Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Soft red petals using white sharp teeth

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by VE Schwab

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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 […]

They Grow Up So Fast

Longshadow by Olivia Atwater

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The third novel in Atwater’s regency faerie tale trilogy is a sweet and sapphic delight perfect for Pride.  We had first met young Abigail in the novel Half A Soul– she is the adopted daughter of the Lord Sorcier Elias Wilder and his wife Theodora. The workhouse child has now grown into a mostly proper young lady who just wants to use her unusual magic. She sees the perfect opportunity to investigate the sudden deaths of several of her aristocratic peers. The most likely suspect […]

“No other bosses but mine and my opponents’ can have your soul jerked out of your body and sent to the deepest fiery pits to suffer for eternity. Unless you work for Walmart.”

The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams

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Not a big fan of this book. It was written like a mashup of the Johnny Dollar radio show (which is where I think Tad Williams got the idea to name the main character “Bobby Dollar”) and the Kolchak tv series. Very Sam Spade, hardboiled detective, old film noir, complete with gangsters, dames, booze, shoot-outs, and double crosses; heck, it even has a golden stand-in for the Maltese Falcon. The big change is that instead of detectives, cops, and gangsters, you have angels and demons, […]

“The right way isn’t the only way.”

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

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I am late getting into this series; for some reason I never picked it up before. Then I thought why not see what everyone is talking about; and to be honest I started out not understanding what all the hype was about, especially the first chapter. But by the time I was a quarter of the way through, hot darn, could I see it. Violet and Xaden’s bickering and subsequent whatever-you’d-define-it-as is my trope weakness (hello shades of Jude and Cardan or Toby and Tybalt!)  […]

This is why you shouldn’t touch chain emails with a ten-foot pole.

The Devil's Advisor by Brad Abdul

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This book bills itself as “Horror Fiction” and “for fans of Good Omens“; and I think they were incredibly far off the mark on both counts. Other than it being set mostly in Hell I have no idea how it could be considered “Horror”, and the writing is in no way anywhere close to being even one-tenth as funny or well-written as Good Omens. Brian (the main character) is unlikable, or as unlikable as someone who has all the personality and character development cardboard can […]

Horny Teenager Narration

Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me by Django Wexler

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When the narrator/protagonist sounds like a Gen Alpha who has the personality and humor of a 13-year old who is totally hormone driven but also still thinks farts are funny, and you sympathize with the big bad who calls them deeply irritating, there might be a little issue. Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me has a few good characters, but Davi isn’t really one of them. Yes, she’s got real reasons for having deep issues, but if she’s supposed to be in a […]



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