Book Review: The Writer by James Patterson and J.D. Barker

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The Writer by James Patterson and J.D. Barker  was published on March 17, 2025. It opens with Detective Declan Shaw at a closed subway station trying to work up the nerve to commit suicide when he receives a call from his partner about a break in and homicide at the home of a true crime author. Shaw makes his way to the crime scene to work the case, and in a turn of events, Declan comes under scrutiny in another case loosely connected to this new case. I received an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of The Writer  from NetGalley and Little , Brown, and Company for free in exchange for my honest review. I'm appreciative that my request for this book was approved. With this story opening with the main character trying to commit suicide, I almost didn't go any further with the book. However, I am glad I stuck with it as it took me on a fantastic ride and had my emotions all over the place. There were so many twists and turns that just when I thought I had it all figured out, there was ...
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Book Review: Time's Convert (All Souls Universe, #1) by Deborah Harkness

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Words cannot begin to describe how excited I was when the novel Time's Convert (All Souls Universe, #1) by Deborah Harkness came out in bookstores, and I pre-ordered the newest edition to the book series from Barnes and Noble. I prepared for the new release by rereading the original trilogy to refresh my memory of what happened. The original All Souls Trilogy includes A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night, and The Book of Life. However, when Time's Convert arrived in my mailbox, I was in a bit of a reading slump, and it took me all this time to actually read it. Boy, am I mad at myself for not reading it right after I finished rereading The Book of Life (All Souls Trilogy, #3).
At first, I did have a little trouble getting into Time's Convert because I felt like I knew the least about Phoebe, Marcus' mate. Once the other character's story lines were interwoven into the book, I really was able to get into the book, and I even began to like learning more about Phoebe's transition into a vampire.
I loved the fact that we got to read about the early childhood of Marcus and how he grew into a man . . . and eventually was turned into a vampire during the American Revolutionary War. I enjoyed how the Marquis de Lafayette (Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier), Thomas Paine, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and the Liberty Bell were all woven into the story as well. It definitely made me me interested in learning more about some of these real life characters.
As we learned that Marcus and the de Clermont family was also involved in the French Revolution, it also sparked an interest in learning even more about that as well. We all know that Marie Antoinette and Louise-August were sentenced to death by the guillotine. I never knew that it was named after the person who invented it (Joseph-Ignace Guillotin). Even though I learned about the French Revolution in high school, I really had no idea that is happened so closely to the American Revolutionary War. Who says you can't learn something factual from a fiction book?
Time's Convert doesn't have as much going on in it as the original trilogy, and I didn't expect it to knowing that this was the backstory of Marcus. With that being said, there was a bit of action in it and unexpected secrets revealed. I loved the fact that I didn't entirely know what was going to happen either. I expect that some people would be disappointed with this book because it has a lot of history included in it, and some might find that boring and unexciting. I am glad to say I'm not one of those people; I loved this book. I give it four out of five stars just because I did have a little trouble getting into it at first.
Synopsis of Time's Convert: During the battles of the American Revolutionary War, Marcus MacNeil meets Matthew de Clermont. When Marcus is offered immortality, he readily agrees, and the transformation is not easy for him with all these new rules. Fast forward to the present day, Phoebe Taylor, an employee at Sotheby's, has fallen in love with Marcus and decides she wants to live an immortal life with him.

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