Series Sunday: The 24th Hour

(Women's Murder Club #24) 

Series Sunday is a bookish meme hosted by Literary Marie. I encourage all of my fellow book bloggers and bookhearts to play along.

• Read an installment of a series.
• Share your review/recommendation below.
• Include the title, author and series name.

My Series Sunday pick is The 24th Hour, the 24th book in the Women's Murder Club series by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro. The writing duo is back with the latest installment of kick-ass friends in the Women's Murder Club. The book opens with Sergeant Lindsay Boxer, Medical Examiner Claire Washburn, Assistant District Attorney Yuki Castellano and crime writer Cindy Thomas gathered at San Francisco's finest restaurant to celebrate a birthday and a wedding. 

Before the women can raise their glass for a toast, there's a loud disturbance. On instinct, Lindsay runs toward the scream and finds a woman has been assaulted. Claire examines the victim. Lindsay makes an arrest. Yuki takes the case. Cindy covers it in the media. 

"But it was the title on the first page that chilled me." ~ pg. 101

Patterson and Paetro are great at making sure every character plays a major role. In The 24th Hour, each of the WMC members are showcased in their professional environment along with their personal lives. It is a good balance making it an easy read. Although there was a main mystery, two other minor subplots were explored but didn't add much to the story. There was even another murder very late in the book...welp, at the 24th hour true to the title. It felt more like filler.

Was this latest installment good or nah? I cannot give up on this series after investing so much time into these characters. However, something drastic needs to happen to give this series a reset. I recommend The 24th Hour for followers of the series for continuity purposes but take your time getting to it. If you're new to the WMC series, you will enjoy the beginning books far more than the recent releases.

Happy Early Pub Day, Patterson and Paetro! The 24th Hour will be available Monday, May 6.

Disclaimer: An advance copy was received directly from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions are my own and would be the same if I spent my hard-earned coins. ~LiteraryMarie

Title: The 24th Hour

Author: James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

Published: May 2024

Pages: 317

Edition: Galley

Genre: Mystery

Challenge: Keeping Up with Patterson

Rating: 🖤 🖤

First Lines Friday

First Lines Friday is a bookish meme hosted by Literary Marie. I encourage all of my fellow book bloggers and bookhearts to play along.

• Grab your current read(s).
• Share the first line(s).
• Include the title and author.

"Here is how you destroy a life."

~ Think Twice by Harlan Coben

Diary of a Dying Girl

"Read a book with a character that resonates with me." ~ pg. 215

Diary of a Dying Girl is a collection of Mallory Smith's unflinching diary entries about slowly dying of a terminal illness, Cystic Fibrosis. Many of her feelings were too difficult to share while alive so she kept them in a password-protected journal. Diagnosed at age three with an illness that attacks the internal organs, she lived to the fullest on borrowed time. 

The title is what initially grabbed my attention with this new release. What could the diary entries of a dying girl be about? How honest are her journals? Will it help loved ones understand? Will her thoughts mirror mine? Not as a dying girl but as a girl living with a chronic illness.

"It's a blessing and a curse not to look sick—a curse when I need accommodations but am not given them because of the perception that I'm too healthy—but mostly, it's a blessing. I am not branded by illness on a daily basis. If I choose to disclose, it's just that: a choice." ~ pg. 18

Diary of a Dying Girl is full of happy and struggling moments. She writes about love, sex, volleyball, the environment, school, friends and family. Toward the end of the book are diary entries from loved ones that give more perspective to her illness, hospitalization and last days.

Mallory Smith passed away at 25 years old, two months after receiving a double lung transplant. Her words will live on in this memoir. It is beautifully written with the innocence of a young intelligent girl with legit fears and wisdom beyond her years.

Happy Early Pub Day! Diary of a Dying Girl will be available Tuesday, May 7.

Disclaimer: An advance copy was received directly from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions are my own and would be the same if I spent my hard-earned coins. ~LiteraryMarie

Title: Diary of a Dying Girl
Author: Mallory Smith
Published: May 2024
Pages: 315
Edition: Galley
Genre: Memoir
Rating: 🖤 🖤 🖤 

This Summer Will Be Different

"I don't want to be a stop along your journey. I want to be the destination." ~ 82%

This summer they will keep a promise. This summer they will not give in to temptation. This summer will indeed be different. It was supposed to be a one night stand between a tourist vacationing and a local. But Lucy discovers that Felix is her best friend's younger brother and deemed off-limits. Oops...small world! So they vow to never repeat that night.

Each year, Lucy revisits the island for fresh coastal air and quality time with her best friend Bridget. And each year, she is drawn to Felix's bed while trying to keep her heart out of it. When Bridget suddenly escapes to the island just a week before her wedding, Lucy drops everything to handle the crisis. What she doesn't expect is to confront her feelings toward Felix while there.

This Summer Will Be Different is recommended for fans of forbidden/hidden love stories. It is an easy predictable read that moves at a steady pace with alternating time periods. It is the classic formula of chick lit that is light for springtime reading.

Happy Early Pub Day, Carley Fortune! This Summer Will Be Different will be available Tuesday, May 7.

Disclaimer: An advance copy was received directly from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions are my own and would be the same if I spent my hard-earned coins. ~LiteraryMarie

Title: This Summer Will Be Different
Author: Carley Fortune
Published: May 2024
Pages: 280
Edition: Galley
Genre: Romance
Rating: 🖤 🖤 🖤 

The Good Ones are Taken

"The perfect partner who's also your best friend? That's goals." ~ 70%

Maggie wants to find her Prince Charming and a date to her friends' weddings so she tries online dating. As the maid of honor in both weddings, she is tasked with finding a date along with bridal party duties. After finding frogs, she meets a handsome doctor that might be the one.

Meanwhile, her male best friend Garrett points out all the red flags and encourages her to keep looking for the right match. Maggie just wants him to be happy for her but things come to a head when Garrett admits he can't if he's not with her. When he blurts out his feelings, Maggie has to choose between a friendship and a seemingly perfect guy.

The Good Ones are Taken is a friends-to-lovers rom-com that is perfect for spring reading. Taj McCoy knows how to hook a reader into a slow burn romance that will make you blush, giggle and root for a happy ending. The characters are like your best friends IRL. Pour a fruity adult beverage, open the windows for a breeze and enjoy this cutesy comedic book. 

Happy Early Pub Day, Taj McCoy! The Good Ones are Taken will be available Tuesday, April 23.

Disclaimer: An advance copy was received directly from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions are my own and would be the same if I spent my hard-earned coins. ~LiteraryMarie

Title: The Good Ones are Taken
Author: Taj McCoy
Published: April 2024
Pages: 295
Edition: Galley
Genre: Romance Comedy
Rating: 🖤 🖤 🖤

Sistahs Be Readin' Book Club

Series Sunday: If Only I Had Told Her

Series Sunday is a bookish meme hosted by Literary Marie. I encourage all of my fellow book bloggers and bookhearts to play along.

• Read an installment of a series.
• Share your review/recommendation below.
• Include the title, author and series name.

My Series Sunday pick is If Only I Had Told Her, the follow-up to If He Had Been With Me by Laura Nowlin. Finn has always been in love with Autumn. She's not just the girl next door. She's more than his mother's best friend's daughter. It is obvious to everyone but Autumn. Even Finn's best friend, Jack, cannot deny their chemistry when seeing them together. But Jack wants to protect Finn from heartache if the feelings aren't reciprocated.

"Not wanting to be dead isn't quite the same as wanting to be alive. There's a gray space in between where one knows the desire to keep breathing should lie but is coolly absent. This is the space I occupy." ~ pg. 283

We already know how the story ends. Especially if you've read If He Had Been With Me. It is an extremely sad love story. But this follow-up is mostly Finn's point of view; if only he had told Autumn how he felt, things may have ended differently.

Do you want a good cry? Do you want to feel nostalgic? Are you in the mood for fictional grief? Say less. Add If Only I Had Told Her to your reading list. Told in three different perspectives (which I usually hate but this story could be told no other way), this love story brims with truth and tragedy. A beautiful tale Laura Nowlin told.

Title: If Only I Had Told Her

Author: Laura Nowlin

Published: February 2024

Pages: 416

Edition: Paperback

Genre: Romance

Rating: 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤