Love In The Time of Coronavirus: 20/20 in 2020 by Richard Lanoix MD

 

I'm kicking off 2022 with a review of a truly unique novel Love In The Time of Coronavirus: 20/20 in 2020 by Richard Lanoix MD who actually worked in an emergency room at the height of the coronavirus pandemic and was able to pull inspiration from his experiences to give true perspective to this book. 
Blurb
What if the end of the Covid 19 Pandemic was just the beginning?
When the First Wave of the Covid-19 pandemic hit New York City, emergency physician Bodhi was right in the heart of the maelstrom. He witnessed the tragedy and heartbreak up close and personal. By December 2021, the world declared the pandemic over, and Bodhi rediscovered his sense of hope.
Then, suddenly, everything is worse. Much worse.
In January 2022, a new, more deadly strain of Covid resurges, and within months half of the world's 8 billion people have died. Food shortages and humanitarian crises dominate as violent gangs preying on women and children ascend to power. Bodhi meets Adya in dramatic circumstances and they fall in love. Together they join a global network of survivors whose aim is to make the world a better place while avoiding the same mistakes that created humanity's problems. 
Will Bodhi and Adya's blossoming relationship and love prevail while facing the challenges of rebuilding a new world?
My review
Although this novel starts in 2020 following the incredibly skilled Dr Bodhi Mckenna during his work in the emergency room as the pandemic is beginning to really ramp up I was pleasantly surprised to find that this book does not centre wholly around a medical point of view. We do get to see a true picture of the toll the pandemic took on our medical staff both physically, mentally and emotionally, especially in the early days when nobody knew what we were dealing with. 
However I was glad that we didn't stick with that view too long and after Covid-19 had wreaked it's havoc across New York we got to see the people start to recover and adopt a new way of life and a new sense of community. It's was lovely to see how humans can improve when we're given the chance and it truly sounded like an idyllic Eden, until things took a turn for the worse. As always I like to try and keep my reviews spoiler free so I'm going to omit any more specific detail and instead move onto Bodhi and Adya's budding relationship. I love the idea that despite all the chaos going on in the new world these two were able to find each other and form a spiritual partnership and that the author also displayed how they worked to maintain this despite the demands of their new lives and roles. There are some quite explicit sex scenes between the two and the authors knowledge of anatomy definitely comes out here and gave me a little chuckle at times, but it does a perfect job of demonstrating the bond and passion between our two main characters.  
Overall this novel gave a really unique review of how humanity can endure after such a large scale tragedy and how some things never change between us. 

You can find out more about the author on his website here and follow him on Instagram @RichardLanoixMD.