5 stars here and on Goodreads. Loved this book immediately... faster than I have any book since Gone Girl. The author's writing style is right up my alley and I fell in love with the main character, Marti. I did start to lose interest around 15/20% of the way in. I think it halted a little, didn't love how much time was spent on her clients (I really didn't find those stories interesting).. but in the end I see why the side-plots were necessary. I loved Marti's relationships, her thoughts on parenting, I really just loved her point of view and being in her head. Very enjoyable. I also loved the trial. Courtroom drama is one of my favorite genres, this book successfully combined legal and family(ish) drama. Great read!

I read this awhile ago and forgot to send my review for a free copy from netgalley. I skimmed book to try to refresh my memory. I do remember I liked the book. The story was interesting and it moved along well. Family and hospital drama was a good combination. I would recommend.

WOW! This book was exceptional even though it might have started a little slow for me. It's the story of a woman named Marti Trailor. She's the daughter of a powerful Congressman, the wife of very successful obstetrician who is head of the Obstetrics department at their local but highly regarded hospital in Richmond Virginia. The hospital prides itself on hiring the brightest and best doctors and staff.

Marti is leading the life of busy mom of three children, Nina, Simon, and Poppy. One night at a social function, Marti is offered a job as a social worker for the hospital her husband works. Although she's excited to take on the position, her husband, Elliott is less than enthused about it.

As Marti becomes successful on the job, her marriage begins to unravel. Her husband who worked long hours become edgier and is home less an less. When tragedy strikes and a baby is left in a vegetative state, it's Marti not the doctor who delivered the child that is accused of the crime. Marti is brought to trial for it.

The is a book not only filled with intrigue but also deals with relationships and how life can change in an instant. It's a thoroughly enjoyable read and has so much to offer those who love literary fiction with a bit of suspense.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I've been hearing about this book coming out for a while and it just didn't live up to the hype. The book is written in alternating "past" and "present" POVs except for the last few chapters which were all "present" POVs (it took me a few pages to figure that out too). You could tell the author was trying to build up to something but it was very, very obvious what each plot twist was going to be. Also, the book took a lot of effort to read. It wasn't being the writing was too complicated or anything the book just didn't call to me. I read half the book the first night but then it took 4 more days before I even felt like I wanted to pick it back up. Overall, decent book but there are others out there that I think would be a better choice if you're looking for something to read.

Well written and absorbing story, shows how fast things can change and deviate down a path you never expected. Great read.

I really enjoyed this one. The character of Marti was well developed and I felt her sadness, hopelessness and anger. Her thoughts and feelings just enlightened the pages. The plot caught me off guard and went in a totally different direction then what I was expecting. Really love when this happens! Great writing and a joy to read.

I loved this book! It was a stunning read, well written characters and in particular, Marti was so real. It had no predictability about it, and I didn't want to try and guess the path it took - it had a strong point of view, but expressed it gently.

Excellent book, would absolutely recommend!

I would like to thank Erika Raskin and Net Galley for allowing me to read this book.

This book is about a woman wrongfully accused of murder. The story has quite a few twists which will surprise you. The book starts with Marti talking to her lawyer and then takes you through how Marti got where she is now before you finally have the whole story. Marti is a stay at home mom while her husband Elliot works crazy hours as he has just started his career in OB/GYN. They have 3 children, Nina, Simon and Poppy. Marti hopes that the long hours will become less so that they can become a family again. Her best friend is Colby who is a print journalist. Things get a little weird after Marti decides to go back to work as a social worker in the same hospital as her husband, he isn't too thrilled about it and you can almost suspect why. There is a New Mom's program that she was hired for by Win who met her at a hospital function. It is an experimental program and he asks Marti to come and work with him. Nigel is the head of the department and his work ethics are not the best. His team is overworked which leads to mistakes and Marti is not very fond of him. She challenges his judgment anytime she can and in the end, she triumphs.

BRAVO!!!! Sucked in instantly! I loved this book and really connected with Marti. Perfect ending. All around GREAT BOOK!

As always, let’s start this review with the characters. It’s all the more relevant here because of how character-driven this book is. This book’s rating is fully because of all the strong characters that are in it. They beautifully carry the story forward. I was rooting for the protagonist Marti throughout. I was even able to identify with Marti a lot! I took to calling some of my favorite lines as Marti-isms.

Because I was already in love with Marti, I reacted like all her downfalls were mine while reading this book. Like all thriller/suspense novels involving doctors, Marti and her husband have marital issues. This maybe a trope but it never gets old for me. I swear, all the medical thrillers I’ve read have turned me away from doctors forever. But, I digress. Marti’s husband Elliot is an overworked doctor who’s never around. When he is, he constantly snaps at Marti. Needless to say, I HATED him.

The world building is amazing. The story jumps between the past and the present and it beautifully merges at the 70% mark. What I really liked about the plot was how simple it was. It’s not very cerebral but it has far-reaching consequences. And Ms. Raskin ties it all up neatly. There are no plot holes, this book ends perfectly. The writing is excellent and the story is extremely fast-paced. The fast-paced nature also made me blind to negatives, if any.

To summarize, this is the best in women’s literary fiction I’ve read in a long time. If you enjoy women’s fiction and suspense, please do read this book. I assure you you’ll love it. Oh, and watch out for the Marti-isms!

In the acknowledgements section, the author talks about the protracted effort that was put in to get this book out. I would really like to commend her. As a reader, it makes me very happy that none of her efforts went to waste. This story is beautiful and hopefully makes up for all the work she put in! 🙂

Rating: 5 out of 5

A really good read. There is a lot packed into this book. It deals with Marti's marriage, hospital politics and the malpractice. The story is well put together and obviously researched.

This book was excellent. The characters were well developed and the plot had me wanting to keep reading. I finished it very quickly.

I was absolutely enchanted with this book. As a lover of women's fiction and medical thrillers, this story gets a place on the top of my list,
The characters are wonderfully written and the mystery grows in intensity at the perfect moments.
Marti's story could be anyone's story, but what makes it special is the way the author works through it. It offers the reader the exact combination of intrigue an a sympathetic feeling towards the main character. It fuels the fighting spirit towards the truth every person holds inside although not always is put into practice.
Within the pages of this book I found love, deception, friendship, tragedy, desperation and hope.
I absolutely recommend it!

I fancied something a bit different and this nicely hit the mark. Thoroughly engaging. It's about events leading up to an incident and the repercussions afterwards. Where do loyalties lie when the chips fall.

4 Stars.

A Completely Compelling Character Driven Novel.

Best Intentions by Erica Raskin is the story of Marti Trailor. A woman. A stay at home mother of three. A wife. A best friend. And a woman accused of a horrific crime.

Best Intentions is a character driven novel. A novel about Relationships. Marriage. Family. And friendships. Friendships so deep that they take hold and don’t let go. It is about a legal drama that threatens to destroy Marti Trailor’s life and shakes her to her core. Yet in my opinion, the legal drama is secondary to the story about a woman whose relationships drive this novel.

Marti Trailor has three children. Nina, Simon and Poppy. They are her life. Marti’s husband Elliot is a doctor: a very successful one at that, running the OB/GYN practice at the nearby Richmond Hospital, as well as being the head of the risk management program - thus he is never around. While at a social function, Marty gets offered the job of her dreams: helping to get a social work program up and running. Though she has taken years off to raise kids, social work is her specialty. The job? It just happens to be at the same hospital at which her husband works, which he isn’t thrilled about. Marty excels however, and get the program off to a fantastic start and forms an incredible bond with one of the young women who obtains assistance through the program: Tonya Maines. Marti even becomes Tonya’s Lamaze coach.

While things are working out well for Marti professionally, her marriage suffers. Her husband Elliot is never home and works more and more. He is moody and snappish, leading to terse moments and little arguments. Even the kids notice. Unfortunately, an incident happens on the night Tonya gives birth, leaving Tonya’s baby in a vegetative state. While the OB-GYN doctor appears to have made a grave error, things go from bad to worse and Marti is blamed and is charged for a crime.

Though the novel is about a legal battle, it is, in my opinion, a character driven novel. The author, Erika Raskin, does an excellent job at creating well rounded, multi-faceted characters. Marti Trailor, the main character drew me in immediately. Almost like glue.. I couldn’t pull away. Marti’s thoughts, and feelings, the way she interacted with her children, Nina, Simon and Poppy. Each child, so different, each interaction, so varied. So real. Her interactions with each client as a social worker – all so unique. None even remotely easy. Marti is strong when she needs to be strong and then, when things get tough? Well, she falls apart. Only to be picked up by her best friend, Colby. Who, in my mind is the most amazing best friend you could ever ask for. Fierce, funny, protective and extremely supportive. In short, Colby rocks. And Elliot - Marti's over worked husband? Self-centered, spineless and gutless. And that is a nice way of putting it. Ms. Raskin didn't give him any redeeming qualities. I would have kicked his butt to the curb in a heartbeat.

For me, the legal battle, almost took second place to the story of Marti Trailor and all of her various relationships. This, may perhaps be, because I work in the legal field and didn’t find all aspects of the case to completely realistic. I rated this novel 4 stars instead of 5, due to the structure of the chapters, and how each began by describing the status of the legal case and then went on to discuss how the rest of the story progressed, without breaking things up, which I found to be a little confusing. Further, I found that the ending and legal battle itself wrapped up a little too neatly for my liking, though all in all, I enjoyed the book immensely. Kudos to Erika Raskin for a job well done.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Erica Raskin for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Published on NetGalley and Goodreads on 3/9/17

Will be published on Amazon on 8/15/17.

My first book by this author.
I thought it started off a little slow but by the halfway point I was hooked wanting to know what happened. The characters were interesting and it all seemed so real. I also enjoyed the twist with the ending as it wasn't what I was expecting. I look forward to reading more by Erika Raskin.

Excellent story! Looking forward to reading more by this author!

When I began reading this book, I found it slightly confusing to jump from day to day life to mentions of a possible prison term. I wasn't sure what had happened in the back story.
However, reading on, and realising that this was how the novel worked, it became clearer. Marti, a Social worker in the same hospital as her very important and busy Dr husband, gets caught up in a situation. An obstetrician, actually having an affair with her husband, makes a terrible mistake during a delivery., which Mart witnesses. Somehow, in telling what she saw, she herself gets arrested and accused of killing the newly born baby.
The descriptions of the Hospital and the hours worked, the exhaustion, the tired doctors falling asleep on the job, all is drawn so well. You can feel the tensions. You know there is going to be some ghastly error made.
The same tautness is shown in the courtroom drama where Marti is put under scrutiny, not helped at all by her husband, but supported by others who have no doubts of her innocence.
I found this a book that I didn't want to put down, thoughtful, well written and fast paced.

I really didn't enjoy this book at all, it was slow paced and felt like it dragged on forever.

So this book took me quite a while to get into, but then stopped me from sleeping all night because I was so stressed about what would happen...

This story is fabulous because Marti is a mother first and foremost and the love that she feels for her three kids is so passionate and so real that I was feeling incredibly protective of each of them. I also love the way she navigates the work place and the people she interacts with there as well as how she maintains relationships with close friends, with her family, and with her in-laws--the latter more challenging than the others.

I loved the trial, also. I guess though I've recently been devouring everything suspense, I've never read anything set in an actual court with a trial going on. I found the back and forth between the witnesses and the prosecutor/defender to be snappy and witty and I could very much envision it all coming together.

The entire political situation and the dynamics of the workplace were legitimately fascinating and probably raise some real world issues. I'll be passing this one on to my mum, who works as a nurse, to see what she thinks, but I was appalled by the situation and how overworked residents were. The family dynamics also stunk and I loved reading about them and seeing how they evolved.

It did take me a good third of the book to really start caring about anyone and to get invested. The ending felt a little sudden and I had to reread a bit to make sure I hadn't missed something. The middle, however, had me reading quickly and on the edge of my bed with my need to know what would happen. Sometimes the way that the flashforwards worked were also a little bit confusing, but common sense solved this.

If you're interested in nursing, social work, or court, or just enjoy good suspense novels, this will be right up your alley.