Cozy corner books

Book title: Moral injuries

Author: Christie Watson

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

First impressions: A strong start, that descended into chaos which was hard to recover!

The back of the book says:

You’re trained to save the lives of others. But how far would you go to save your own?

Olivia, Laura and Anjali couldn’t be more different. Inseparable since the first day of medical school, their bond has remained unbreakable. Years ago, they promised nothing would come between them – including the wild university party that forced them to make a deadly choice.

Now working as doctors in high-pressure jobs, with lives and families of their own, their secret binds them tighter still. But when an eerily similar tragedy affects their teenage children, the choice the three women face may not be one their friendship can survive . . .

My thoughts: This book started off really strongly for me, with a deep dive into the friendship dynamics between Olivia, Laura and Anjali – best friend since medical school, tied together by a traumatic event 25 years ago.

It becomes pretty clear early on that they’re flawed characters and I liked how quickly the story helped you understand why. For the first three-quarters of the book, I was completely hooked and thought the pacing was going along quite nicely, and I was enjoying trying to understand how everything was going to play out.

But then we got to the final 50 pages and it just seemed to completely lose it’s way. The story suddenly descended into chaos that just didn’t fit in with what I’d been reading for 250 pages! It just felt rushed and so out of left field for me.

That said, the medical elements of the book was really interesting and I thought the way Christie wove this through the book was done really well.

I feel like this book had a lot of promise, and I did enjoy it, but for me it just fell a bit flat in the end.

What I liked…

Writing style: It’s written using dual timelines (something I love in a book). The glimpses into the past really helped build the characters and gave context to their present-day decisions.

What I didn’t like…

The twist: I like to remain a spoiler-free zone, so I won’t give anything away, but the twist involving one of the characters was so incredibly frustrating, I almost threw my book at the wall!

I think you’d like this book if…

You like a medical drama, dual timeline stories and enjoy character-driven thrillers.

Book themes:

Medical drama. Female friendships. Betrayal. Thriller.

Moral injuries