscles nearly break through the skin. Hearing Daniel Craig talk once about how actors and models achieve the Cut Look turned me off completely. Weird, near starvation diets, dehydration, gah! I’ll take cartoon covers over male models over that kind of physical distress every time.
I am intrigued by this review! Will add the book to my tbr pile!
FLOVED this book. It was my last read of 2021, and the first re-read of 2022. Yes, it is that good. Sebastian is not *just* the asshat jerk we thought, and Sara’s complicated past and current conflicted feelings required a more thorough re-read.
Great review and agree completely! Loved how the characters were portrayed. I wanted to add that extended epilogue is also great…and not all about the mandatory proposal/wedding/baby!
For me the serious has improved with each book and looking forward to the next one.
Well looky there. Free for Kindle Unlimited, and I just happen to have a brights shiny gift subscription from my baby bro. Click!
I am with DiscoDollyDeb: not my favourite Canterbary book but a good one nonetheless. Personally I really like the Walsh books and I second starting with those. They are very cleverly done with the same scenes seen differently as we move from one sibling to the next, without in any way being repetitive. Also, if you are into home renovations shows, this is the romance equivalent.
Kate Canterbary has a chart on her website tracing the links between her books which new readers will find useful if they don’t want to start with the Walsh series.
The Worst Guy made me so very happy. I loved Sara and Sebastian even more than I expected to. Kate Canterbary is brilliant and that is reflected in genuineness of her characters.
While it’s Stremmel and Sebastian’s book, I also loved that we were blessed with some Erin Walsh wisdom. She’s one of my faves.
Thanks to recommendations on this site (especially from @DiscoDollyDeb, I think!),I have been happily working my way though the Kate Canterbary back catalog for the past few weeks. Just finished this one this morning–it’s one of my favorites by Canterbary. I really felt for both the main characters and it was fun to indulge in the appearances of characters from previous books–I think she does a good job of really maintaining their characterizations. (That said, I do think that this can be read as a standalone–but that you’ll be intrigued enough to want to go back and read the ones that came before.) And @Vicki–great to hear that Canterbary gets the medical stuff right–I’d been wondering.Thanks for sharing. 🙂
@squee-me, I firmly adhere to read-series-in-order and didn’t feel that I was plopped into the middle of an on-going story when I read The Worst Guy.
Am I the only one here to wonder why this guy’s forearms are so much paler than his torso?
The libraries here only have one of her books, so I was glad to learn this is available in KU.
I’m having a moment here. Looking at the model on the cover, wondering “Is he handsome?” I hadn’t even registered his appearance at all. The evidence is accumulating that I may not be totally straight.
@LN
I looked on her website for the chart but I couldn’t find it. Does anyone have a link? I like to go in with a plan!
@DiscoDollyDeb and @LML thanks for the feedback on stand-alone yay/nay. And now reading the other comments I’m also thinking I shouldn’t start my foray into Canterbary’s books with this one!
@K, i am going to try and add the link but you’ll find the charts (there are 3 now!) under reading order on Kate Canterbary’s website.
https://katecanterbary.com/reading-order/
This was my first Canterbary, and I had no problem following it. And I almost always read books in order. Loved this, and then went back and now I’m making my way through the Walshes.
@Mzcue, I love men with chest hair, but what is up with this model? It’s like he took a ruler and waxed everything below his nipples, including his happy trail. Pick a lane!