Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Nart

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Nart is an avid romance reader who dabbles in other stuff when she has the spoons. When she’s not reading she’s a bureaucrat both professionally and as an activist because she’s a masochist. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Nart's Quick Questions interview.)

Nart's Reviews:

“That’s a terrible argument. The side of proper English morality also has pastries and tea. They practically invented it.”

Her Every Wish by Courtney Milan

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The hero’s name is Crash and somehow this is heartwarming. That’s Milan for ya. Plot: Daisy’s got a dream that shit will suck less at some point. It hasn’t happened yet but there’s always tomorrow, right? And right now, she’s on the precipice of a new goal – her own business. All she has to do is win a contest no woman has ever entered and convince an audience of people who believe women belong in the home to believe her more competent than a bunch of […]

“Of course you’re sorry. The first words out of the mouths of men who are caught doing something they’re only too happy to continue until they’re caught.”

What I Did for A Duke by Julie Anne Long

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I am going through Long’s back catalogue and finding random books I somehow forget to read. I’d thought I caught the entire Pennyroyal Green series but I was mistaken. And what a mistake! Plot: Alex, our Dukal hero, is ready to marry again, some years after his wife’s death. He courted a beautiful young lady who accepted his hand, and then promptly Ian Eversea into her bed. Alex does not do well with betrayal. So he decides, like the mature man of “nearly forty“, he […]

“We don’t have to fall into the same category to be of equal value.”

A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers

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A first time foray into the cosypunk science fiction worlds of Becky Chambers. Based on the reviews, I’d say this is a relatively representative sampling of her work and VERY short, so it is not only a low stakes book, but even the length of this short story is a fairly gentle commitment. If you like science fiction, this seems like a safe investment of your time. Plot: Sibling Dex is frustrated. They felt stifled in the monastery and so took off for a new […]

“And he had at least eight rules for lying. More, if you counted the negative ones.”

The Marquis Who Musn't by Courtney Milan

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Milan is a queen among mere mortals. It is no surprise that this is another excellent addition to her catalogue. Plot: Kai is a fraudster, just like his dad, but he’s added a few rules about how to best defraud people to the ones he was taught. And he’s about to engage in the most ambitious fraud of his life. Unfortunately, it requires going back to the village he grew up in, where every single person has been hurt by his father’s cons. Fortunately, one […]

“One ought to be able to grasp like a hag when bread is involved.”

Once Upon a Marquess by Courtney Milan

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I strayed too far out of Romancelandia and lost all my will to read, but where there is a Milan book, there is salvation. Plot: Lady Judith was on the cusp of joining the marriage mart when her father and brother were accused, by her intended, of treason against the Crown. Both were found guilty, with her father dying in jail while her brother was transported and lost at sea. So it should have probably come as no surprise that she was not interested in […]

Return of King: Or how Merry got his groove back

Return of the King by JRR Tolkien

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At last, we have reached the end of the trilogy. I won’t keep you on tenterhooks. My lukewarmest take is still that these books need brutal editing. These books are boring much more often than they are interesting. Still, you’re not here for warm takes. You’re here for hot takes, and I am here to deliver. I first owe Peter Jackson an apology, since Eowyn’s feminist cry was just in the last book rather than in Two Towers. But not a big apology. Tolkien seems […]



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