Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Halloween Nora Roberts is not the best Nora Roberts

The Pagan Stone by Nora Roberts

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Halloween Nora! This one definitely felt more Halloween-y and thriller-focused than romance-focused. It’s the third in a trilogy and I’m here to tell you that you don’t need to have read any of the others to understand what’s going on here (you’ll ‘spoil’ the ending to the other two in that a) all of the characters survive until this third book; and b) you’ll know which of the 6 main characters couple off together- but frankly those aren’t real spoilers in the Nora Roberts world). […]

This House is Not a Home

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

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Mexican Gothic meets Crimson Peak is the way I would describe this novel, although some reviews have compared it to Rebecca, a book I have not read. Set during the years following the Mexican War of Independence, the story follows Beatriz, a young woman who has recently married into the wealthy Solórzano family after a whirlwind courtship from the heir patron of San Isidro, Rodolfo. Although she barely knows him, Beatriz agreed to marry him as a way to raise her status as a mixed […]

Doesn’t live up to its premise, but there are some bright spots

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

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I agree with all the mixed reviews I’ve read so far. This one has some fun stuff, but also some aggravating stuff, and not nearly enough comeuppance. The good: The true crime lovers banding together to start their own offshoot book club after the overly persnickity neighborhood book club is awful. Patricia realizing the way the world works and initially doing what she can to make things right (Mrs. Greene and the missing children from the “wrong side of the tracks”). The ‘rich white privileged […]

How many legs do I have?

Nona the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #3) by Tamsyn Muir

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Three months later: I’ve had some time to adjust. This book is still wild, and while I’ve come to terms with most of it, there’s one thing that’s still bothering me. I’m hoping it will be resolved in the last book. No idea how she’s going to manage it, but she somehow managed to pull Harrow and Nona out of her butt, and they are both weird and mad genius in their own special ways, so I’m sure she’ll manage it, but I will not lie, I am […]

“Comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love.”

Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente

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My initial reaction upon finishing Comfort Me With Apples was “wtf was this.” I’m not sure what I was going to rate it or say about it before my book club meeting, but something one of the other members said during the meeting sort of flipped a little switch in my brain and clarified my feelings and thoughts about it. This was a weird effing book. Especially if you go in thinking you know what the main premise is, but you really don’t as it turns out, […]

Give this little sapphic sasquatch book a shot!

Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen

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This was weird and I kind of loved it. After seeing this cover I absolutely needed to read it, and that just goes to show you that sometimes you CAN judge a book by its cover. But before I get to what I liked about the book, I do want to nitpick a little, mostly with the marketing. This book is being billed as a “horror comedy” and while it’s most definitely horror, I don’t think it’s comedy. Unless you count satire as a subgenre […]



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