Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

This sounds like something I would say, and I’m slightly concerned that the person I relate to most at this table is the one who added protein powder to his wine

Every Step She Takes by Alison Cochrun

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Happy Sapphic September! I have somehow not read any of Alison Cochrun’s previous books, and I enjoyed Every Step She Takes so much, I’m going to need to read her backlist. Every Step She Takes is a journey of discovery story. Sadie impulsively announces she’ll take her sister’s place on a Camino de Santiago tour in Portugal. She has no idea what she’s getting herself into. She doesn’t know that the tour group is queer focused, she doesn’t know that the Camino is historically a […]

The Queer Family Stone

Kiss Her Once For Me by Alison Cochrun

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This is a bit of a delayed Christmas romcom review, both due to the large hold list for it through the Twin Cities-area Libby library and because I utterly fell down on actually reviewing books for CBR 14. Ellie Oliver is a failed animation artist turned webcomic writer and barista. She’s stuck in life and hung up on a one-day snowstorm fling she had over Christmas the year before so when Andrew Kim-Prescott, the landlord of the coffee shop she works at, asks him to […]

RomCom Hijinks

Kiss Her Once For Me by Alison Cochrun

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Kiss Her Once for Me is a warm story of love, family, and the magic of the Christmas season. Recent Portland transplant Ellie Oliver finds herself adrift after a romantic snafu and the loss of her dream job in animation. Desperate for money, she rents a sad basement studio and takes a job at a local coffee shop, where she meets Andrew, the shop’s landlord. In a drunken proposal, Andrew offers Ellie a marriage of convenience that will give him his recent inheritance and alleviate […]

“I guess maybe that’s how it works in families that love each other unconditionally. You can fight without fear of losing them, and be honest without consequences or repercussions.”

Kiss Her Once For Me by Alison Cochrun

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I’m two for two with Alison Cochrun! Although, for me, the slight edge goes to The Charm Offensive, I still really enjoyed my time with this second book of hers. Last Christmas, Ellie met Jack in Powell’s when they both went for a copy of Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, and over a cute argument over “shared custody”, and Jack poking gentle fun at Ellie (who had been crying alone and talking to a footstool as if it were her friend) they start to bond. Jack […]

“I don’t think happily ever after is something that happens to you, Dev. I think it’s something you choose to do for yourself.”

The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun

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I read The Charm Offensive back in July and I’m sad I didn’t sit down to write a review right away because I really loved this one, and it deserves a more nuanced discussion than I’m about to give it. This book was vaguely on my radar when I put together my 2022 Read Harder Challenge TBR, and a quick search for romances with asexual protagonists secured its place on that list (one of the main characters is demisexual). The basic plot is that tech-genius […]

A series of 4* romances that I’ve read!

Don't Hate the Player by Alexis Nedd

Ten Things I Hate About the Duke by Loretta Chase

The Soulmate Equation by Christina Larsen

Portrait of a Scotsman by Evie Dunmore

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

One Good Earl Deserves a Lover by Sarah MacLean

A Rogue by Any Other Name by Sarah MacLean

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun

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Don’t Hate the Player I did not expect to like this as much as I did! It’s a lovely, charming story with engaging lead characters and just the right level of stakes given their relative ages. The story is your classic “I have two lives” hyper focused female lead, except in this case she is both a straight A field hockey type with a tiger mom and a pretty good eSports player on a team that’s one step away from just being called Evil Guys. […]



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