Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Is there anyone NOT reading this series? If so, what is the matter with you??

A Better Man by Louise Penny

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Seriously though, there are enough Cannonballers who are on the Inspector Gamache train, that this should just be required reading. Amirite? [Review is semi-spoilery, depending on where you are in the series] Due to his questionable (yet, effective) methods of cracking a drug ring in the last book, Inspector Gamache found himself stripped of his title as head of the Quebec police department. This book sees him accepting a demotion and returning to his previous role as head of homicide. It’s a decision that is […]

“There is always a road back. If we have the courage to look for it, and take it.”

A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny

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After reading The Long Way Home last year and The Nature of the Beast earlier this year I still wasn’t sure what Louise Penny had remaining up her sleeve for the residents of Three Pines and the remaining members of the Sûreté, but I knew not to worry about it anymore. While those books were heading towards a new direction, this book finally takes sure steps into the new reality these characters are facing. The Nature of the Beast accepted the new status quo, this […]

A Pleasent Second Chance at Love Holiday Novella

A Second Chance Road trip for Christmas by Jackie Lau

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Getting on Jackie Lau’s advance reader copy list has been a delight. I received this novella from the author in exchange for an honest review. I enjoy Lau’s books. I like the way she often balances romance tropes, indulgent food descriptions and weightier issues her characters face. In past books she has had characters deal with mental health, abortion, and finding connection with their Chinese roots in a white dominated culture. A Second Chance Road Trip for Christmas is lighter than previous books, mainly dealing […]

Full Circle for Armand Gamache

A Better Man by Louise Penny

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So this is a very good Louise Penny book following the Armand Gamache and another change in his professional and personal life. I gave “Kingdom of the Blind” three stars due to that whole opiod epidemic thing that still gives me hives when it is referred to in this book. I think Penny is a bit repetitive at times, but not as badly as she has been in the past. Though I gave this five stars, I honestly think this is a 4.5 star book (I rounded […]

Stars Hollow meets the detective novel

Still Life by Louise Penny

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Still Life is the first Inspector Gamache novel in Louise Penny’s series, and for me it’s a backtrack- I started with the second novel, Dead Cold (alternate title: A Fatal Grace), back in February.  Still Life introduces us to all the main characters that show up in the later books, including the town of Three Pines and its close-knit community members.  (For such a quaint and friendly town, I get the feeling there are a lot murderers in Three Pines’ midst, if the length of […]

A Romance for Canadian Thanksgiving

A Match Made for Thanksgiving by Jackie Lau

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One of my favorite Canadian romance authors, Jackie Lau, has seen a lot of holiday romances featuring white characters, but very few with biracial or Asian characters. She decided to correct that with a series of four novellas, one for each of the Wong siblings. The Wongs grew up in the small Ontario town of Mosquito Bay. The first novella centers around Canadian Thanksgiving, which is this weekend. This is a sweet, fluffy novella with low conflict, some steamy sex, baking, and a playboy who […]



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