Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A Magical Zoo Adventure

The Phoenix Keeper by S. A. MacLean

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This was a charming cozy romantasy with great diversity and mental health representation. It takes place primarily in a zoo of magical creatures, and it was a pleasure to see MacLean’s creativity as she described these animals. Main character Aila is the phoenix keeper at the zoo and has been trying for years to reboot a breeding program for the endangered Silimalo phoenix. When a neighboring zoo loses their phoenix hatchlings and their mother to poachers, Aila’s zoo is given the opportunity to try a […]

It’s a nope from me, dawg.

Can't Spell Treason Without Tea (Tomes & Tea, #1) by Rebecca Thorne

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I’m so sad rn, but this was so dull. Cozy fantasy should still have emotional stakes. I’m actually writing this review straightly upon finishing because I just want to be done with it (barring my May YouTube wrap-up, but talking is easier than writing). Like many, I have been really, really into this cozy fantasy thing since Legends and Lattes first did its thing, and unfortunately, I think this author learned the wrong lessons from that book, which she tells us in the afterword was a huge […]

A World You Want To Wear Like a Blanket

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

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Becky Chambers’ first Monk & Robot book, A Psalm for the Wild-Built, struck a chord in me in a way that few other books have. Chambers built a world so beautiful, so full of hope, that I just wanted to curl up in it like a blanket. She continues that glorious world-building in the second book, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy. Picking up right after book 1, we join Sibling Dex and Mosscap as they re-enter human territory and plan to introduce Mosscap to the […]

Tea and Books with some magic and dragons and soldiers

Can't Spell treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne

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Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea very much matches the label on the front cover “cozy fantasy steeped in love”. It’s not exactly a romance though, since the main couple is already established at the start, and they actually seem to have a healthy communication dynamic (which it feels like most standard romances must avoid). Unless the love is actually the couple everyone knows are into each other but they refuse to admit it themselves, or maybe it’s the young teenage first love thing that gets […]

Light Frothy Romance With Italian Flavor

The Fae's Bride by R. L. Medina

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Alessia is busy taking care of her family and doesn’t have time for romance, even though her mother is pushing to use some of their hard earned coin to go to the matchmaker.  Massimo is a new count visiting their village, despite his fae heritage, and under pressure to get married within a year.  As soon as they meet for the first time, Massimo’s smitten.  But Alessia has plenty on her plate despite her attraction to Massimo, and he’ll have his work cut out for […]

Ending the year with a cozy fantasy prequel

Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree

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Last Winter Solstice, at our family book exchange, I received Legends and Lattes and adored everything about it!  Fortunately the follow-up book came out in time for my family to get it for me this year.  Bookshops and Bonedust is a prequel to Legends and Lattes and delivers an equally excellent story. When it was announced that Bookshops and Bonedust would be a prequel, I assumed that it would be about when Viv discovers coffee.  I was pleasantly surprised that this is not that book.  In Legends and Lattes, […]



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