Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“The earth has turned. The time is here. I am dying. Come and collect your inheritance.”

The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova

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I tell you what, I’ve really been putting off writing this review. I just don’t want to try and put words to the subconscious magic this book can work upon a reader. And also the literal magic that is in the book. (An old woman turns into a tree! Flowers grow out of people’s bodies!) I’m really not going to talk much about the plot here because it’s way better to be surprised, but I will say that the book starts out with all of […]

A Disappointing and Weirdly Removed Second Book in the Trilogy

Early Warning by Jane Smiley

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I’ve read the first book in this trilogy (Some Luck) two or three times and really enjoy its structure and descriptions of farm and internal life. I therefore read this second book with interest, but I don’t think it was as good as the first one and I don’t think I would reread it. I’m still going to read the third one because these are transporting and feel like you’re watching a soap opera, so it’s good train commute reading. Not bad enough to stop […]

is it too late to change your ways?

L.A. Weather by Maria Amparo Escandon

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I’ve got high expectations for novels set in Southern California. If very little besides, say, the beaches and Hollywood register for the writer in question, maybe also some smog and traffic, I judge that hard. If you can’t say “I’d take the 101 to the 10 to the 405 for you” and understand that as an expression of love, write about somewhere else, please. So one thing I liked very immediately about Maria Amparo Escandon’s L.A. Weather was the real sense of place. This isn’t just LA, […]

Finally caught up! #CBRBingo

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I liked this one as much as I liked Dragonfly in Amber and Drums of Autumn. A definite improvement over the last several books, although I did enjoy #7 as well, if not quite as much. I’m officially caught up on this series now, and that feels weird! These books are so long, and they’re still not done! Not even going to try and sum up what happened in this book. It was a lot. There was a lot of drama, but unlike in past […]

I did like the bit where Theresa discovers how to make “magic elf-bread”

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3.5 stars This is a re-read. My original review of the book can be found here. As of me posting this, the book is on sale for $0.99 at most e-book retailers.  This book was such a disappointment to me when it came out, and as I mention in my original review, it was not an easy book for Ms. Milan to write, and felt a bit cobbled together and nothing really worked all that well as a result. With the next volume in the series just […]

All the family secrets come out in this one

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This is the third book in a trilogy, and it’s probably best to have read at least Hate to Want You first, to fully get the most out of the story. The central romance works on its own, but there are a lot of stuff in this book that works best if you’ve read at least the first book in the series. Evangeline “Eve” Chandler has quietly suffered her father’s verbal abuse for much of her life, and only recently started standing up for herself and choosing […]



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