I started this book twice several months apart. I read a lot more the 2nd time, but I just can't seem to stay with it. I've not been writing professional reviews for a while now, so I won't offer a critique. I wish the author the best of luck with his book.

Adverse Effect is a fast paced medical thriller with a wide variety of characters that will keep you flipping pages into the late night. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

This book was excellent in the beginning. The entire premise is interesting and reminded me of the show "Homecoming" on Amazon Prime, of which I'm a huge fan.

My impression of the book waned as I read more. In my opinion, the book gets confusing. There are too many characters that aren't well-defined which makes it hard to follow. The ending should have wrapped up sooner

I gave three stars because I like the main character Christina and this is a unique story.

I was excited for this medical thriller and was looking forward to reading it. The premise was interesting and I liked how it is about memories. Cristina Silva's mysterious past and the suicides were definitely an interesting storyline.

Unfortunately, after reading about 70 pages of the book, I had to DNF it. It became repetitive and dragged the whole plot. I felt the story was going in circles and it took so long to reveal a tiny information about Cristina's past.

***Thank you Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for this gifted review copy in exchange for an honest review.***

DNR due to severe post-covid asthenia. Cause still being researched. Will review when possible. Sorry for this delay.

First, a warning: the Prologue is a graphic murder scene, and that might put you off the rest of the book. But it shouldn't. While Adverse Effects is a thriller and people die, the Prologue is easily the most graphic scene. And you can channel the modern teenager and skip the Prologue. It won't affect your understanding of the overall plot.

So what is the story about?

Cristina Silva is a psychiatrist with amnesia. But there is a miracle drug, Recognate, currently going through medical trials, and Cristina has managed to get herself and several of her patients on the trial (okay, so she had to create a fake patient to get the drug for herself). She and her patients are all experiencing wonderful results, remembering a little more of their past each week.

Cristina is shocked when one of her Recognate patients commits suicide … and beyond shocked when another shoots several people in front of her. Nothing in her conversations or notes indicated any possible suicidal or murderous tendencies, so what happened?

At the same time, she is accosted by a strange man on the bus. He seems to know more about her than she knows about herself. Between her patients, the strange man, and the police, she seems to be pulled every which way in her search for answers.

It's a great concept. The writing in the first half is a little jerky at times, but gets smoother in the second half (or maybe I was just more engaged in the story and didn't notice any issues).

Cristina is an excellent heroine. She's a competent professional—at least, we think she is. It's hard to tell when she admits to having amnesia and faking records to get herself on a medical trial. But we want her to survive, but that raises the question of who can she trust? It seems everyone around her has an agenda, and some are less honourable than others.

Adverse Effects is a fast-paced thriller with a unique concept, and plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing the identity of the evildoer … or even which characters are good and which are not.

Thanks to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

I was really excited to read Adverse Effects! I love any book where the storyline involves anything medical. This one is about Christina Silva, a psychiatrist involved with a medical trial for a drug called Recognate which is supposed to help her patients with amnesia regain some of their memories. Christina is very confident in this new drug because she has seen positive results so far with in her patience taking it. Christina herself has suffered amnesia and decides to start taking this drug on her own to see if it will work for her. Unfortunately, the trial hasn’t gone on long enough, and the adverse effects are unknown, but as time goes on, people on the drug start acting strangely, even putting their own lives at risk, including Christina.


I loved the idea of a book about a medical trial of a miracle drug and Joel Shulkin, MD gave us a lot of facts about how those trials work. You could tell the author was very knowledgeable in the medical field and I enjoyed learning something new.


I truly loved the premise of the story, but the reason I am only giving it three stars is because I felt that there were too many characters in one book. It made it difficult for me to follow them and I oftentimes couldn’t remember who they were. Unfortunately, It was just annoying throughout. I wished the story would have been broken down into a series. I think it would have been much more enjoyable!

Thank you NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book is about a psychiatrist participating in a study on an experimental drug to help amnesia patients regain their memories. Herself a survivor of a traumatic injury in a wreck that killed her parents, she begins taking the drug herself. When two of her patients kill themseles she begins to get worried. When a mysterious hobo begins following her she gets scared. Then she starts having violent nightmares. Are these all connected? Is the drug the cause? She must find out if she wants to survive.
I love medical mysteries and I hate Big Pharma so this book sounded perfect for me. I did enjoy it but it had some problems. First, the technical descriptions about how the drug works will bog some readers down. I am a pharmacist so I understood them but the average reader may not. Next, the characters. They were good, but there were a lot of them and they weren't always what they seemed. This led to some confusion but maybe that is the whole point as the drug made the users confused. At times I felt like I was on a bad LSD trip. Lastly, the plots twists, and there were many, were hard to follow if you put the book down and came back to it later. It is best read in one or two sittings. In the end, I got it. I think.
On the whole I enjoyed the book. It is a good look at what greed and an unscrupulous drug company can do. It is obvious the author knows his subject. Though at times I was confused, looking back I realized that made the book more real. It misses the mark of being a truly great medical thriller (like Coma, the book that started my love of the genre) but it was still an enjoyable and worthwhile read. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an early copy.

Love love love medical thrillers! Also really love this cover. Unfortunately this book fell a little short for me. Too many characters, but I absolutely loved the premise. Would love to read more by this author and this genre for sure. Thanks!

3,5 stars
Cristina silva is a psychiatrist who was approached by a medical company to be part of a trial for "Recognate", a drug that can help patients with amnesia retrieve their lost memories. The treatment seems to have extraordinary results. All the patients enrolled in the study, with Dr. Silva are recollecting their lost memories.
Now Cristina herself is suffering from amnesia. 2 years ago, when she took part in a tragic accident that leads to her parents' death. believing in the efficiency of "Recognate", Cristina decided to start taking the miraculous pills. Except that she all her retrieved memories seemed fabricated and uncoherent with her past.
I love medical thrillers but I think there ware a lot of characters, and a lot of information to be put on one book. well, I'm not sure if permanent amnesia is that common, to be honest, to start trials and all. some parts were a little too technical and complex.
But the premise was truly interesting and original. I loved how the story was paced.
many thanks to netgalley, the author, and the publishers for my advanced copy.

I really liked the concept behind this fast-paced medical thriller. The premise of a miracle drug that can help you retrieve lost memories was really interesting and it was great to have scientific explanations (I love science). Perhaps, it would have been easier to follow the book if there had been fewer characters, but it might be just a matter of my personal preference.
Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone publishing for the review copy provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. What if you had no memories of your marriage, your family, your children, your career, etc, etc? Would you participate in a drug trial to try to get those memories back? Now remember, drug trials occur before FDA approvals. What could possibly go wrong???

This was an interesting, easy to read, "change of pace" book. Well written with an excellent female protagonist. Enjoy! 📚

3.5 stars, actually.

Too many characters (made worse because most have more than one identity), too many plot twists, too much technical information. The result? Way too much of what could have been a good thing. Because of the subject matter - an experimental drug gone wrong - I wanted very much to love this book. But in the end, for the most part, I'm not at all sure I "got" what happened.

That out of the way, I'll try to summarize my thoughts on the plot: Christina Silva, a gorgeous Latina psychiatrist, is participating in a trial of a drug called Recognate on behalf of the manufacturer (a company that appears to be operating off the industry radar). Supposedly, the drug helps regenerate lost memories, or replace bad ones, or both - I think - and so far, it seems to be helping Christina's patients. That is, until it doesn't; suddenly, one patient goes berserk - and then another. Did the drug, which is related to betaendorphins, trigger the aberrant behavior, or did something else happen?

Right about then, Christina is accosted by a nasty looking man who tells her she isn't who she thinks she is. She doesn't believe him, exactly, but part of her own memories - most of which she lost when she was in an auto accident in which her parents were killed - hint that maybe the guy knows what he's talking about. All she's sure of is that she's got a few secrets of her own - most of them lost for the time being, one not that could result in revocation of her license to practice - and she desperately wants to learn the truth about her past.

Along come the cops, notably in the form of local detective Gary Wilson, plus a couple of FBI agents who seem to enjoy playing good cop, bad cop and making life miserable for Wilson. He tends to believe what Christina tells him, though (his opinion bolstered by what could be a fatal attraction to the psychiatrist). Clues point to a clandestine organization called Zero Dark - and from that point on, as Christina tries to find out about her past while dodging bullets (literally), things began to get murkier than they already were.

As I said early on, I really wanted to love this book. And I'm sure if it gets to the right readers, it will be; it's technically well written with a well-researched, timely plot, and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the pre-release copy to read and review. My experience, though, was summed up at the end by Christina (or whoever she really is) as she basically says hey, I'm not sure what went down, but I've determined not to worry about it and just get on with my life.

Yeah. Me too (sigh).

I was really excited to receive an arc of Adverse Effects. As a nurse, I thought it would be a great medical drama - especially since it's written by a doctor. However, I felt there was very little medicine involved. Even though the story centered around a miracle drug that helps you regain your memories, there wasn't really any patients. Everyone wasn't who they seemed. And there were A LOT of people. When more than a few came into scene, I had a hard time remembering who they all were. They didn't have clear enough voices to differentiate.

The story picked up speed about 50% in - I thought about DNF'ing until that point. While there was more action, the story seemed to get even more convoluted.

Unfortunately, since it was so hard for me to follow the plot and characters, I won't be recommending this one.

Thank you to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I couldn't get past those first couple of sentences. There is so much wrong with how those sentences were written. I don't have the time or the energy to read this book if that's how it's going to be written for the rest of the story.

My thanks to Blackstone Publishing and Joel Shulkin, M.D.
I've read one other book by this author and I loved it. For some reason he managed to lose me with this. The other book I read was also complex. Maybe I was in the right frame of mind to follow it? This time I quit at 43%. Too complex. I love "to science!" I do sometimes have difficulties following the science. Not often..but this time for sure!
Still, I can't give this book a bad review. A year from now, when things aren't so mushy in my head? I bet I'd love this book! For now? With covid 19 and all, I need escapism.
Of course for pure escapism I could believe Trump and Pence! But, I'm not crazy yet! I still science!

I LOVED the idea of this book, but I found myself skimming it / skipping a lot of parts. Some of the plot felt really repetitive and the explanations were too detailed. I might not be the audience though.

What would you do to gain parts of your memory or past? This was a fantastic book! It had alot of twists and turns. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read and review.

What a fascinating and chilling premise! Nearly non-stop action, and enough twists and turns to guarantee a wild ride. Loved it, and highly recommend.

*My thanks to the author and publisher (via NetGalley) for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book. It's greatly appreciated!*

What if you woke up one day and had no idea who you were? What if everything you knew was a lie? And what if you could pop a pill and get your life back? Recognate can do that but are there any adverse effects? Adverse
Effects by doctor Joel Shulkin,MD. is a thriller that will answer all these questions while having you sit on the edge of your seat. Buckle up!!!!