I really liked this book. It was not a predictable romance novel and gave an interesting look into the mind of a young female doctor. Family, work, and relationship dynamics all play a role.

Norah Kapadia has wanted to be a doctor and follow in her father's footsteps since she was a young child. Finally she is about to start her residency at the hospital of her dreams. What follows is clear description of the strenuous schedules kept by interns and the unrealistic expectations put on them by their superiors. A fascinating and eye opening story.

It's definitely an eye-opening look at the life of an idealistic young doctor, just as she begins her residency at a prestigious hospital. We first meet Norah who's having a tough time transitioning into her new role and her chief resident Ethan, whom she obviously falls for despite him not being interested. It reads quickly with engaging language, and does remind me of "Grey's Anatomy," but I like that it is more about her career than just romance and finding a man. It's the story of her residency, friendships, and family. Norah is definitely idealistic which I'd rather see her more realistic and wanting to do this job well and not fawn all over a man. It's engaging and I couldn't put it down though. The ending did feel out of character for her, and I do wish there was no implied romantic interest because the book didn't need it, that part all felt like filler. Other than that, it was a quick, engaging read.

This book started out strong but I felt it skipped ahead in time too quickly. Overall an enjoyable read.

This is usually the kind of book I LOVE - South Asian woman protagonist, highly ambitious, reconciling between two worlds, set in Philadelphia AND in a hospital. It had such potential and I immediately gravitated toward it when I spotted it here.
I wish I could give this book a positive review. I wanted to love it. I did not.
Norah is one-dimensional and I never get any sense of depth or growth from her, nor much empathy until the very end of the book. Her lack of awareness could be attributed to a challenging home life (which I get), but it didn't make her at all relatable or draw sympathy from the reader. None of the characters seem at all developed, and this book read like a mishmash of television medical dramas that didn't bake nearly long enough. This was almost a DNF, and I wish I had trusted my instincts on that front.

“People in other, normal jobs might have their computer crash or someone took their hole puncher—that’s their day-to-day office crap. Our day-to-day office crap is death and human suffering.”

The White Coat Diaries offers a peek behind the curtain, revealing the inner workings of a doctor’s life. It shows the truth of what goes on behind closed doors in a hospital, the unglamorous truth of saving lives. And I’m not gonna lie, it was not exactly an easy pill to swallow. Norah slowly learns the importance of work-life balance, and the book makes the bureaucratic structure of the healthcare system clear. We get to see just how hard our doctors work to keep us safe, and how heavily every mistake weighs on them. Still, seeing how many mistakes occur is bone-chilling. It is no one’s fault exactly; there are just too many patients and far too few doctors. More than anything, The White Coat Diaries made me realize just how fragile the human body is, and that doctors are often just shooting in the dark. It’s not exactly comforting stuff.
As far as the plot goes, there isn’t really one. The “cover-up” does not occur until 75% of the way into the novel (I know because I was reading on my kindle). This means that the first 75% passes by with … no plot. It kind of just flows by like a memoir. The resolution did not sit well with me, and I feel like it left a lot of strings loose.
There isn’t really a clean ending, and characters just drop out of the story. While this happens in real life, it’s pretty disconcerting when it happens in a novel. Interesting stuff does happen throughout the story, but there is no real overarching plot tying it all together. Everything turns sideways in the last 10% of the book, and the book ends rather abruptly. Without giving too much away, it just seemed extremely out of character and sudded. While I understand that Norah is supposed to grow, her final actions do not seem like they belong to her at all.
The characters are all relatable and realistic, but they all seem lightweight and do little to impact the story. We mainly focus on Norah and her struggles with her work, which is the main point of the story after all. We get to hear just how exhausted she is, over and over, until it makes you kind of exhausted with the book itself. There were many points in the book where I genuinely had no idea where the story was going. I was expecting a drama, with a dose of righteousness, but I stumbled into a humdrum expose about the medical industry instead. I feel like the blurb itself was rather misleading, because I just immediately started imagining a rom com.
One of the reasons I picked up this book was because of the representation. The White Coat Diaries fared well on this point, portraying Norah’s struggle with her family in a relatable and understandable way. Sinha weaves in points that all Indian families can relate to, while also making Norah’s mother a real character and not just a stereotypical Indian mom. The mental struggles surrounding the South Asian community are well developed and feel natural rather than forced. At the same time, it never becomes the focal point of the story and is slipped in every now and then as an underlying conflict.
Overall, The White Coat Diaries provides a sneakily harrowing peek into the life of a doctor-in-training and the frustrations that plague her at every step, both personal and professional. While Norah is an inherently interesting character, she is let down by an ultimately underwhelming plot.

So interesting to see the trials and tribulations of a medical student during her first experiences in a prestigious city hospital. That includes relationships as well. I look forward to recommending this to readers who enjoy women's fiction, but are looking for something a little different, perhaps a little more realistic. Great book!

It is very seldom that I find myself at a loss for words when I review a book. But, in this case, I am having difficulty finding the right words to describe what I feel about what the writers intent was for the reader. That she has a flair for light comedy; drama; budding romance; truth will prevail; coming of age (a little older than most)? What ever the author's intent she had my attention from the first pages until the final page. I laughed. I cried. I enjoyed her foray into romance. I delighted in the heroines coming of age and the accepting of responsibility for her actions. But the ending was brilliant and leaves me waiting for the next phase of this character's story.

I highly recommend this book to readers who are looking for a refreshing change to the usual fare offered the reading public. I have rated this book 5 stars.

I received an ARC from Netgalley for my unbiased review.

Wowee! This was an eye-opener! And a good read, if only because of all of the back story realities of medical professionals and the grind it truly seems to be. As an educator, I get the whole compassion fatigue idea, too, though my case is not nearly that of the medical heroes portrayed in this book.......some of whom have so tragically seemed to have lost their way ethically. I also appreciated the back story of Norah, as it is VERY similar to my own in so many ways. And the fact that there are parallels made the reading a little more personal and, dare I say, richer, more intimate. I was certainly routing for her and hoping she could shed some of her obviously accrued cynicism...a fate left open at the end of the book, which I like.

TL;DR: "The White Coat Diaries" was such a disappointment. The entire book felt unstructured and surface-level - the plot, the medical aspect, and the characters and the relationships that allegedly built or existed between them, and ESPECIALLY Norah, who was, without a doubt, the worst part of the book.

THE PLOT: My biggest issue was that it felt like it had NO plot. There was no arc, no true story line, and the pacing was AWFUL. It often felt like we were dropped into scenarios, then quickly thrust into new ones before the old was resolved, and it never went back to those instances. Everything felt surface level and unexplored - her residency, her familial relationships (how did her mom SUDDENLY feel better? Kai just isn't going to get vaccinated? This horrible, evil family friend

THE MEDICAL ASPECT: Never having been to medical school, I can't attest to how it would be. I did feel that the exhaustion and stress that would be felt during a residency felt authentic. But here again I felt that it was
all surface-level. This could've been so much better if the drug with the horrible side effects had been explored more. If Madi Sinha had made us readers feel attached to literally any of the patients. I didn't even care about the Tally's because she wrote them so poorly. Frustrating.

RELATIONSHIPS: What relationships?! Everything felt shallow and false. There was not even a single flashback to show Norah with her father and how him being a doctor (and an absentee father?!) pushed Norah to become a doctor herself. Norah's relationship with her mother and brother was horribly toxic, and NONE of that was resolved on-page. Suddenly her mother is better? Paul and Norah are all good now, even though Norah repeatedly left them hanging and made promises she didn't and couldn't keep? Norah and Reena's toxic relationship just continues and it's just okay that Kai isn't going to be vaccinated - or it's not even going to be explored more to EXPLAIN LITERALLY ANYTHING? Norah and her "best friend" = not even close to any type of friendship. And don't get me started on Norah's "romances" - I get that she was supposed to be super naive, but COME ON. The "relationship" with Ethan was a joke. Whatever tension she was supposed to have with Gabe was a joke. Then in the last 5% we get a new love interest? By that point, I truly didn't care. AND he seemed like an ass anyway. OH and her relationships with the other residents?! A joke. What happened to Stu?! We're just going to give a character a major drug problem and then never discuss it?

NORAH: I hated her. She was somehow both selfish and pathetic, and naive to the point of stupidity. She was horrible to her best friend and her family. She had no backbone. She let a man walk all over her. Multiple men, really. She blackmailed someone she had admired for a man (and don't get me started on how Elle was portrayed) and jeopardized her whole career over him. She allegedly had this major character growth, but NONE of it showed up on page. Suddenly we're two years later and she's finally standing up for herself? It didn't make sense. And none of the other characters were there, so it felt even more inauthentic. AND literally no real resolution with her alleged best friend? WHAT?

And the ending was straight-up stupid. The Tally family, whose matriarch literally died at the hands of these doctors, suddenly forgives all because they "just wanted an apology." An ANONYMOUS APOLOGY from someone at the hospital? But no real acknowledgement? WHAT? And suddenly Norah can just float off to Hawaii, make some half-assed attempts at finding a new job, and then gets drunk and decides she's actually going to start travelling. With all this money she suddenly has? With her family suddenly not toxic and ridden with problems? With literally no repercussions for the literal cover up she pulled at the hospital? Nope, sorry, not buying that AT ALL.

Everything was just shallow - shallow - shallow. I'm saying, based on this rant-y review, this book actually made me very angry and I'm mad I wasted hours of my life reading it. A major disappointment.

When somebody advertise this book as Grey’s Anatomy meets Scrubs I honestly say “get out of here” or “are you serious?” because this book is too realistic and serious to remind us of tele novella kind of Shondaland series! And let’s not forget this is also not sarcastic and funny approach to doctors’ lives which are tremendously challenging, demanding. So let’s say, it’s at the zone of ER meets New Amsterdam: High tensioned, emotional, inspirational.

Great things about the book: well-crafted story telling, capturing chapters, likable characters and true, intense and heartfelt approach to our real heroes a.k.a doctor’ lives. Especially when we’re testing ourselves psychically and mentally to fight against the pandemic in these days, they never stop to work, saving people’s lives in expanse to put their own health into danger.
I truly loved Norah Kapadia as a character. It was so easy to resonate with her, worrying about her struggles to fit in the medical world and work harder to realize her family’s expectations, balance her romantic involvements and her friendships. It’s so important for her to be praised by her mentor Ethan Cantor. He is her role model and she wants to be capable to keep her calmness during daily emergencies and handle them with care. But sometimes their motto: “do not harm” may conflict with ethics and Norah finds herself to do the wrong thing to make things right. But her dilemma will change her view not only about her profession but her entire life. Is she at the right place and doing the right thing?

I enjoyed the family dynamics, self-discovery of Norah who finally understands her place in her family, in the hospital and finally in the universe. It’s realistic, fast pacing, emotional, gripping and well-written story and it’s also one of my fastest readings because the story-telling kept my attraction intact and it was real great break for me after reading so much thriller stories.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for sharing this remarkable ARC with me in exchange my honest review.

I loved this book! From the first page you are transported to a busy Philadelphia hospital. The author describes the patients, family members and fellow medical professionals with keen attention to detail. A great debut novel.