Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Christmas in Toronto

A Little Holiday Fling by Farah Heron

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Farah Heron’s A Little Holiday Fling is a lovely secularly Christmas romance. As a secular Christmas celebrator, I appreciated both Ruby’s position of finding joy and fun in the season and Rashid’s frustration with the consumerism and the hegemony of it all. Ruby and Rashid are both Muslim and they’ve grown up in Canada and the UK respectively, so they have a complex relationship with the dominant religious holiday. A Little Holiday Fling deals lightly and gently with some heavy topics, giving depth to the characters […]

A Contemporary Canadian Gothic(ish)

The Glowing Life of Leeann Wu by Mindy Hung

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Initially, I read The Glowing Life of Leeann Wu back in May (?), but as is wont to happen in 2025, my brain erased all memory of everything I had read. So I started again a few months later and it was like revisiting a friend I hadn’t seen in forever. At first I was a bit anxious because I had positive feelings, but no memory. Then I got to a line that almost made me shoot coffee out my nose because it is a […]

“If monarchs are that much against being overthrown, they shouldn’t do things that would make it seem like a good idea.”

When Sorrows Come (Toby Daye #15) by Seanan McGuire

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  Well, it’s finally time for those wedding bells to chime! Off to Canada for the wedding (it’s the best place to get married without causing too much of a diplomatic incident), Toby and Tybalt discover that as per usual, their lives are never easy. Because before they get to the altar, they have to stop someone from assassinating Quentin’s parents and seizing the High Kingdom. Can’t Toby go one day without having to stab someone or bleed on whatever clothing she’s wearing? I loved […]

“The past is the future”

Obasan by Joy Kogawa

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Cbr17bingo citizen Over the years, I have read a number of books that have dealt with the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. George Takei’s They Called Us Enemy and Julie Otsuka’s The Buddha in the Attic and When the Emperor Was Divine were all written from personal, family experiences of that shameful chapter in US history that was left out of history books when I was in school (and is probably being removed from them now). I had never heard of Joy […]

Probably best to skip the mystery dumplings at the night market

Time Loops & Meet Cutes by Jackie Lau

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4.5 stars Thank you to Netgalley, Jackie Lau and Atria Books for this ARC. My opinions are my own. Noelle Tom feels like she’s in a rut. She’s underappreciated at work, she doesn’t have much of a social life to speak of, and she’s pretty much given up on love and dating. Having worked late yet another Friday evening, Noelle goes to the night market and buys some dumplings from a mysterious old woman who claims they will “give her what she needed most”. Unfortunately, […]

My second marriage pact romance in less than a month

Two Friends in Marriage by Jackie Lau

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Disclaimer! This was an ARC sent to me by the author. My opinions are my own. During the Covid pandemic, it becomes very obvious to both Evan Mok and his friend Jane Yin how lonely they both are and how much they wish they had someone to share their lives with. They agree that if they are both still single after Jane’s thirty-third birthday, they will get married and buy a house together. By the time Jane’s birthday has passed, neither of them is in a […]



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