Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Revisiting old faves/comfort food

The Spirit Ring by Lois McMaster Bujold

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I like to re-read and review at least one Lois book per year, even though it’s always hard for me to think of much to say besides “I love this!” It’s been a while since I revisited Fiametta, so I chose one of Lois’s rare (only?) standalone books, the fantasy Spirit Ring. Also rarely, this book takes place in the real(ish) world, in Renaissance-y Italy. Except that there’s magic. Fiametta Beneforte is a bright, headstrong daughter of a wealthy sorcerer and metalworker. Her father creates […]

Don’t be fooled by the title: there are no dragons in this book

Dragonmeade by Rona Randall

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I don’t think I was in the right mood for this, but I’m trying to get through some of my used-bookstore purchases before I allow myself to buy more. I think now might not be a great time for gothic romances – mostly I wanted to set fire to all the male characters. Even a spunky female heroine is still basically her husband’s property in a gothic/regency/whatever, and just UGH. Our spunky heroine Eustacia grows up with a single mom who runs a gambling parlor […]

Going to Amazon to get your CBR link and finding out there’s a sequel: what a gloooorious feeeeeeeling, I’m haaaappy again!

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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I don’t want to tell you guys anything about this book, because every time I thought I had figured out where it was going, it surprised me. It was SO GOOD. But I was ferociously hooked within the first two chapters, so I’m only going to recap the very beginning. It feels very spoilery, because a LOT happens, but seriously – there’s so much more! It’s a bazillion years in the future, and the Earth is dying. Humans have borked things up beyond repair, and […]

This nitwit has a FLEET of guardian angels looking after her

Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman

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Did anybody watch Mad Dogs on Amazon Prime? Something terrible happens, and the whole cast of characters spends the rest of the show making the absolute wrongest decisions whenever they’re presented with a choice, and you spend the whole time yelling at the TV? This book felt like that. Every time Erin said “Hey, let’s do this,” I wanted to yell “NO DON’T!” It was aggravating, but in a fun ‘I couldn’t put it down because how on earth is this going to end’ way. […]

How do you decide which jerk to root for?

Slow Horses by Mick Herron

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This book is odd for two main reasons: there’s not one main character but a group; and none of them are really likeable. I know I’ve said this before, but I need at least one likeable character to root for! So this was an interesting read, but I don’t think I’ll seek out others in the series. The Slow Horses are MI5 agents who have been disgraced by mistakes and shuffled off to Slough House – a place for spies who have embarrassed themselves, but […]

Selling point: R.L. Stine has a quote on the book jacket!

The Possession by Michael Rutger

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This was a weird mix of disappointing and enjoyable. I really liked the first book, and I couldn’t wait to see what these characters did next. The characters were still great, but the plot and mystery in this one were just not quite there. Nolan, his producer Ken, cameraman Pierre, and general ‘keep everybody on track’ person Molly are the creators of the Anomaly Files, a YouTube show where they explore mysteries and odd phenomena. The first book was a tense adventure story in the […]



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