Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Have you not shaken a kingdom to its foundations, found a door to a distant otherland, overthrown a queen? Hand you the right storybook, and you are capable of anything.”

Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett

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Nowhere Books Bingo 2025: A fantasy book by a female author Buzzword Cover Challenge 2025: Contains books Spoiler warning! This is book 3 in the series and not the best place to start reading. This book will contain spoilers for the previous books in the series. Start at the beginning, with Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries. Intrepid professor of dryadology (faerie scholar) Emily Wilde is facing her most challenging adventure yet – reclaiming the rather terrifying faerie kingdom of Silva Lupi, where her former academic […]

“At Gatsby’s, the clock stood at just five shy of midnight the moment you arrived.”

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo

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The Chosen and the Beautiful is a retelling of The Great Gatsby, which is told from Jordan Baker’s point of view. Except in this version, Jordan is Vietnamese and has been adopted into the Baker family (via a Missionary member of the family who adopted her in her travels). And oh yes, there is magic—lots and lots of magic. Full disclosure, I have read The Great Gatsby all of once, seen the Baz Luhrmann movie once, and listened to the Broadway Cast recording of the […]

“Happy wedding”, Evemer said. “I got you this door.” (Bingo)

A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland

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CBR16 Bingo: Golden Gold in the title and gold as a pivotal part of the plot. Also pretty much all of the central characters are solid gold. Kadou is the younger brother of the sultan of Arasht, and is delighted that she’s just given birth to a healthy baby, putting him further down the line of succession. Unfortunately, the baby’s father, a powerful ambassador at court, believes Kadou to be jealous and a threat to both his baby niece and his sister. Nothing could be […]

“Sometimes it didn’t matter if you broke. You kept going. You weren’t given a choice.” (Bingo)

When a Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher

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4.5 stars CBR16 Bingo: Dun Dun (From pretty much the first chapter, where Cordelia is “made obedient” there is a creeping sense of dread all the way through this novel) Cordelia knows her mother isn’t like other mothers. Other mothers can’t take over your limbs and puppet you, or force you to stay still and motionless for hours or days on end. Other mothers permit doors that can be closed in the house and let their daughters have friends. Other mothers don’t have a magical […]

The Trilogy Comes to a Close with a Few Surprises and Some Bonkers Events

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

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As Tessa prepares for what she hopes is a happy future, the threat of Mortmain rears it’s head again, threatening everything that she’s gained so far.  While she has the support of the other at the London Institute, other allies are thin on the ground.  Tessa will have use everything she’s learned about her own powers to stand up to Mortmain’s army. This was a satisfying end to the trilogy.  While not everything is wrapped up with a bow, we do get endings for almost […]

A charming and amusing romp that greatly entertained me, even though I couldn’t care less about birds, and actually sort of fear them

The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love by India Holton

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Smart Bitches Summer Bingo: Only one bed (and horse) CBR16 Bingo: And also… (Repeat of the Bananas square, because this book fits the bill) Beth Pickering is the youngest professor of ornithology at Oxford, and she needs to really impress the faculty if she is to get tenure. She works with wealthy widow Hippolyta Quirm to try to locate and capture rare (and usually dangerous) birds. Just as they are about to capture the coveted deathwhistler, a rival ornithologist, the dashing young Professor Devon Lockley […]



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