The lengths a mother who is doctor will go through to pay for the medical treatment of her son who has been diagnosed with cancer. It touched on the prescription drug use abuse and the lives destroyed by all those involved. To me it was too much death and would have liked more developed characters. It over all was an fun read and enlightening to of what life might be like with a drug addiction. Thank you for the advanced copy Netgalley.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review. The opinions are entirely my own, and any quotes are taken from the ARC and may be different in the final published copy.

Just as The Night Olivia Fell by Christina McDonald could have just been a typical "mom seeks the truth about what happened to her daughter," McDonald's latest, Do No Harm, could have been a typical "how far will a mom go to save her son." Christina McDonald's writing makes you connect with the characters, root for Emma, a doctor who starts selling drugs to find enough money to save her son, and makes it a "cannot put down" book.

Both The Night Olivia Fell and Behind Every Lie were not marketed as young adult novels, but they were books read in YA book clubs. Do No Harm is also not geared toward young adult readers, and it is not one I would recommend for them.

Do No Harm focuses on adult issues and how far a mom will go for her son. Will parents bend their values for the sake our their family? What is more important, your job and integrity or your family?

The story addresses if one life matters over others and who should decide. It shows the opioid epidemic and people it helps and hurts.

McDonald is finishing up editing a new book, All That is Broken.

This 200-word review will be published on Philomathinphila.com.

This medical/crime thriller puts husband against wife, doctor against detective, family against family. How far would you go to save your child if they are given a possible death sentence unless you can come up with thousands of dollars?

Intense, dark, realistic and heart breaking story that will put you right in the middle of an opioid crisis and show it from a different side. It will give light to the pain of addiction. Excellent writing and storyline. So many twists and turns. A tough story to read. How far would you go.....I hope I never have to find out as Emma and Nate have too. Wonderfully written characters.

Thanks to Ms. McDonald, Gallery Books and NetGalley for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone.

Oooooh. Super smart crime mystery involving parents... one's a detective and the other's a doctor who will do anything to save her cancer-stricken son. This is a twisty and heartracing thrill ride. 5 stars!

I finished this book but only because I felt obligated due to requesting it from Netgalley. It basically felt like a poor Breaking Bad retelling. The main character, Emma, was prickly and self-righteous; I could not stand her. At first, I expected to really like her because she was making tough choices that could mean life or death for her child. That part, I could get behind. When the time came, though, it didn't seem like the decisions were tough for her at all. There was no moral struggle, no moment of indecision. To me, the pivotal scenes felt flat and bland.

Another reason I didn't like Emma --- she had a nasty personality. She was infuriated at her husband for trying to get a promotion that would mean more money for the family, yet it would take time away from the family. Wasn't she basically doing the same thing? She wanted to punch her boss in the nose for having an opposing opinion about addiction, yet Emma was capitalizing on those same addicts. When this book finally ended, I was relieved and kind of disgusted at the way it turned out.

I usually wait to read other reviews until I've read a book and have decided on a rating for myself. It seems others have loved this book, so clearly this is one story you just have to check out for yourself.

A medical thriller that's unique and propulsive, DO NO HARM by Christina McDonald is as gut-wrenching as it is jaw-dropping. Not to be missed!

How far would you go to save the life of your five year old? That the question facing Emma, a doctor and her husband a policeman. Josh as been diagnosed with a rare type of leukemia that needs expensive treatment, $500,000 that they can’t afford and their insurance won’t cover. This loving couple now has many secrets as they race to come up with the needed funds. Emma abandons her medical ethics as she decides to sell opioids to pay for the treatment. Her husband tries to solve a death in hopes of getting a promotion. This game of cat and mouse turns deadly as she becomes involved with the wrong crowd. Very suspenseful as I raced to find out how it would end. Well done as the author keeps the tension high! #DoNoHarm #ChristinaMcDonald #NetGalley

Finally, a book that examines the opioid crisis from a variety of views without coddling any point of view. To think it took a fiction book to provide that reality. Woven throughout are people who want, need or are addicted to narcotics. Together with the dramatic storylines, the writing makes this a definite best seller.

Dr. Emma Sweeney believes that fewer opioid prescriptions are required and that people who have been prescribed Oxycontin for chronic pain should be phased off from taking it. When her son, Josh, is diagnosed with Leukemia that strong line becomes fuzzy. As she fights to find the funds for a miracle treatment not covered by insurance, that line becomes indistinguishable.

At that same time, her husband, Nate, has been assigned to investigate the criminal ring selling Oxy on the streets. Suddenly there is an increase in ER overdose visits and deaths. That is causing tremendous harm in their small community. Nate is certain he knows right from wrong and right should always prevail. This couple’s divergent goals are bound to collide. Desperation allows people to do things they never thought possible.

The suspense begins as you begin to read. By the last few chapters, the tension is so strong, you will vibrate with it. It seems physically impossible to stop reading the next page, then chapter. Time will be irrelevant.


I received an ARC from Gallery Books through NetGalley. This in no way affects my opinion or rating of this book. I am voluntarily submitting this review and am under no obligation to do so.

Christina McDonald is amazing! I fell in love with her debut novel and this one is just as good! Gripping...electric...heart-wrenching! This medical thriller has it all. Mystery, love, friendship! It’s also a terrifying look into the heart of a mother who would stop at nothing to help her son. It kept me guessing until the very end!

This book is another WOW from Christina McDonald. How she can take a book and make it hit you deep in your chest. Right in the heart. Make you feel like you are right there. Like you are that main character. It's what makes a book great and this book is great.

I don't know why but this line is my very favorite one out of this book. It just seemed to sum up the love that I felt between Nate and Emma. "AN I KNEW. NO MATTER WHAT I HAD DONE, NATE HAD LOVED ME. ETERNALLY. "
That line just touched my heart and to be honest it made me weep huge big ugly tears.

What would you do to save your child? Emma and Nate are happy. They have a great life and a beautiful son, Josh. But when things go wrong and they are faced with the possibility of losing Josh what will they do. What will a mother do? You might be surprised what this mother is willing to sacrifice for her little boy's life. As a mother I am not shocked. I believe with all my heart that I would do the same. It's unconditional love between a mother and her child.

This book is just so good. It did make me laugh a couple of times but for the most part I cried. I had some pretty big tears streaming down my face. How do you deal with what this family is facing. Being a doctor made it even harder for Emma. She took an oath to save lives and yet felt so terribly helpless that she couldn't help her son. Be warned, this is a very emotional story. It has lots of ups and downs. Lots of raw emotion. Lots of thrills to keep you on the edge too.

Nate is a cop. He's sworn to protect people no matter what. He loves his wife and son with ever fiber of his being. What is he willing to do to save their son? He's a good man. He wants to do the right thing. I loved Nate. He was so easy to love.

This book is about the opioid crises that this nation still faces. About the good and the bad of drugs. Not that there is really anything good about them but if you are honestly in chronic pain and need help it's hard because of the many addicts and dealers who abused the system. While this book deals with this a lot it also makes you understand why and how some people do get addicted to drugs. Not always because they are bad people. Not always because of doctors. It's a very hard thing to think about and this country really needs to get some kind of help for addicts. Help while they are still young enough to be helped.

This is a very good book. It will make you think about some pretty deep things. You will have feelings that maybe you haven't seen in a while. Compassion is sometimes a great thing to have. Actually, it's great thing to always have. Be compassionate to others before you judge them without knowing their story.

Thank you to #NetGalley, #ChristinaMcDonald, #Simon&Schuster, #GalleryBooks for this ARC. These are my own true feelings about this story.

5/5 HUGE stars and a very high recommendation. A must read.

I found this to be fairly predictable and familiar. I know that this has some pretty high praise from others, but it just seemed ridiculous to immediately turn to drug dealing within minutes of your child being diagnosed with leukemia. Breaking Bad without the humor.

I absolutely loved this book. I loved that it was so fast paced and allowed me to be sucked into it immediately. I have read several slow-burn books lately and this was exactly what I needed. The plot jumps were instant and the characters were very interesting. In addition to the quick pace, the author really made me think about the choices that I would make in a similar situation. As a mother, I instantly thought about whether or not I would make the choices that she made. This medical thriller was a huge success in my opinion and I'm definitely going to be recommending this to others!

another mystery read of keeps you guessing at every turn. McDonald has a wonderful way of drawing you in from page one and holding your attention straight thru. Every time I pick up one of her books I finish within a day and this one was no different.

An intense, emotional and suspenseful story of a mother who would do anything to save her young son who has cancer. A total page-turner with compassion, bravery and intensity. You won't be able to put it down! Another winning book by Christina McDonald.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Christina McDonald is a seriously talented author.
Do No Harm is a book I could NOT put down.
Emma is a doctor, married to her soulmate who is a detective, and has a young child who was just diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. She makes the life-changing choice to sell opiods to help fund the treatment for her son.. unfortunately, someone dies.
Her husband is leading the case to find the person selling the killer drugs...
What happens during this book is ,... crazy.
The storyline is unique and isn't something I've read a lot of before.
There were definitely some twists I didn't see coming.

Some people are so happy with their lives, that for a split-second, they label it perfect. The ancient Greek philosopher Solon had a stark antidote to such folly: Call no man happy before he is dead. Keep that in mind when you meet Detective Nate Sweeney, his wife Emma, a doctor at the local hospital, and Josh, their empathetic, adorable, Star Wars-loving five-year-old. Opioid addiction has infiltrated Skamania, a small town in the Cascade mountain range in Washington state. Both Nate and Emma are affected by this modern-day epidemic as when Nate is called out to an overdose scene in the run-down Mill Creek neighborhood.

Nate had been called here for domestic assaults, drug busts, and once a murder. But increasingly, the calls were about opioid overdoses. As such, the lieutenant had recently told his detectives to investigate both fatal and nonfatal overdoses in an effort to trace the drugs back to the dealers.

Emma has a new patient, Alice Jones, a frail fifty-four-year-old. Her loud-voiced husband says Alice’s back is sore from gardening. Emma makes conversation, reaching out to a fellow-gardener: “I have a whole freezer of vegetables I grew this summer. It’s pretty tough on our back and knees, though, isn’t it?” Alice says that occasionally her legs feel numb, so Emma orders an MRI.

“Can you give me something for the pain?” she asked. “I’ve heard OxyContin is good for back pain.”



I kept my face neutral. The opioid crisis had made it difficult for doctors to know where the line was, when to prescribe pain medicine and when not to. It was a doctor’s job to help people, to assuage their pain, and yet I’d watched other doctors’ patients succumb to addiction. I knew about addiction firsthand, from my brother. I refused to let my patients become another statistic.

Her brother? What’s that about? Coincidentally, while Nate is telling his boss, Lieutenant Dyson, about his investigation of Santiago Martinez, a high-level drug dealer, two out-of-town cops show up asking for Nate. The man is wearing a tailored suit that Nate suspects might cost more than his annual salary. Special agents Lisa Hamilton and Phil Tyson tell Lieutenant Dyson and Nate that Martinez was one of their confidential informants. Nate is suspicious—why did the two Seattle cops ask for him by name?

Hamilton crossed her arms. “Do you know much about your wife’s brother?”



Nate straightened, suddenly alert. “Ben? Ben’s been in and out of jail for drug dealing, petty theft, did a few years for assault. Emma hasn’t heard from him in years.”



Nate gaped at her. He’d never even met Ben. From what he could tell, Emma was the smart, successful one, while Ben was the total fuckup.



“Ben Hardman might be linked to the head of this gang. Hell, he might even be the head, for all we know. Either way, we need to find out who’s running it before more oxy and fentanyl hit the streets. We want you to be the lead detective of our local task force.

Nate is uncomfortable going after his brother-in-law, estranged or not. It’s a clear conflict of interest. But his boss points out that his retirement is only a year away and that Nate will have a clear shot at becoming the force’s lieutenant if he helps the Seattle task force bring down the drug ring. Dyson isn’t subtle: “More money, more regular hours with your family.”

Christina McDonald seeds Do No Harm with references to the prevalence of opioid abusers, floats allusions to money and what it can buy, all foreshadowing the tragedy about to befall Nate and Emma. There were signs. Josh had been a bit under par. Emma’s mother-in-law Moira tells her she put Josh down for a nap when he didn’t feel up to going to school, but no parent anticipates a call saying their child is in the ER. Emma rushes to his side with Nate not far behind. The hospital runs tests and Josh’s parents are asked to join two doctors, one of whom Emma knows from her troubled childhood, Dr. Palmer, a noted oncologist. Josh has leukemia, a virulent, fast-moving variety. There are two treatment options, one of which is experimental and incredibly expensive and their insurance will not cover the costs. How can a young family, barely meeting their month-to-month bills, afford a $500,000 price tag for an extremely promising treatment? Almost without stopping to breathe, Emma decides she’ll raise the money for the treatment by selling scripts. Colloquially, she will sell prescriptions for oxy to addicts, giving them the ability to get drugs legally at drugstores. Nate’s solution is to gun for the lieutenant slot that will come up in one year, even though the price of admission is to bring his wife’s brother to justice. Inevitably, Emma and Nate’s individual solutions collide with horrific consequences.

Stop reading now if you don’t want to learn a significant plot point. Emma’s entrée to the drug underworld is a former hook-up, a devastatingly attractive friend from high school, and her brother Ben’s best friend. He also happens to be Josh’s natural father. Emma broke it off with Gabe a few weeks before she met Nate: she and Nate fell for each other hard. When Emma realized she was pregnant, she sought genetic testing. For whatever reason, she decided not to tell Nate that he wasn’t the father of “their” upcoming baby. Emma is a woman with a complicated past and keeping secrets is something that is part and parcel of her life. She forces Gabe’s compliance by telling him that he has a son, a son who will almost certainly die without experimental drug therapy.

Right about now, the title of Jim Morrison’s biography, No One Gets Out of Here Alive comes to mind. Christina McDonald explores the moral choices the protagonists face with clarity and compassion. How much has the war on opioids prevented folks with excruciating, valid pain issues to go without treatment? Emma lost her family when she was a teenager. She and Ben went into foster care and then she and Ben went their separate ways. As a mother and as a wife, given her tragic background, she is desperate to protect her family. But there’s that unavoidable question: do the ends ever justify the means?

Set aside some time before starting Do No Harm because you will not be able to put it down.

Well what should have been a happy family drama became a thrilling twisted tale of lies, deceit, murder, drugs and believe it or not characters you want to love.
A book that really makes you question Does the end justify the means? Well read this book and answer for yourself, hmmm does it???
I'm a fan of this Author and like all her other books that I have read this one did not disappoint. Absolute great psychological thriller.
Thank you to Netgalley, Gallery books and the Author, Christina McDonald for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. I have not read many medical thrillers, but this would be my favorite of the ones I have. The writing was beautiful, the stakes were high... Emma was faced with a tough decision: to sell drugs in order to get money for her son's cancer treatment. We tend to say we would never do something like this, but who's to know until you're faced with it?

Traveling With T’s Thoughts:

Christina McDonald is all up in some gray areas in this book. Yes we know selling drugs is bad- but finding out the drug that will provide your son the best chance at survival costs $100,000 and your insurance won’t cover it and oh yeah- you got to have the money BEFORE the kid gets the medicine- is also wrong. So Emma dips her toes into the murky gray area.

What I Liked:

That cover is perfect for this book.

You know that the fact that Emma’s husband is a cop (and trying to solve crimes that Emma is closely linked to) just adds to the dramatic situation of the book.

The push and pull of the choices that Emma is making. Is she wrong? Right? Can you ever be wrong when trying to save the life of your child?



Bottom line: For me, this book did not give me the “gotta read” feeling like The Night Olivia Fell did- but still very readable. Book clubs will love this for the discussions they can have!

Christina McDonald has written another book that combines the love of family and how far will that love take you? Dr. Emma and Detective Jake have a son, Josh. Josh becomes ill with a life-threatening disease and his parents are beside themselves with the reality of how to financially handle the care their son’s health demands. WhileJake is trying to follow the trail of community deaths related to drug overdoses with the combination of Oxy and Fentanyl, Emma has made the decision that in order to pay for Josh’s care, she will need to sell illegal Oxy prescriptions and contacts a man from her past, Gabe, to help her do this. Becoming involved in an illegal drug ring leads Emma down a road of lies, deception, and heartache. Emma has many secrets from her past that she has not shared with Jake, and as he learns some of these, their love is put to the test. The twists, turns and intrigue involved in this story-telling is typical McDonald as she defines her characters and brings other characters into their story to add another dimension. Just when you think you know where the story is leading....hold tight because there’s about to be another shocker leading to an unexpected ending! All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the opportunity to read and review this advance reader copy. #NetGalley #DoNoHarm