Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this one!

The Foxglove King (The Nightshade Crown, #1) by Hannah Whitten

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This kind of surprise can be a double-edged sword, though, so take my recommendation with a grain of salt. When your expectations going into a book are “probably going to DNF this,” anything compelling will feel better than it probably actually is. With that said, however, I think there are genuinely some things to love about this series! Even with some of the uneven writing. (And apparently it is a HUGE improvement over the author’s first series, which I won’t be reading.) I would say […]

If books could kill. (I do not regret this pun.)

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

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Ink Blood Sister Scribe is a contemporary fantasy novel that treads some well-worn tropes and plot structures that make it rather predictable, but because of the execution, still very enjoyable. If you haven’t spent your life reading fantasy books, you probably won’t think this was as predictable as I did, so in that way it might be a good intro to fantasy book, particularly since it’s set in our world. But there really is enough here to interest regular fantasy readers as well (unless you’re […]

A Fey with some actual character makes some bargains with sometimes interesting results

The Narrow Road Between Desires by Patrick Rothfuss

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Full disclosure: I have only read book 1 of the Kingkiller Chronicles so far, although book 2 is physically on my tbr shelf. I have also not read the first novella set in that world, nor do I subscribe to the author’s fan sites/newsletters/Patreon/etc; I only follow a couple of (free) social media accounts. The Narrow Road Between Desires is a revision/extension of a previously published short story, per the author’s note as well as some commentary on the book’s Goodreads page; I might have […]

Fantastic Fantasy!

Faebound by Saara El-Arifi

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Saara El-Arifi immediately place herself on my auto-buy list with her debut, and this new world she’s created just confirms why I love her storytelling. The book starts with a myth telling of the three gods: Asase, the Wheat, god of the earth and creator of humans; Ewia, the two-headed Bat, god of the sun and creator of fae: and Bosome, the Water, god of the moon and creator of the elves. As far as anyone is aware, all that remains in the world are […]

Lady Green Snake and the Golden One

Her Radiant Curse by Elizabeth Lim

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Vanna and Channi are sisters, but they couldn’t be more different – while Vanna is blessed with a strange glowing beauty, Channi has been cursed with the face of a snake and poisonous blood. As Vanna’s seventeenth birthday approaches, Channi grows desperate to prevent her promised death at the hands of the demon witch Angma. I did not realize until about halfway through this book that it is a prequel to Lim’s Six Crimson Cranes duology, an East Asian-influenced retelling of the Six Swans that’s […]

Happy Birthday to Me!

Sleep No More by Seanan McGuire

The Innocent Sleep by Seanan McGuire

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I got to read two October Daye books basically at once. Thanks so much Seanan McGuire for doing that just for me personally for this my birthday (I am in no way responsible for any of this). October Daye is a changeling living in the fair queen Titania’s perfect faerie court. She lives safely nestled in her beloved family’s tower, which is more than most changelings get and October is very grateful for her privilege. Though she and her sister do have to keep chasing […]



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