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Expiration Date: A MAL’s Pals Novel
She hears the day people will die.
Not a feeling.
Not a guess.
The exact date.
Dr. Mavis Maldonado is a quiet head librarian in Sheridan, Wyoming — until she discovers that every person she speaks to carries a ticking clock in their voice.
At first, she thinks she’s losing her mind.
Then the dates start coming true.
When a student whispers a day only weeks away, Mavis faces an impossible
Do you warn someone about their death…
even if it changes everything?
The more she interferes, the more dangerous the consequences become. Relationships fracture. Authorities grow suspicious. And someone begins to notice her.
Knowing the future is a gift.
Until it becomes a weapon.
Not a feeling.
Not a guess.
The exact date.
Dr. Mavis Maldonado is a quiet head librarian in Sheridan, Wyoming — until she discovers that every person she speaks to carries a ticking clock in their voice.
At first, she thinks she’s losing her mind.
Then the dates start coming true.
When a student whispers a day only weeks away, Mavis faces an impossible
Do you warn someone about their death…
even if it changes everything?
The more she interferes, the more dangerous the consequences become. Relationships fracture. Authorities grow suspicious. And someone begins to notice her.
Knowing the future is a gift.
Until it becomes a weapon.
412 pages, Paperback
Published November 7, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 29, 2026
I really wanted to give this book a fair chance, but the further I got, the more frustrated I became. Unfortunately, there were so many issues that I found myself paying more attention to what didn’t make sense than to the actual story.
One of the biggest problems was the lack of believability. Characters repeatedly make decisions that feel completely unrealistic for the situations they are in. If your characters are supposedly hiding from or being pursued by the FBI, having them casually use traceable cell phones and credit cards makes it very difficult to take the danger seriously. The book desperately needed more research into the subjects it attempted to tackle.
The handling of trauma was even more troubling. A woman experiences a brutal sexual assault, yet the emotional and psychological aftermath is barely given the weight it deserves before the story moves her toward a new relationship. Trauma doesn’t have to be portrayed the same way for every survivor, but when you choose to include something this serious in a story, it deserves thoughtful, sensitive writing and believable character development. Here, it felt more like a plot device than a life-altering experience.
The characters themselves never became people I could genuinely connect with. Their personalities lacked depth, their relationships developed without enough foundation, and some of the names were so ridiculous that they pulled me completely out of the story. “Dick Feelsgood” might have been intended as humor, but it felt juvenile and completely out of place.
The book also seems unable to decide what it wants to be. Paranormal elements, mystery, romance, crime, humor, trauma, and political commentary are all thrown together without enough cohesion to make any of them particularly effective. A story can absolutely cross genres, but the different elements still need to feel like they belong in the same book.
The political commentary was another unnecessary distraction. Regardless of which political views an author holds, inserting them into a story where they add nothing meaningful to the plot or characters only dates the book and alienates readers unnecessarily.
Most disappointing, though, was the writing and editing. Awkward phrasing, inconsistencies, and a general lack of polish made an already disjointed story even harder to follow. This felt much more like an early draft than a finished novel.
There may have been an interesting story buried somewhere underneath all of this, but it needed significantly more research, character development, sensitivity, editing, and focus before publication.
One of the biggest problems was the lack of believability. Characters repeatedly make decisions that feel completely unrealistic for the situations they are in. If your characters are supposedly hiding from or being pursued by the FBI, having them casually use traceable cell phones and credit cards makes it very difficult to take the danger seriously. The book desperately needed more research into the subjects it attempted to tackle.
The handling of trauma was even more troubling. A woman experiences a brutal sexual assault, yet the emotional and psychological aftermath is barely given the weight it deserves before the story moves her toward a new relationship. Trauma doesn’t have to be portrayed the same way for every survivor, but when you choose to include something this serious in a story, it deserves thoughtful, sensitive writing and believable character development. Here, it felt more like a plot device than a life-altering experience.
The characters themselves never became people I could genuinely connect with. Their personalities lacked depth, their relationships developed without enough foundation, and some of the names were so ridiculous that they pulled me completely out of the story. “Dick Feelsgood” might have been intended as humor, but it felt juvenile and completely out of place.
The book also seems unable to decide what it wants to be. Paranormal elements, mystery, romance, crime, humor, trauma, and political commentary are all thrown together without enough cohesion to make any of them particularly effective. A story can absolutely cross genres, but the different elements still need to feel like they belong in the same book.
The political commentary was another unnecessary distraction. Regardless of which political views an author holds, inserting them into a story where they add nothing meaningful to the plot or characters only dates the book and alienates readers unnecessarily.
Most disappointing, though, was the writing and editing. Awkward phrasing, inconsistencies, and a general lack of polish made an already disjointed story even harder to follow. This felt much more like an early draft than a finished novel.
There may have been an interesting story buried somewhere underneath all of this, but it needed significantly more research, character development, sensitivity, editing, and focus before publication.
December 12, 2025
"Expiration Date" has that kind of pacing where every chapter ends with a little jolt that keeps you turning pages. Joe makes the characters so vivid I was walking in their shoes-and he throws in twists that actually land—it’s definitely a page turner. I look forward to more Mal's pals novels.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews