Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A Complex Stepsister Grapples With Her Path Forward

A Spark in the Cinders by Jenny Elder Moke

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When Ellarose, Aralyn’s stepsister, asks her for help saving the kingdom, her first thoughts are of revenge.  After all, ever since Ellarose married the prince and stole the future that Aralyn and her mother had planned for Aralyn, her life has been nothing but a misery.  However, once she starts looking into the matter, she discovers a number of things that challenge everything her mother has taught her.  Working together with a lady knight, Aralyn sets off to find a fey weapon that might be […]

“Just because you don’t experience prejudice in your everyday doesn’t stop it existing for the rest of us.”

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T J Klune

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Bingo: Queer Lives;  Passport: Sweet weird It’s no spoiler to say that it was obvious how this book was going to end right from the start, or at least from the moment in protagonist Linus Barker’s train journey when “the gray darkness gave way to a bright and wonderful blue like Linus had never seen before”. Linus is a caseworker in the drab and regimented Department in Charge of Magical Youth, an inspector of orphanages for children gifted, or afflicted, with traits of myth and […]

To be homeless is to be ignored when people walk past while still being in full view of everyone.

Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri

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“To speak is to stumble, to hesitate, to detour and hit dead ends. To listen is straightforward. You can always just listen.” ― Yū Miri, Tokyo Ueno Station CBR15Bingo: Asia & Oceania CBR15Passport: The story takes place in Japan. Based on the gold medals on the book cover, the charming cover art, and the synopsis of the book, I was expecting a quirky, sometimes weepy, ghost story set in one of my favorite places in the world. To put it simply, this book is bleak. […]

Assassins, Princes, & Magical Cats Oh My

Prince and Assassin by Tavia Lark

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Whisper is a Hound, an elite assassin controlled by blood magic.  It’s the only life he’s known.  And his latest mission comes with a reward he’s been waiting for.  It’s an unusual mission though.  Whisper is to infiltrate the court of Prince Julian Sandry, keep him alive until the signal comes, then kill the prince when the signal comes.  Getting into the playboy prince’s good graces isn’t the hard part.  But Whisper quickly finds that beneath the playboy façade, Julian is smart, warm, and caring, […]

Regency Widow and Merry Band of Misfits Solve Crime

The Body in the Garden by Katherine Schellman

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Lily Adler has returned to London for the first time since her husband’s death.  While not completely out of mourning, she has at last rejoined Society.  She knows what most people expect of her, to find a new husband and remarry, but she’s not ready to do that yet.  At her first event out, a ball thrown by a close friend, Lily overhears an attempt at blackmail.  Moments later a you man is murdered.  Not an auspicious start.  This is followed by Lily’s friend’s husband […]

More Mystery Than Romance

The Silver Stag by Yasmine Galenorn

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Ember is the child of both Light and Dark Fae, which means she belongs to neither of their worlds.  She makes her living dealing with minor supernatural issues for folks in the greater Seattle Area.  However, when her best friend’s little brother goes missing, Ember is pulled into a world she doesn’t know how to navigate and a lot of danger.  Help appears in the form of Hearne who recruits both Ember and her friend into his agency.  Ember may actually have a found a […]



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