Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

CBR15 Bingo: Guide (Double bingo)

A Botanist's Guide to Parties and Poisons by Kate Khavari

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3.5 stars CBR15 Bingo: Guide (it’s right there in the title) Official book description, because I’m still reviewing books I read in JULY): London, 1923. Newly minted research assistant Saffron Everleigh attends a dinner party for the University College of London. While she expects to engage in conversations about the university’s large expedition to the Amazon, she doesn’t expect Mrs. Henry, one of the professors’ wives to drop to the floor, poisoned by an unknown toxin. Dr. Maxwell, Saffron’s mentor, is the main suspect, having […]

An Immersive World

The Monsters We Defy by Leslye Penelope

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I love a good immersive world in fantasy and speculative fiction, where you feel like you could be in the setting. The Monsters We Defy takes place in Washington, DC in 1925, and Clara Johnson, the main character, can communicate with spirits. I listened to the audio book of this, and Shayna Small does an exceptional job with the voices and the setting and making you invested in the story. I am not surprised to see this won the Audie award for best audio book […]

Madeline’s Working-Class Older Brother

Hotel Splendide by Ludwig Bemelmans

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Ludwig Bemelmans recalls his time as a waiter at a fabulous hotel in New York City, complete with lots of humor, tragedy, and a cast of colorful coworkers. I picked up this book because I love behind-the-scenes stories, and because I was interested in learning about the fabulous excess of 1920s New York City from a working-class perspective. It was only after I started reading it that I realized that the Bemelmans also wrote the Madeline series, about the little girls who lived “In an […]

‘“Nonsense, my dear! It is the 1920s, you know.” She squeezed Bella’s hand. “The world is changing. For the better, I hope.”’

Hotel Portofino by J.P. O'Connell

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CBR 14 Bingo: Hot We are on the Italian Riviera in high summer, and the characters lavish in beach days and garden parties. Bella Ainsworth has just opened her hotel in Portofino, but she is already facing trouble – unruly guests, blackmail, and some business about a Rubens… This was my second stab at this book. I received an audiobook ARC originally, but I found it could not keep my attention so I went with an ebook for the library instead and it coasted by […]

“My dear chap, this is a bookshop. There’s never anywhere better to be.”

Slippery Creatures by K.J. Charles

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CBR14 Bingo: Snake (SPOILER: being a thoroughly disreputable sort, Kim also turns out to betray Will at least once during the story) Will Darling has inherited his late uncle’s bookshop and is grateful for the fact. After serving in World War I, most of his skills involve killing swiftly and efficiently, not really a commodity on the post-war job markets back in England. Now he just needs to get some idea of all the books actually in the shop and get on with being a […]

Chocolate, Cross-dressing, Murder, and More!

The Spanish Daughter by Lorena Hughes

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Puri and her husband Cristóbal are on their way to Ecuador, where Puri is to claim a chocolate plantation that has been left to her, when her husband is murdered by the assassin sent for her. Determined to avenge him, Puri assumes Cristóbal’s identity and goes to the plantation, where a trio of secret siblings is but the first of the surprises… I was immediately intrigued by this book, because I’d never read anything with such a plot. Yet despite the intricacy of the premise, […]



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