Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A little light on answers for my preferences

The Witch Roads by Kate Elliott

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This wasn’t quite the novel I was expecting – there isn’t anything inaccurate about the novel’s description but I was expecting a fun, fast paced fantasy/adventure novel and instead got more of dense road trip novel that was so slow paced it would almost be cozy if not for the dark subject matter. Elen is a courier in a sleepy town at the edge of the empire. Elen and her recently deceased sister Aoving settled there over a decade ago, along with Aoving’s son Kem, […]

Prophecy, gods and a shield maiden

A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L Jensen

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Ugh. I know the author’s other work is a 5 book series so I had assumed that this, too, was setting up a longer series and then discovered halfway through when looking up the sequel that it was the first of a duology. Based on what happens in book 1, I’m very much thinking this story would have been better served as a stand alone novel. Here is the thing – it’s hard to write a story that has a twist that is going to […]

The Hunt meets Rumpelstiltskin

Gilded by Marissa Meyer

Cursed by Marissa Meyer

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I have been struggling lately with books – just feel like I keep starting novels that aren’t quite hitting the spot. They aren’t bad or anything (I think) but they aren’t pulling me in or the tone is slightly off. I have had this one on my Kindle for a few months now and wasn’t entirely sure what to expect but it worked out for me. Marissa Meyer has been a bit hit or miss for me – I mostly enjoyed The Lunar Chronicles (especially […]

That disappointment when combining 2 great things makes them less good

Breath of the Dragon by Fonda Lee

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I really liked Fonda Lee’s Green Bone Saga – there was a lot going on so it took a second to get into them but once I was hooked, I couldn’t stop being impressed by what she did: it was an Asian influenced fantasy in a modern day setting with Mafia vibes, and felt very much like The Godfather movies as far as the span of the story. The series starts at a time where old and new are colliding and ends in a world […]

Beautiful Prose and a Compelling Fantasy World

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

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This cements it – Laini Taylor is now an auto-buy (well, auto-read) author for me. I loved the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy, and now I love Strange the Dreamer. My fondness for the author comes from both the stories she crafts and how beautiful her writing is. Something somewhat gruesome happens on the very first page of Strange the Dreamer, but even that is written poetically. Here are some of the descriptions in which her prose really stood out to me: “The old […]

This duology will rock you!

Godly Heathens by H. E. Edgmon

Merciless Saviors by H. E. Edgmon

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I read HE Edgmon’s debut, The Witch King and immediately knew he was an author to keep an eye on! And his newest duology, The Ouroboros, shows so much growth and development as an author and story teller. Godly Heathens is currently available, and I’d recommend this duology more for older teens than a crossover audience, especially as there is significant violence and gore throughout (content notes are provided in the front matter). Merciless Saviors releases April 16, 2024. Logistics out of the way, let […]



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