Christie Watson uses her hospital experience to good effect in ‘Moral Injuries’, exploring the world of cardiothoracic surgery and Intensive Care. Three women forge an unbreakable bond as medical students, and we meet them as successful doctors in their respective fields of surgery, emergency response and general practice. A tragedy involving the children of two of the women has echoes of the past, and we discover that their bond is made by more than friendship.

I was really looking forward to reading this based on the description however I struggled to get into it.

I usually like a dual timeline however this was just too much of a slow burn for me, I kept going in the hope it would pick up and then it ended, it just didn’t grip me at all

Utterly unputdownable
In 1999, Laura, Olivia and Anjali meet on the first day of medical school and become best friends. 25 years later, their decades long loyal friendship is in jeopardy when their respective teenagers are involved in a tragic fatal event that threatens to destroy the families and livelyhoods of the three women.
Having been a nurse prior to become a prolific novelist, authoress Christie Watson succeeds in combining a clever fast-paced plot and likeable characters with brutal insights into the challenges today‘s doctors are facing in their jobs. Brilliant and unputdownable!

Well I would never have guessed where that book was going to go. Brilliantly written. Based ion the friendship of the girls entering medical school. How the friendship holds as they each persevere own lives. One incident in the present holds the power to change things for the women. A story of friendship, deceit and cover up.

Definitely one to read

I was really excited for this one, but unfortunately, it fell short of my expectations. I usually love a dual timeline story, but this one was too jumpy between too many people and I really struggled to remember who was what, where, and with whom. I could have put it down so many times, but I kept going (it's taken almost a month to read!!) and it finally piqued my interest at around 70% in. I enjoyed the medical aspects of the book, but some parts were just a little bit too far fetched and overall, I'm glad it's over.

Described as a literary thriller, this is the story of three friends from medical school who share an unbreakable bond and a buried secret that threatens to surface twenty five years later.
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Christie Watson’s writing is exquisite. From start to finish I felt uncomfortable, anxious and, honestly
I don’t think I’ve ever read a book carrying so much tension.
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The impeccable detail that went into the characters, the plot and the descriptions in the book, brought almost a layer of tension through the contrast of the absolute precision of the known, with the ambiguity and confusion around the unknown and mysterious elements of the book that as a reader you just wanted to know and kept reading for.
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The one element that I didn’t enjoy was the lack of likability of quite frankly any of the characters. I know it was entirely intentional…but in finding them all and their decision making infuriating, and so many elements of their character detestable it just created a level of distance for me from the book.
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Ive been reliably informed that this is going to be adapted for television, and I think it has the potential to be brilliant…if my nerves can take it again!
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Thank you to netgalley for an advanced copy of this book.

This beautiful cover would definitely catch my eye on a bookshelf. A story comprising of dual timelines, one set in 2000 and one set in the present day, we follow Anjali, Olivia and Laura through an incident which happens at university and how it still impacts them today. I didn't warm to any of the individual characters but I stuck with the book as I wanted to see where the story went. The story as a whole felt like it was missing something, although I can't put my finger on exactly what that is.
Still a good read - I would be interested to read other work by this author.
Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for this ARC copy.

Complicated and readable
I enjoyed this to start with but it seemed to get more and more complicated as it went on and I began to find the two different timelines increasingly hard to separate. There are two stories, the older one involving three friends, Olivia, Laura and Anjali, with a shared guilty secret from their past and the current one, concerning that secret but also involving the children of two of the friends. The three friends, female medical students who later became respected practitioners, were well written and interesting characters and I found it easy to like them at first. As the story progressed, I began to wonder if they maybe weren’t all as likable as they seemed in the beginning.
I never quite worked out how the first chapter actually fitted in with the rest of the story and I kept being distracted, wondering if now, we’d be told when it happened and what it meant.
Overall, it was a good read but for me, not as gripping as the blurb had suggested.
I am grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in return for an unbiased review.

Apologies I haven’t got around to reading this book yet unfortunately life has got in the way. I’m hoping to get to it soon and will leave me review on all relevant book sites.

A story about three friends across two timelines and focusing on two incidents which test their morals and ethics to the limits. The story moves back and forth from their days as student medics and the present day when they are doctors struggling with work and personal lives. The story was slow to develop and the characters were difficult to like, which made the story less than enjoyable to read. That said, the storyline was believable and relateable and makes it a good book club choice with regard to discussion points.

With thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy.

My first book from this author and it sounded intriguing but in reality I struggled with the switching back and forth from 2000 to present day. The 3 women were OK as characters.

I was drawn to this novel by the synopsis and the beautiful cover but sadly it did not live up to my expectations.
Moral Injuries moves between dual timelines of 2000 and the present day, centred on an incident that happened when best friends Anjali, Olivia and Laura were studying medicine at university.
Although this is a well written novel I found it to be incredibly slow paced, it took me a long time to get into and I stopped and restarted it many times. The dual timelines led to a disjointed read and I found that the characters personalities were not distinct enough to distinguish them from each other.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

I was so looking forward to reading this book from the blurb, it sounded like just my thing. In reality, it was a little like wading through treacle. There were a core group, around whom the book was based. Then spouses, children and others became entangled. I felt the story could have benefited from being “wound up” a lot earlier. The last 25% of the book felt like very hard work, remembering who was who and what they had done 25 years previously.

Not one of my favourite reads as a little long winded

The cover of this book is very pretty which made me choose it. I’m not sure how it fits with the story, maybe I missed something. I haven’t read any of this author’s other books before so wasn’t sure what to expect.

The story follows three close friends - Olivia, Anjali, and Laura. They have been best friends since meeting at university, all studying medicine. An incident occurs at a party, and this is alluded to throughout the book, but isn’t clear exactly what happened until nearer the end.
Twenty-four years on, grown up and now with their own families, history almost repeats itself when their teens are involved in a similar incident at a party. If the truth comes out, their lives will be ruined. How far will their parents go to keep the secret?

“Every now and then, the most ethical thing to do was to lie.”

The book switches between 2000 and the present day and also between the point of view of the characters. I didn’t find this too hard to follow but it did make it feel a little disjointed at times.

I didn’t mind the characters but didn’t particularly warm to any of them. They felt a bit flat to me and lacking dimension. It was hard to connect with them and get really into the story. The book is readable enough but lacking the hook to keep you invested and turning the pages.

For me, this was an alright read but it was quite slow paced and then felt rushed towards the end. I couldn’t connect with the characters and it was definitely missing something.

2.5 rounded to 3.

I enjoyed this read, but I don't think it quite lived up to my expectations from the premise.
I enjoyed the dual timelines from past & present & quite liked the characters & the medical aspects, although it seemed a bit far fetched in places, I also think although the story was gripping at some points, it dragged at times.
My thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for my eARC in return for my honest review.

DNF at 60%
I´m sorry, but despite my huge expectations for this book, I just felt like I couldn´t read it anymore. Three women and a chopped timeline jumping back and forth left me lost and tired. What´s more, I didn´t connect with any of the characters. Laura seems to be somehow distinguished from Olivia and Anjali, but that´s because most of the narrative is focused on her. The other two are in her background. Also, the book seems to be about busy and unhappy students and doctors, not about a terrible secret from the past.
I like the easiness of the author's writing style and her sense of humor. I couldn´t stop laughing when I read: "The NHS might be underfunded and undervalued by the government, but it remained one of the best healthcare systems in the world." Hillarious!
I cringed when a medical student, a future doctor, wasn´t exactly thrilled about doing Care of the Elderly, which "smelt so strongly of shit, that Anjali had to swallow a mouthful of sick". Of course, she will never get old and her own turd smells like roses.
Oh, and could someone please explain to me how on earth you get a bone marrow sample while on a flying helicopter? And why would you do that in the first place, considering that a patient is a woman who had slashed (knife) femoral artery?

There was a lot about this which just didn’t work for me. I think not knowing the thing which had happened at the student party meant the stakes were never that high for me, and when I did find out, it was just not very credible. It’s hard to believe three people who were at medical school/became doctors weren’t friends with any lawyers and couldn’t get credible advice on whether or not something was likely to be an issue.

Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of the group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.

Last time, they swore they would never speak about what happened again - and they've stuck to that. This time it's Olivia and Laura's children who are involved and Olivia is not going to allow a promise made last century - or her closest friendships - to stand in the way of protecting her child. It's not just the friendship that's now at risk - it's three careers on the line and the freedom and future of two teenagers.

It was a cracker of a read. An examination of ethics in medicine threw light on some dusty corners of my brain. I liked, too, the look at female friendship and the stresses of working in the modern NHS. The most impressive part, though, is the plot. There's a dual timeline - 1999 and 2024 - and the three women each give their version of what happened and how it affected them. You will have to concentrate to follow what's happening. There were several occasions when I had to go back a chapter or two to find out what was happening. Otherwise, the crafting is superb and made for a read which was very difficult to put down.

Christie Watson is a nurse by training and for someone not in the business, the medical side of the story was realistic: I felt present but not to the point where it became stressful. I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

As well as reading the book, I listened to an audio download (which I bought myself) narrated by Miranda Raison. Her range of voices is excellent. There are a lot of women in the cast and I was always confident about who was speaking. The pacing is good and I would happily listen to more from Raison.

Olivia, Laura and Anjali meet the first day at Medical school. They are very different, coming from different backgrounds. Olivia comes from a wealthy family of doctors. Laura's family are far from wealthy & the illness of her father has been her spur. Anjali is the happy-go-lucky one. The story follows the trio from their student days & jumps forward to many years later. Olivia is a mother of teenagers, a respected cardio surgeon. Laura also has a teenage son & works in Emergency medicine. Anjali & her partner Donna are looking to adopt & Anjali is a GP. When a party the teens attend results in a boy falling downstairs & left in a coma it reflect events in the trio's early life things start to unravel.

This was a real roller-coaster of a ride. The characters really got under my skin & I was desperate to find out how it would end. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book- I loved it!

It took me ages to finish this book (3 months+).

While the writing was not terrible, the first half of the book was hard to read. The jumps between the different points of view and different timelines were confusing at first, and in my opinion, it takes too long to understand what is going on before the story starts making sense. There was a lot of repetition in the book, especially with medical terms. There were at least 4-5 times where the author mentions inotropes and that they are "strong heart medication". The main plot develops very slowly and then finishes within a few very short chapters, which I found annoying. It's almost as if the author got bored of writing the story, and she decided to finish it there and then.

I absolutely love the book cover though!

Thank you to author, NetGalley and the Weidenfeld & Nicolson publishing house for providing me with a free electronic version of the book in exchange for an honest review.