advance reader copy – Page 19 – Cannonball Read 17

But life is long and strange and full of things that will make you happy.

Pas de Don't by Chloe Angyal

April 5, 2023 by Emmalita Leave a Comment

Chloe Angyal’s debut romance, Pas de Don’t, is fantastic. The characters and the plot are grown up and the romance is tender (and steamy). Angyal uses her background in dance to ground her romance between professional dancers in the physical joy of being a dancer, without glamorizing (or fetishizing) all the things beyond art that make ballet a world apart. I haven’t read Angyal’s non-fiction book, Turning Pointe: How a New Generation of Dancers is Saving Ballet From Itself, but Pas de Don’t is the […]

Those brown eyes full of silver moonlight focused and her gaze found his as he took her into a dance for two instead of one.

Wings Once Cursed and Bound by Piper J Drake

April 4, 2023 by Emmalita 4 Comments

I liked this a lot. Wings Once Cursed and Bound is an intriguing start to a paranormal romance series. It is getting marketed as “for fans of Sarah J Maas and Jennifer Armentrout,” which I think is setting up assumptions about the book that won’t hold up. It is a fantasy romance, but it’s set in an alternate universe Seattle, not a fantasy world. Peeraphan, called Punch by her friends, is at a dance rehearsal when she is offered a gorgeous pair of red shoes. She is […]

I wanted to be the monster that kills other monsters.

Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee

April 3, 2023 by Emmalita Leave a Comment

Untethered Sky tells a lot of story in 160 pages while also feeling unrushed. Ester tells us her story with occasional bits of foreshadowing to let us know that we are hearing about something that happened in the past. How distant the past, I couldn’t tell. While I was fully invested in Ester’s story, Lee maintains an emotional distance between the story and the reader. The story opens with the moment Ester meets Zahra. Zahra is a fledgling roc, an enormous bird of prey stolen […]

Yes, this one is a keeper.

100 Morning Treats by Sarah Kieffer

March 31, 2023 by Emmalita 3 Comments

Previously, I have reviewed 100 Cookies by Sarah Kieffer (of The Vanilla Bean Blog), a cookbook I bought even though I am lactose intolerant and it is chock full of recipes that are dairy dependent. Since reviewing that book two years ago, I am still lactose intolerant, but I have become much more comfortable adapting recipes to fit my dairy free needs. Oat milk and Earth Balance are my friends. I have also found that I am almost as happy to bake things I can’t […]

Yet here she was. On vacation. Like an idiot.

Said No One Ever by Stephanie Eding

March 31, 2023 by Emmalita Leave a Comment

Stephanie Eding’s Said No One Ever didn’t quite work for me. There were parts of it that were charming and fun but as a whole it didn’t come together. Ellie arrives at her airbnb in the middle of nowhere Montana as her hostess, Marilyn, is being carted off in an ambulance. Ellie doesn’t know what happened or how she’s supposed to take care of these farm animals. She’s not supposed to be figuring out how to take care of sheep, donkeys and chickens, she is […]

“This is so exciting! I feel like I’m living in a Taylor Swift song!”

The Fiancée Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur

March 31, 2023 by Emmalita Leave a Comment

I’ve been wanting to read Alexandria Bellefleur for a couple of years, so I was delighted to get an arc of The Fiancée Farce. It is an engagement of convenience story with shades of a Cinderella retelling. I really enjoyed it. Tansy’s only remaining family is her step-mother and step-sisters. She manages the bookstore her parents owned, which her step-mother now owns because her father died suddenly when Tansy was still a minor. The bok opens at the wedding reception of one of Tansy’s step-sisters […]

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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