Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Fall into the sea with Mina

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh

by 2 Comments

I discovered The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea last year, when I was searching for a read that would evoke similar feelings to a Studio Ghibli movie – and this book did not disappoint! Axie Oh’s retelling of the Korean folk tale “The Tale of Shim Ch’ŏng” delivered on its description as a feminist retelling. The heroine was strong, determined, and spoke for herself, without being overshadowed by the powerful male characters who accompanied her journey through the Spirit Realm. Mina is a young […]

Miss for me, hit for you?

Where Black Stars Rise by Nadia Shammas

by Leave a Comment

CBR16SweetChallenge #Exciting (excited to read, excited to share with others becuase this needs to be read/known about) The concept of mental health and representation of a not usually talked about community had great potential. However, the execution of Where Black Stars Rise did not work for me. Things were too abstract and messy for my eyes to focus and my “reader eye” lost the flow of things. I was not always sure where I was, who was who and what was what. For the right […]

Finally Reading This…

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

by 2 Comments

I am a huge fan of epic fantasy, especially long, sprawling, multi-book series, and have been since childhood, so it’s a little surprising that it’s taken me so long to read anything by Brandon Sanderson (he’s been on my TBR for over 10 years). Honestly, I think the thing that finally pushed me to read one was that a trade paperback edition was released last year (I’d previously only seen it in mass market, which I hate reading, especially for longer books — I feel […]

Scheming to the Finish Line

Crush the King by Jennifer Estep

by Leave a Comment

Evie’s been queen of Bellona for a year. While she’s survived plenty of sinister plots and assassination attempts, she knows that her position will never be secure until she can defeat the threat of Morta once and for all – and the Regalia Games seem to be the perfect time for that. This is the final book in the Crown of Shards trilogy. While I loved the first book, I found the second rather disappointing, so I was hoping that the author would be able […]

Dragons, magic, and a love triangle

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

by Leave a Comment

I was seeing Fourth Wing (2023) by Rebecca Yarros all over the place, including NPR’s Best Books List. Fantasy is not a go-to genre for me, but I was starting to get some FOMO and decided I needed to see for myself. Fourth Wing is the first book in a planned series of five. Right now, only the first two books have been published. I wasn’t sure if I would like it when I started, and there were a couple scenes in the beginning that had be rolling my eyes. […]

Cursed and not princesses learning to slay for themselves

The Cursed Princess Club volume 2 by Lamb Cat

by Leave a Comment

Cursed Princess Club 2 is a good continuation of the series. I was wanting something cozy and wholesome and this mostly is just that. The MLP:FiM emphasis on learning both self-acceptance and how to develop social relationships with ones peers is definitely still a major force, but the fairy tale as well as general gender commentary is also a nice addition. The bit with the Princels seems a little forced in terms of story but it still mostly works as a quick observation on mindset […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo