Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Scaling Back from Triple to Double-Secret Probation

Grin and Beard It by Penny Reid

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One of my romance compatriots and I have agreed that with this second entry into her Winston Brother contemporary romance series, Penny Reid has been moved back from triple secret probation to double secret probation, maybe even single overt probation.  Baby steps. A family of seven children, the Winstons live in rural Tennessee. The lone sister, Ashley has found a partner in the novel I like best for the siblings so far, Beauty and the Mustache, and her brother Duane has had his time at bat […]

Jumping on the bandwagon here.

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Can I just write that I agree with everyone else, and that this is the new Act Like It? Or do I need to say more? How about, if you like (or think you might like) Contemporary Romance, that picking this one up is a no-brainer? This book is witty, filled with delicious and snarky conversation, admirably romantic, and just the right amount of steamy. I mean, jeez. This book makes a night spent sitting on a couch and holding hands while watching ER and eating […]

Can I Just Stare at the Cover for Three Hours?

Bittersweet by Sarina Bowen

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If I may take a moment, I should like to express my profound approbation for the return of facial hair to mainstream men’s fashion. All hail the lumbersexual! The first book in Sarina Bowen’s new True North series, Bittersweet hits a lot of great notes, but doesn’t quite live up to her best work in her justly loved Ivy Years Series. The hero and heroine of this contemporary romance are two people trying to sort out their lives. One is tied down, the other at the end […]

Superman in the Streets, Clark Kent in the Sheets

Waiting for Clark by Annabeth Albert

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Are you sitting down? Please do so. Are you braced? It might be an overabundance of caution, but get ready. Annabeth Albert’s contemporary romance novella Waiting for Clark features two gay men… That’s not the part you have to prepare yourself for. This is: Annabeth Albert’s novella Waiting for Clark features two gay men who are gay for the entirety of the book. Not questioning, not confused, not “gay for you” in that way of LGBTQ+ romances written, I suspect, for women. The heroes are both […]

A Contemporary Sebastian. That’s Bold.

Magnificent Bastard by Lili Valente

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Hands down, “Magnificent Bastard” is the best title I have ever heard for a romance novel, contemporary or otherwise. I’m going to start a list just so I can put this book at #1 and Manaconda at #2. These are for you, Lili Valente. Well done! Joining the ranks of kissing book Sebastians, no pressure, it’s just the by-word for “ultimate hero“, is “Bash” Prince who runs an upscale romantic revenge business. For a fee, he will bring all of his hotness to bear on […]

“He did not smile back, and somehow I feel like he’s been carrying my smile around in his breast pocket ever since.”

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Earlier in the year the Cannonball Read Romance readers loved Act Like It by Lucy Parker. Parker is new on the Romance scene, and delivered a high wire act of a Contemporary. I rated it at 4.5 stars, and I might end up rounding it up to a 5 eventually, since I probably like it just as much as When a Scot Ties the Knot. When Malin, baxlala, and Beth Ellen sang the praises of The Hating Game by Sally Thorne and compared it favorably […]



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