Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“You try fighting crime as a nineteen-year-old Victorian housemaid.”

A Rip Through Time (A Rip Through Time #1) by Kelley Armstrong

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To be clear this (the first in a series) is a time travel, historical fiction with a light dusting of maybe implied possible romance.  It should not be confused with the author’s A Stitch In Time series which are time travel, historical fiction, and romance novels.   Am I putting that disclaimer here because I was confused about the similarity in the series name?  Yes.  Yes, I am. In this series, we start in Edinburgh on May 20, 2019.  Vancouver police detective Mallory Atkinson is […]

A warrior detective, a priest, and a princess team up

Yamada Monogatari: The Emperor in Shadow by Richard Parks

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I have had the final Yamada Monogatari on my TBR for a long time. I finally picked it up and it’s what I needed for a couple of snow days in a row the deep South. I’m a native Midwesterner so snow and cold are not new to me, but last night might have been the first time in a decade since I moved that I saw measurable snow stick around more than a few hours (not even going to get into the ice). Work […]

Magic isn’t real

The Mesmerist by Caroline Woods

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The story: Abby Mendenhall runs the Bethany Home for Unwed Mothers in Minneapolis in the 1890s. A new girl, Faith, appears on the doorstep needing a place to stay. Faith doesn’t speak and quickly creeps out some of the other girls with her slightly witchy ways that hint at mesmerism, a sort of hypnotism that was trendy at the time and that didn’t require any words, only actions. Abby has Faith room with May, who is eager to leave the Bethany Home but only if […]

“Stop dreaming about the spires. It was a dreadful place and those were dreadful people, and you and I got caught in their games and paid for it.”

Death in the Spires by K.J. Charles

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If you read The Secret History and hated the characters, and the bleak ending made you feel terrible, this might be the book for you! In her first non-romance, we’ve got K.J. Charles trying her hand (and succeeding) at a historical mystery, dark academia style. It’s 1905, and our main character is Jeremy “Jem” Kite, who has just been fired from his job when a letter accusing him of murder showed up in his employers’ mail. This is not the first or even the tenth such letter […]

“Every child a wanted child, every mother a willing mother.”

Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall

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Hello, unsettlingly relevant book. This feels even more relevant now than it did three years ago when it was published. [frustrated sigh] This definitely felt like a debut (some small pacing issues, and a plot choice that detracted from the tension of the story, etc.) but the subject matter was so fascinating, and the lives of these women so clearly on the page emotionally carried the book and made it extremely compelling, despite its flaws. We are following three women in three different time periods: […]

“You can forever remember the wrongs done to you as long as you live,” she said. “But if you forget ’em and go on living, it’s almost as good as forgiving.”

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

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This book was given to me as a CBR Book Exchange Gift last year (thanks, friend!) and had a lot of buzz about it last year; I finally got around to reading it this year, nudged by the fact that it was the November book club selection of my library book club. It was great for book club, in that overall reception to this novel was very divisive, which made for great discussion. This novel is about 1960s Americana, focused on the lives of Jewish […]



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