Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Merryn

CBR12 participant
CBR13 participant
CBR14 Participant
CBR14 Bingo Badges
CBR15 Participant

Read more. Write more.

Merryn's Reviews:

Brutal beauty

Past the Shallows by Favel Parrett

by Leave a Comment

“Out past the shallows, past the sandy-bottomed bays, comes the dark water – black and cold and roaring.  Rolling out the invisible paths.” This was the second book I saved to read on the trip back home to my home state.  Like The Survivors, Past the Shallows is also set on the Tasmanian coast, and also about the echoes of a tragedy.  But we’re not in a pleasant tourist-oriented town among flawed but loving family and friends.   We’re with Harry and Miles, out past the […]

Clash of destinies

Shaman's Crossing by Robin Hobb

Forest Mage by Robin Hobb

Renegade's Magic by Robin Hobb

by Leave a Comment

** Light spoilers for general plot direction of later books in the series ** Robin Hobb writes pain so well.  I remember reading Shaman’s Crossing and Forest Mage when they first came out and choosing not to buy Renegade’s Magic because I couldn’t face Nevarre’s life getting any worse.  This time around I stayed the course. Nevarre is the second son of a retired soldier who has been elevated to the nobility with a grant of land far from the capital.  This determines Nevarre’s future […]

Too many ingredients

The Spotted Dog by Kerry Greenwood

by Leave a Comment

The Spotted Dog is the seventh instalment of Kerry Greenwood’s Corinna Chapman series.  The professional baker/amateur sleuth, her private detective boyfriend, and growing collection of quirky friends and neighbours unravel a knot of mysteries.  A kidnapped dog.  A series of burglaries.  Ransomware.  A mysterious mute woman.  Is it all connected? Between the morning baking, napping with her cat Horatio, and lustful encounters with the tall, dark and handsome Daniel, Corinna checks in on the other inhabitants of her Roman style apartment building and her fellow […]

Submerged secrets

The Survivors by Jane Harper

by Leave a Comment

  The sea at Evelyn Bay washes over the Survivors, the rising and falling tide measured against the bronze bodies commemorating those who survived the long ago wreck of the Mary Minerva.  They were designed to be permanently visible from the cliff and sea, and tall enough to never be fully submerged.  But Kieran is haunted by the day twelve years ago when the Survivors were gone, the day two men drowned and a young girl disappeared.  He’s not the only one. Kieran has returned to […]

Tell me it gets better

Storm Front by Jim Butcher

by 7 Comments

Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series has been on my radar for years, so when the first book in the series popped up as a Kindle Daily Deal I pounced. A pandemic seemed like a great time for an overdue dive into a highly rated series that ticks so many of my boxes – fantasy, crime, humour, and many more to look forward to. I’m sorry to say I was not impressed. What ticked me off the most was the gender politics.  Maybe it was so […]

An island off an island

Bruny by Heather Rose

by Leave a Comment

  “Because to live on an island isn’t just a location. It’s a sense of belonging. It’s history and sacrifice.  It’s a choice to be remote.  It’s a kind of metaphor.” I grew up in Tasmania, Australia’s island state, a place that has become a literary symbol of beauty with something dark hidden in the mist.  Mainlanders, a group I now belong to, tend to look down on Tasmania as a dull backward place where nothing much happens except incest, while flying down for short […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo