Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Excellent Use of a Great Dane in Romance, The Rest Was Good.

Back After This by Linda Holmes

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Linda Holmes is probably known to many of you out there in internet-land for her work on NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour or her first two books, Evvie Drake Starts Over and Flying Solo. This is not where I know her from – I am familiar with Holmes through her guest appearances on the Screen Drafts podcast. When she was last on for their 90s Sports Movies draft her next book Back After This came up and I was intrigued. Intrigued enough that I requested […]

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 […]

“I can be brave. I can be anything for noodles.”

Deep End by Ali Hazelwood

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4.5 stars Buzzword Title Challenge 25: Water words Scarlett Vandermeer is struggling, both with her academic subjects at Stanford and her diving. While physically fully recovered from a bad accident a year ago, Scarlett has a block that prevents her from even attempting the type of dive that had her hospitalised and having to go through several surgeries to fix her broken body. She needs to get her grades up if she wants to get into med school, and she has reluctantly agreed to go […]

“There’s no world where I exist without you and I don’t want there to be one.”

In a Rush by Kate Canterbary

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This was an ARC sent to me by the author. My opinions are my own, and I loved the book so much that I pre-ordered a copy as soon as I’d finished reading it. Emmeline “Emme” Ahlborg catches her boyfriend, the man she was hoping was going to propose to her, in the act, sleeping with another woman (when Emme shows up on his doorstep with home-cooked food). She’s devastated, and what’s worse, he’s a groomsman in the wedding of her best friend (to whom […]

I Bought into Amazon’s Author Exploitation Again

Under the Mistletoe: Cruel Winter with You by Ali Hazelwood

Under the Mistletoe: Merry Ever After by Tessa Bailey

Under the Mistletoe: All by My Elf by Olivia Dade

Under the Mistletoe: Merriment and Mayhem by Alexandria Bellefleur

Under the Mistletoe: Only Santas in the Building by Alexis Daria

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I mean, I assume it’s exploitive. It is Amazon. Having had some success with the Improbable Meet Cute collection for Valentines  Day, and, as someone who absolutely loves a Christmas novella, I paid for one (the Ali Hazelwood) and borrowed the other four of these Under the Mistletoe “get to know a romance author with a  free read” stories. I imagine Amazon is doing the same thing as telling someone to work for free for the exposure. I hope they were compensated in some way. […]

Starting my 2025 reading year on a high note

Into the Woods by Jenny Holiday

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This was an ARC I won from the author in a Facebook contest (!) I know, right? My opinions are my own. Gretchen Miller is a self-proclaimed badass, and she’s not lying. After growing up with financial instability, food insecurities and a lot of general uncertainness due to her father’s unpredictability, she became determined never to have to depend on anyone ever again and started earning and saving her own money as a teenager, squirrelling it away for a future project. That project became a […]



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