Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Literarily speaking,” he said, and proceeded to lecture. Christie, he contended, was overrated. More of a popular author.

Last Word to the Wise by Ann Claire

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Ellie and Meg Christie, sisters and co-owners of the Book Chalet, have been winkled into testing out their cousin’s new matchmaking service. Ellie’s date is odious, but Meg hits it off with hers – until it seems like he’s stood her up for brunch the next day. Except it turns out that Joe Darcy is actually dead, and Meg is at the top of the suspect list. This is the second book in the Christie Bookshop Mystery series, a new cozy mystery series. I read […]

“It is a nice thought, is it not?” Beatrice asked. “That we can go forward as romantic lunatics forevermore?”

Romance Me, Viscount by Kate Archer

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Fanciful Beatrice Bennington insists she will accept only a lovesick man as her husband, but her neighbor Matthew, a viscount, is convinced that all she will end up with is a bruised heart – unless he can prevent it. Kate Archer has kicked off a new series of Regency romcoms about the Benningtons, a close knit family with an hopelessly romantic bend, due to the parenting of an eccentric aunt. I’ve always enjoyed Kate Archer’s romances, which generally lean very heavily into comedy, so I […]

‘To their dismay, he replied that he may as well do a course on Roman dogs.’

A Rome of One's Own by Emma Southon

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Conventional Ancient Roman histories may be dominated by men, but that tells an incomplete story. Emma Southon tells the stories of twenty-one women who made their mark on the empire. While I enjoy reading about history, ancient history is usually not my jam – with one major exception. I will read anything Emma Southon writes, and wish fervently every time I finish one of her books that I hadn’t already read all of her older ones. It’s the conversational tone, the clear pleasure with which […]

Tittle Tattle in Georgian London

The Real Bridgerton by Catherine Curzon

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This book guides us through a century of aristocratic scandals, covering both stories that are well-known today and others that have faded from public memory, discussing adultery, murder, and even incest. I read an awful lot of historical romance, and many Regency romances use the plot device of social ruin being carried around town by scandal sheets. Having read this book though, I am rather astonished that these fictional scandals managed to shock anyone at all, considering what the aristocracy was really getting up too! […]

The 1813 Wallflower Club

How to Woo a Wallflower by Virginia Heath

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Finally making her debut after a long recovery from a horse-riding accident, Hattie is relegated to the wallflower chairs – but at least her brother’s rakish best friend, Jasper, is there to keep her company. This might have been the oldest remnant on my NetGalley shelf that I’ve yet swept off – while I like this genre and this author, I never seemed to get into the mood for it. I had the idea that this would be a straightforward Regency romance, and the book […]

Harper, have you considered… therapy?

Harper and the Single Dad by Amy Andrews

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After an abrupt breakup with Yarran, Harper fled to London and immersed herself in her career as a surgeon. When she returns to Sydney twelve years later, it almost feels like things between her and Yarran haven’t changed at all – except that Yarran has been married, widowed, and had a young son in that time. I pick up Harlequin romances to read when I am in the mood for a simple, comforting romance, and this book did not fail me in that regard. A […]



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