Review: 24 Hours of the Phoenix by Caroline Bertaud

24 Hours of the Phoenix by Caroline Bertaud


Publishing Date: November 3rd, 2018

My Rating: 2/5 - interesting idea with a main character that made me skim pages and a rushed ending

On Goodreads




Why didn't I post anything last month? Well, it has to do with NaNoWriMo going on, because whoever said that it's possible to live a life, participate in NaNoWriMo and still read a ton is magic.

It also has to do with this book, which somehow kept going and going and going until I just about wanted to throw my kindle out of the window. If this book hadn't been provided to me via NetGalley in exchange for an honest interview, I might have just dnf'd it.

Which doesn't meant that it's bad, just that it was really not to my taste.



Phoenix awakes in a hospital, unable to remember how she got there and why, and finds out she has only 24 hours to live. What will she do?

The answer is: have long monologues with herself, short conversations with other people and sex - three (or was it four?) times. Even though she's still injured from whatever incident got her into the hospital and to death's door in the first place because that seems healthy. Yup.

To be fair, the story wasn't bad, I'm just particularly hard to please when a story is more character-driven than anything else. I called the ending about halfway through the book and I didn't particularly like the main character, but altogether, the book was okay - hence the two stars. My main issue was that the main character was very rambly. I found myself skimming whole pages because she would go on and on about something. Additionally, there would be those parts where she was probably supposed to seem deep and introspective, but I just... didn't buy it.

That said, the book starts off pretty strong and interesting and then just sort of... loses steam. I found myself having to force myself to finish the second half, and the last two to three chapters especially seemed rushed, leaving me with an overall "meh" impression.

I can see where some people would like this book. Sadly, it was just not my cup of tea, though.