Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About J

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Just a girl, sitting in front of a book, wanting it to be good.

J's Reviews:

Yay for grown-up romance!

Headliners (London Celebrities #5) by Lucy Parker

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At their worst, the two of them could do a cracker impression of circling warplanes. She came in as the Spitfire, all weapons blazing; Nick was the Avro Lancaster, biding his time and then suddenly dropping the high-damage bombs. Former late night news rivals Sabrina Carlton and Nick Davenport are both in the doghouse. Sabrina is still dealing with the scandal exposed (by Nick!) in The Austen Playbook. Nick was caught on camera saying unflattering things about the boss. Their last chance to stay on […]

The only thing missing from this Wonder Woman story was Jumpa, her pet kangaroo

Diana: Princess of the Amazons by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale, Victoria Ying

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Honestly, if you wanted to find an author who could tell a story of Diana of Themyscira’s youthful adventures, you could hardly do better than Shannon Hale. Hale’s Princess in Black series, the charming adventures of a young princess who leads a secret life as a superhero, was one of the first chapter books we shared with our daughter. We absolutely loved them. DC chose well. Hale’s take on Diana shows us the lonely life of an only child in a society of adults. Everyone […]

Rejected title: The Epic Rage of Genie Lo

The Iron Will of Genie Lo by F. C. Yee

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The Iron Will of Genie Lo picks up pretty close to where we left off with Epic Crush. Genie is now the Protector of California, splitting her time between high school (where she’s once again had leadership thrust upon her as captain of the volleyball team) and keeping yaoguai in check. It’s a fairly tightrope that’s rapidly fraying at both ends as she tries to figure out how to keep all the plates spinning without letting anyone down. Genie is angry, y’all, and possibly suffering […]

I was not prepared for just how left this one went

Ivory (Manhattan 10 #1) by Lola Dodge

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Lola Dodge kicks off a new series of superhero romance novellas with Ivory, the story of a Scandinavian goddess (maybe? it’s never quite clear on this point?) who finds herself mixed up with a superhero team. It’s 80% romance and 20% superhero fiction, if that’s relevant to you. This book didn’t work for me, for a lot of reasons. I liked the premise: super-powered flight attendant kills someone on her flight and ends up having to lie low with a team of supers who are […]

Lyrical historical coming of age fiction

Red Dove, Listen to the Wind by Sonia Antaki

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Thirteen year old Red Dove lives in interesting times for the Lakota people. Shortly after the Battle of the Greasy Grass (Battle of Little Big Horn), her people have fallen on hard times. Food has become scarce, and the Lakota have learned that they cannot trust the people who have settled on their lands to live peacefully. In a moment of weakness, Red Dove’s mother agrees to send her children to a local Catholic school, hoping that the children will at least find regular meals […]

The greatest stakes are often the lowest

The Gifted School by Bruce Holsinger

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10 second pitch: What if Liane Moriarty wrote the Varsity Blues scandal, but for middle school? I swallowed this book whole, staying up until an inadvisable time in the evening (on a school night!) to read it in one gulp. It was so good, right up until it wasn’t. Rose, Samantha, Azra, and Lauren have been friends since they met in an infant swim class when their babies were babies. They’re by turns supportive and competitive, little power struggles creating fault lines in their friendships. […]



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