Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About CoffeeShopReader

CBR 6
CBR 7
CBR 8
CBR 9
CBR10 participant
CBR11 participant
CBR12 participant
CBR13 participant
CBR14 Participant
CBR14 Bingo Badges
CBR15 Participant
CBR16 Participant
CBR17 Participant
CBR17 Levels

CoffeeShopReader's Reviews:

B is for Ballad

The Ballad of Perilous Graves by Alex Jennings

by Leave a Comment

Bingo 1: “B” square I was in New Orleans in January for a work conference; the only time I went into the French Quarter was to visit a bookstore. On the local interest shelf there was one title I vaguely recognized: The Ballad of Perilous Graves. This was for the first half a generally interesting musical and magical realism kind of mystery in which local kids notice something is wrong with the spirit of the city of Nola and must then save everyone and everything […]

Magic in the Tea and Maybe Something Else

The Elegant Courtly Life of the Tea Witch vol. 1 by Ameko Kaeruda, Yorifuji

by Leave a Comment

By the cover and title, The Elegant Courtly Life of the Tea Witch looks like a mildly entertaining cozy fantasy. Remy is a tea witch, meaning she can magically make perfect tea, which o the one hand is enough that she gets to work in the royal palace, but on the other hand classifies her as basically a servant. Remy seems a little lazy and not minding this, but as you might guess, there’s more to her and her situation (mostly just hints in volume […]

Much Bigger CW Needed

Dan Da Dan vol. 1 by Yukinobu Tatsu

by Leave a Comment

I have seen Dan Da Dan manga all over social media/the internet, so when I saw volume 1 at the library I picked it up out of curiosity. The premise is interesting: two high school outsiders, one obsessed with aliens, the other believes in spirits, dare each other to prove the other person’s belief is invalid by sending each other to the most likely haunted/abduction sites in the area, per the web. Guess what happens next? One thing I hadn’t noticed initially was that there […]

A Hallmark Movie with Talking Plants and Flying Cats

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

by Leave a Comment

The Spellshop is not really a cozy romantasy as it has been sold; it is actually a Hallmark movie trying to disguise itself as romantasy. The premise: a young woman flees the city and her big city career to escape a bad thing, moves back to her very rural hometown, meets an annoyingly helpful and cute neighbor, starts a jam-making business. Along for the ride is the sassy sidekick bestie, and a variety of locals, nearly all of whom love her after some initial hesitation, […]

Talking Cats are Still Cats

The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher

by 1 Comment

My introduction to Jum Butcher was The Aeronaut’s Windlass (Cinder Spires 1) published in 2015 (the publication date will matter in a minute). It’s a sort of steampunk/fantasy/speculative adventure; I really enjoyed the characters (including the talking cats), world, and general story. I checked out his main series, the Dresden Files, but got tired of that after a few volumes. I have limited tolerance for the kind of story where things just keep going from bad to worse, and often the personal drama is avoidable. […]

Horny Teenager Narration

Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me by Django Wexler

by Leave a Comment

When the narrator/protagonist sounds like a Gen Alpha who has the personality and humor of a 13-year old who is totally hormone driven but also still thinks farts are funny, and you sympathize with the big bad who calls them deeply irritating, there might be a little issue. Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me has a few good characters, but Davi isn’t really one of them. Yes, she’s got real reasons for having deep issues, but if she’s supposed to be in a […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo