Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

If the standards don’t include my fiancée being happy, what good are the standards?

The Marquis Who Mustn’t by Courtney Milan

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As I read The Marquis Who Mustn’t, I found myself reading scenes aloud to a friend while we were running errands together (nothing like an audience trapped with you in a car). I actually called her later in the day and read more choice bits. She didn’t hang up on me. She even chuckled. So, yes, I loved this. The Marquis Who Mustn’t is delightful and also heavy on the angst. It dives into some issues I’ve been thinking about a lot recently. If you […]

You and me together, Nan…You are an evil genius, and I am your getaway driver.

For Never and Always by Helena Greer

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Many of my favorite authors write characters I want to hang out with. Some of my favorite authors write characters I would run from if I were actually faced with them in real life. Helena Greer writes worlds I want to live in. For Never and Always is a second chance/secret marriage/marriage in trouble romance with inspiration from Rapunzel. Carrigan’s has been Hannah’s refuge and her place of power. The way her anxiety manifests, it has also been her prison. In her relationship with Levi, […]

He was no longer Junior or even Santiago. He was Saint. And Lola was no longer the troublemaker from the office. She was everything he wanted and everything he eventually lost.

A Dish Best Served Hot by Natalie Caña

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I had a difficult relationship with Natalie Caña’s first book, A Proposal They Can’t Refuse. I liked so many things about it, but found the toxicity of Kamilah’s relationship with her family almost unbearable. I approached the second book in the Vega Family series with some trepidation, but A Dish Best Served Hot focused more on the community, and the Vega parents are on a cruise for most of the book. Saint Vega is the eldest of the Vega children, and a single dad to […]

Her magic was as blunt as she was: like a nuke hidden in a birthday cake.

The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey

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I don’t know what prompted Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey to write a book together, but I am so glad they did. I’m also very excited that there will be another book from them. The Dead Take the A Train is the first in the Carrion City duology. I saw an ad for the book a couple of days ago, and John Langan blurbed the book as “compulsively readable.” I can’t think of a better description. It was hard to put down, and even when I […]

A good kiss should hint at the possibility of love. A perfect kiss should make you believe in a lifetime of love.

Kiss and Spell by Celestine Martin

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Kiss and Spell is lovely. Celestine Martin has taken the small town witch romance and married it to the fairytale inspired romance and put her own spin on both. Celestine Martin’s writing is magical. I’ll be reading a scene, and suddenly she’ll turn a phrase so that I can see the longing, the sparkle, and the glitter. Kiss and Spell is a confection with just enough weight to not overwhelm with sweet. Ursula was a bit of an antagonist in Witchful Thinking. She was engaged to […]

Think about that, you blasted apocalypse, and be aware that when it’s my turn, I’m going to make you know my rights.

A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel by K.J. Charles

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I loved A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel. It is a sequel to The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen, set several years later. In Secret Lives, Luke Doomsday is an adolescent, the abused and neglected nephew of Joss, whom Gareth saves. In Nobleman’s Guide, Luke is an adult, educated and working professionally as a secretary. Major Rufus d’Aumesty has unexpectedly (to the rest of the d’Aumesty family) inherited the title of Earl of Oxney. After a year of defending his inheritance from his uncle, Rufus is trying to […]



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