Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

One of my favorite things about art is how it’s a testament to how much someone was loved, enough that the world needed to see it.

Manila Takes Manhattan by Carla de Guzman

by Leave a Comment

I was reading a review of a different book and was struck by the reviewer’s complaint about the characters. They felt like the characters were shaped for the plot, rather than the plot shaped by the characters. In contrast, Carla de Guzman drives the action of her story by what her characters would do. In Manila Takes Manhattan, she throws Mon and Olivia into a month of close proximity and the love story feels like it grows organically from there. Mon Mendoza has flown from […]

Is this a romance? I’m saying yes.

This Could be Us by Kennedy Ryan

by Leave a Comment

“So tell us what happened between Oh, my gosh, my inmate husband has a secret baby and I smashed the man who put him in prison,” Yasmen says, resting her chin on her folded hands. “This is some Days of Our Lives shit.” Kennedy Ryan’s Before I Let Go was one of the best books I read in 2022. I can still call up the big emotions between a divorced couple who are trying to co-parent and run a business together while also trying to […]

Are you ready to think about tomorrow?” he asked.

The Frame-Up by Gwenda Bond

by 4 Comments

I do love a heist, and Gwenda Bond’s The Frame-Up is a good story wrapped around a heist. I think it’s a standalone, but I would not say no to more of this crew doing their version of a heist with magic in the future. Dani Poissant has been working solo in the decade since she turned her art thief mother in to the FBI. She’s a Robin Hood style grifter – targeting bad people, taking their money, and giving a big chunk of it to […]

“You ready to go be friendly?” He says “friendly” like someone might say “roasted” or “impaled.”

The Friendship Study by Ruby Barrett

by 2 Comments

The Friendship Study was a lovely read that made some choices near the end that I didn’t love. The first thing that I loved about this book is the cover. It’s gorgeous and really conveys the feeling of the book. I don’t usually care much about covers, but this one is an A+. In 2021 I felt like all the books I was reading were about grief. This year the theme has been loneliness. Grief is still a big factor in so many books, but […]

All I did was phone you. Then be in the same restaurant as you. Then watch you from across a crowded coffee place. Then follow you down a street when it’s getting dark and there’s no one else around and oh okay right yeah I’m seeing it now yep it’s dawning on me…

When Grumpy Met Sunshine by Charlotte Stein

by 9 Comments

I don’t even know how to talk about this book. One of the things I loved best about it was the way Charlotte Stein used words to illuminate her characters, but I’m reading an advance reader copy so I’m not supposed to quote from it. I’m going to have to share a quote though because otherwise I’m just going to blather a bunch of dumb words at you. She saw it happen, almost immediately. All in one big rush, like he couldn’t contain it. Her […]

Gorgeous

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams

by 2 Comments

Tia Williams has just made me like a fated lovers romance. Not like. Love. Lovers who are destined for each other is one of my least favorite tropes, but WIlliams makes this work for me. She throws in the right mix of magic and logic, and gives us achingly human characters. Now is the perfect time to read this. A lot of the action takes place in February 2024. Williams grounds her magic in the leap year, almost making me believe in the magic of […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo