Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Jen K

CBR 2
CBR 3
CBR 5
CBR 6
CBR 7
CBR 8
CBR10 participant
CBR11 participant
CBR12 participant
CBR15 Participant
CBR16 Participant
CBR17 Participant
CBR17 Comments
CBR17 Levels

I’ve been around off and on since the first year of CBR, and it and books have been a constant in my life through multiple moves and a major career change. I live with 3 cats, Dany, Jace and Jorah. Fantasy, specific types of sci-fi, historical fiction (especially mysteries) and romance tend to be my go to genres now a days. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Jen K's Quick Questions interview.)

Jen K's Reviews:

Stories Bring Communities Together

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

by Leave a Comment

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from this novel but entered into it with cautious optimism. I love The Thirteenth Tale but was disappointed with her follow up Bellman and Black.  While it was gorgeously written with lots of interesting historical detail, it lacked the same emotional intimacy as the previous one. While Once Upon a River has a wide cast of characters, they are all easy to get invested in. It’s a slow build, and starts one evening in an old inn on […]

Tea, Politics and Space Ships

Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie

by Leave a Comment

I loved Ancillary Justice, and was curious to see where Leckie would take the series.  While there was some exploration and hinting at larger issues that would be relevant to broader plot, for the most part, this novel felt very much like a smaller story and a large shift in perspective.  After the first one set up a huge struggle that could define the future of the Empire, this felt more like an intimate murder mystery type of story, very focused on this one small […]

Theater During the Red Scare

The Chelsea Girls by Fiona Davis

by Leave a Comment

I think it was either jomidi’s review of this novel specifically or Caitlin D’s more general review of Fiona Davis’s novels but I ended up downloading The Chelsea Girls a while back.  By the time I started reading it, I didn’t quite remember what the overall story line was beyond being set in New York during the mid-20th century and involving female friendships.  I was very pleasantly surprised when I realized this wasn’t simply a story about young women navigating life in a big city […]

Turns Out, We Weren’t a Match

Matchmaking for Beginners by Maddie Dawson

by Leave a Comment

Ugh. Just ugh. So when I started, I realized the novel was a bit new age-y for my tastes but I figured I could deal with a slightly new age character as long it was a fun, light read. The thing, though, is that it’s a really weird read because while Blix, the old woman that sets everything up, is a charming if slightly kooky old lady, I am not sure what she saw in Marnie, the “main” character, who is boring and thoughtless.  Blix […]

Corporate Team Building Plus Hiking? The Wooorst!

A Force of Nature by Jane Harper

by 2 Comments

Let’s be honest – corporate team building combined with hiking and camping? It’s enough to drive anyone to murder.  Add the personality mixes of the group of women on the retreat and the domineering attitude of the missing woman, Alice, and it’s a recipe for disaster.  Falk from Harper’s previous novel is back because Alice has been involved in a financial case he has been working, and it’s hard to tell if her disappearance is related to his case, due to other conflicts in her […]

“For Those About to Rock, We Salute You”

We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix

by 1 Comment

Not entirely sure anymore whether I picked this one up because of coffeeshopreader’s review or badkittyuno’s, but between the premise and the cover, I thought it sounded fun.  And I think it is, but it’s not quite my cup of tea.  I guess it’s a sense of humor thing and sometimes it can be hard to predict what will be incredibly amusing vs. kind of entertaining, even if everything else seems like it should fit. For some reason, something about the vibe reminded me of […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo