At what lengths would you go to save your child? That is the question at the heart of this book. Emma is a physician at a local hospital while her husband, Nate is a detective. Their son, Josh, is diagnosed with cancer and before they can do the life saving treatment, they have to come up with $90,000 to pay the hospital. Feeing like she’s out of control and with the help of her brother and a close lifelong friend, Emma decides to forge prescriptions and sells them to cover the treatment cost. But that’s only the beginning of this book. While reading, I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the next shoe to drop. This book was really good and there’s a twist at the end I didn’t see coming. Highly recommend. ( )

I have disagreed with many protagonists, but I disliked Emma so much I was rooting against her almost from the start. ( )

I have read all three of Christina McDonald’s books and have loved each one more than the last. This book had a crazy intriguing hook. Our main character Emma is a doctor who has seem firsthand the destruction opioid abuse can cause. She’s married to Nate, a detective, who is investigating a drug ring in the area. They have a 5-year-old, who comes down with cancer and needs a lifesaving treatment insurance will not cover and the only way Emma can come up with the money is… you guessed it… by selling prescriptions.

I thought the book did a good job of creating a heart-wrenching scenario, where even as the character was doing something awful and hurting people, you could understand her justifying what she was doing to herself, knowing her child would die without the treatment. (Can I just say that insurance is really crappy in the US?) The tension builds as we get further in and new information is revealed. Also, it may be Nate who’s investigating the drug sales linked to Emma… Yikes… this one was really crazy by the end!

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader.
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Dr. Emma Sweeney is happily married to police detective, Nate, and mom to kindergartener, Josh. When Josh is diagnosed with leukemia, and needs expensive life saving treatment, she makes a life-changing decision to do whatever it takes to save her child. Her decision crashes into Nate’s investigation into a opioid drug ring and several murders, leading to devastating consequences.
Heart-wrenching, raw, and surprising, this is a novel I will remember for a long time. ( )

This was a pretty impressive story of all of the ramifications around pain drugs. I could not see how Emma could possibly work her way out of the spider web she managed to create for herself. The author really handled the book beautifully. Very impressive. ( )