Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Pooja

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Ardent reader of pretty much anything, including the backs of shampoo bottles. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Pooja's Quick Questions interview.)

Pooja's Reviews:

Out in the Wilds

The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian

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Katie Barstow is hosting a safari vacation for her closest friends and family on the Serengeti when things go terribly wrong. Kidnapped by violent criminals and broken up into groups, they must struggle to survive the night. The premise of this book is so exciting – old Hollywood glamor meeting the bleakness of Ernest Hemingway. I’ve not read this author before (though I have his Hour of the Witch) on my TBR, but seeing all the great reviews of this one got me pretty excited. […]

Debutante Runs for the Hills – Or Rather, Kent

The Sprinter by Kate Archer

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A group of highborn matrons, daughterless, start a society to sponsor young ladies through their seasons. Now it is the turn of Lady Heathway, whose chosen girl, Grace, is perfectly well-mannered and well-qualified – now if only she wouldn’t persist in running home! Archer has delivered again with an amusing Regency romance. This is the second book in the series and can be read as a standalone, though I enjoyed the humorous references to the first book. The main characters, Grace and George, are engaging, […]

Harimad-sol, Laprun Minta

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley

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Harry Crewe is a young girl with a peculiar sense of placelessness. After she is orphaned, she comes out to the colony of Daria to be with her brother. Here, she finds her destiny – or perhaps her destiny finds her – when she is abducted by Corlath, king of the Hillfolk of Damar. This is probably the most accessible of McKinley’s work, but her lush prose shines throughout, and there is a real sense of old-fashioned adventure as Harry is swept away into a […]

Aerin-sol, Dragon-Killer

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

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In Damar once there was a princess called Aerin who was pitifully out of place, for she was the daughter of a woman who had long been branded a witch. With a vague sense that her destiny lay elsewhere compared to where a princess’s destiny generally lies, she set out to become the best dragon slayer the realm had seen, no matter that killing dragons was a thankless and ignoble task. But it turns out her destiny was far greater than that. I remember I […]

Charm, Shame, Desire, Justice, Pride, and Pain

The Bone Orchard by Sara A Mueller

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Charm is a bone witch, a prisoner, and a whore. Alongside the boneghosts that she grew in her laboratory, she runs a brothel at Orchard House. When her keeper the old emperor lies dying, poisoned, he charges her with safeguarding the empire and finding out which of his sons was his killer. Firstly, that cover is utterly beautiful. Now that this important matter is acknowledged, let us go on into the story. I saw a lot of complaints that it was difficult to understand, for […]

How to Become Tsarina of All the Russias

The Tsarina's Daughter by Ellen Alpsten

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It is nighttime, and Elizabeth Romanov stands in the nursery of her infant cousin the Tsar of All the Russias, contemplating her next move and all the events that brought her here. Though the prequel Tsarina is on my TBR, this is my first taste of Alpsten’s work. Luckily the work stands alone. And it was a fascinating read. I knew very little of the early Romanovs beyond that one of them picked his wife in what was basically a marriage cattle fair, which is probably not […]



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