Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I’m not certain you’d know the right sort of man for you if he arrived on your doorstep riding an elephant.

It's In His Kiss by Julia Quinn

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This book is trickier to conjure an analogous baked good for, but, of course, I’m gonna try. I do think this is more pie than cake, so…if book 7 in the Bridgerton series were a pie, it would be a Little Women filling with a Nancy Drew crust. Odd, yes, but so is our heroine here. The youngest Bridgerton child and last remaining single daughter, Hyacinth, poses a bit of a challenge to marry off for the exhausted Lady Violet. (Poor thing is sooooo close! Six down, two to go, Vi!) […]

Churchill, the Blitz, and British Grit

The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson

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I’ve read most of Erik Larson’s books, and you really can’t go wrong if you want an interesting (some say cinematic) take on history. That said, I had more trouble becoming engaged with The Splendid and the Vile than I have some of his other works, my interest in London during the Blitz notwithstanding (and really, will Larson ever be able to top Devil in the White City?). Slow to get going, the book picks up in the second half, and it’s definitely worth sticking out to […]

“Who carved a mountain into a cathedral?”

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin

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  If you are missing the political machinations and betrayals of Game of Thrones and aren’t sure if GRRM is going to finish the last book before he shuffles off his mortal coil, you should definitely check out The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. It has all of that AND it’s a finished series so no waiting for the next installment. This book is the first of a trilogy, plus a novella and a book of short stories. The story follows Yiene, whose mother was the heir […]

“…I hunt monsters. And I got a sword that sings.”

Ring Shout or Hunting Ku Kluxes in the End Times by P. Djeli Clark

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P. Djeli Clark continues to amaze me with his writing. In this short novel, he leaves behind the “steampunk” and adds plenty of horror to a story set in 1922 Macon, Georgia. As with his previously reviewed works, Clark creates a world where magic is real and plenty of strong women of color stand ready to wield it. Ring Shout or Hunting Ku Kluxes in the End Times focuses, unsurprisingly, on American racism and white supremacy. I think we all accept that Klansmen are monsters, […]

The princess epidemiologist fairy tale that is rather topical right now

A Princess in Theory: Reluctant Royals by Alyssa Cole

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In November, my favorite independent bookstore was celebrating Small Business Saturday with promotional items depending on how much you spend.  I was a short hop away from the goal I wanted and decided to get A Princess in Theory because I had enjoyed A Prince on Paper, which I acquired during the Cannonball book sale last year, and was curious to read more by Cole.  What I didn’t realize when I read A Prince on Paper was that it was the third book in Cole’s “Reluctant Royals” series.  […]

Yeah, I’m too old for this…stuff

Only When It's Us by Chloe Liese

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Only When It’s Us is Chloe Liese’s first romance novel in her “Bergman Brothers” saga. It follows UCLA star soccer player Willa Sutter and her frenemy relationship with Ryder Bergman. Their relationship gets off to a rocky start when Willa asks Ryder for his notes in class and he seemingly ignores her. She reacts in a hideously disproportionate way which becomes all the more irksome when it turns out Ryder is literally deaf and did not physically hear her request. The bulk of the novel […]



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