Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Jen K

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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:

Soft red petals using white sharp teeth

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by VE Schwab

by 3 Comments

V.E. Schwab is one of those authors whose books are always intriguing but sometimes I don’t quite get that emotional connection from them and feel slightly at a distance. This novel was one of the ones where I think I was more intellectually engaged than emotionally, especially in the later half. I’m sure I read the summary/synopsis when I ordered the book but all I really remembered/knew by the time I started this one was sapphic and vampires. The novel alternates view points and time […]

Slayers, sure, but we’re all cookie dough in progress

Slayers, Every One of Us by Kristin Russo, Jenny Owen Youngs

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I have listened to quite a few Joanna Robinson podcasts so I “knew” Kristin Russo from when she has appeared as a guest on them, and also had heard Joanna talk abut Jenny Owen Youngs, the podcast Buffering the Vampire Slayer and the songs Jenny made for the each episode (I’m in this weird category of people that enjoys Broadway musical theater but don’t actually enjoy live music I don’t know or find a new original song gimmick enticing so it was not a selling […]

Was I supposed to dislike the main character by the end?

The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan

by 1 Comment

This novel kind of fell apart for me after the midway point. I was enjoying it during the first part but once all the reveals have occurred, there isn’t quite enough substance there to hold it together. Post reveal, there is just more space to think about it all, making the character choices more frustrating and revealing the weakness of some of the premises. The novel is set up as a memoir – Cate Kay is the author of the one of the most famous […]

Politically topical and relevant but did it stray from what the first novel set up?

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett

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I feel like I am the odd one out because I didn’t like this one as much as the previous one. Not sure if I had certain expectations for this novel and the fact that Bennett took a different approach colored my reaction or if it was something else entirely. It’s also why it’s taken me 2 months to even want to try to tackle this review. I wonder how much this is the novel he had originally intended to write when he started his […]

Prophecy, gods and a shield maiden

A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L Jensen

by 2 Comments

Ugh. I know the author’s other work is a 5 book series so I had assumed that this, too, was setting up a longer series and then discovered halfway through when looking up the sequel that it was the first of a duology. Based on what happens in book 1, I’m very much thinking this story would have been better served as a stand alone novel. Here is the thing – it’s hard to write a story that has a twist that is going to […]

Maybe it would work as a movie but needed more for a book

Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao

by 1 Comment

I saw some of the blurbs and reviews make references to Studio Ghibli and The Night Circus as comparisons for this book but they are superficial comparisons – this novel doesn’t come close to reaching the emotional depths of The Night Circus, even as it takes the reader on a tour through a magical world. I have never actually seen a Studio Ghibli movie (I know, huge gap) but I have seen trailers, and I know vaguely from paying attention to pop culture how deeply […]



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