achillean – Cannonball Read 17

Soft adorable romance!

Last First Kiss by Julian Winters

August 2, 2025 by LB Leave a Comment

Last First Kiss fulfills the “work” square on CBR17 bingo. I got to read Julian Winters’ adult debut, I Think They Love You, earlier this year and absolutely adored it so when I saw he had another adult romance coming out, I couldn’t wait, especially when I realized it follows Jordan and Jamie, Denz’s cousin and best friend respectively, who were glimpsed as a possibility by the end of I Think They Might Love You. All that to say I needed to read this book […]

Folktales and cycles through history

Songs for Ghosts by Clara Kumagai

July 17, 2025 by LB Leave a Comment

Songs for Ghosts fulfills the “culture” square on CBR17 Bingo. Songs for Ghosts is a beautiful, tragic story of the power of stories and love, as well as the way past choices can create cycles throughout time. I’m unfamiliar with it, but in the afterword the author talks about Songs for Ghosts being a retelling of Madama Butterfly opera by Puccini where Cio-Cio-San has more agency than just the reductive submissive wife trope. Adam is a seventeen year old whose boyfriend just broke up with […]

Mythology in a Modern World

The Wicked + The Divine by Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie

November 26, 2024 by LB Leave a Comment

I first tried to read The Wicked + The Divine in September 2017, and got through the first five volumes, but felt the series was weird and confusing. Earlier this month, I scrolled through my library’s entire adult graphic novel collection, and saw that the series was now completed, so figured this was as good a time as any to give the series another chance. And I’m so glad I did! The core premise of WicDiv and the phrase that gets repeated as a central […]

Frankenstein but plants and gay!

A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock

July 15, 2024 by LB 2 Comments

I saw a reel on Instagram from the author talking about this book, and I was immediately sold. Frankenstein? Queer? Messy, messy characters? Sign me up! And this absolutely delivers on all fronts. The beginning of A Botanical Daughter is a little slow, but it perfectly sets the scene of Grimfern, an estate inside a greenhouse outside the closest village, and the three main characters – Gregor, botanist and lord of Grimfern; Simon, taxidermist and romantic partner to Gregor; and Jenny, local village girl whose […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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