Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“And just as she was about to leave the mircophone, she said ‘And to anyone tempted to kiss the TV tonight, please don’t chip your tooth.”

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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When journalist Monique is chosen by the reclusive actress Evelyn Hugo to be her biographer, she has no clue why she was the one chosen – or about the tragic intersection of their lives. I feel like Contrary Mary here to say that I thought a generally universally acclaimed book was just fine, but I’m going to be brave and go ahead and say it: It was fine. Maybe I had too high expectations after reading the rest of the Reidverse books and all those […]

Artist in Search of a Purpose (That’s Not Drinking Blood)

The God of Endings by Jacqueline Holland

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Changed into a vampire by her step-grandfather and cast adrift upon the world, Anna falls in love and loses everything many times. Now a preschool teacher to the children of the wealthy, Collette becomes entangled in the troubled life of one of her students. Why do I keep striking out with vampire books? I’ve read a variety of takes on vampires, so I don’t think it’s not any particular trope that’s throwing me off. Maybe I just can’t take them and their existential angst seriously […]

Rediscovering Her Muse

A Liaison with Her Leading Lady by Lotte R. James

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Desperate to save her beloved father’s theatre, actress Ruth seeks out famed dramatist Artemis in an attempt to coax her out of her self-imposed exile from the English stage. This is a delightful and unusual historical romance, following as it does two women who live on the fringes of respectable society in Regency England. The author has worked in theatre herself, and her experience and understanding of stagecraft shines through during the whole story, aided by plenty of research into the changing theatre scene at […]

Keeping Hope in the Jungle

Sisters Under the Rising Sun by Heather Morris

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The passengers of the Vyner Brooke are pitched from the frying pan to the fire when the ship upon which they have been fleeing the Japanese invasion of Singapore is sunk off the shores of Indonesia. The women and children, musician Norah Chambers and nurse Nesta James among them, must survive in jungle camps until the end of the war. I am continuing my informal journey through the Pacific theatre of World War 2 with Sisters Under the Rising Sun, which chronicles the lives of a […]

Childhood Nostalgia / American Propaganda

The Kachina Doll Mystery by Carolyn Keene

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

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I devoured both the Nancy Drew and Little House books when I was in elementary school, so it feels a little odd to read them in such close succession now. I still enjoy them, but I’ve rather lost the cuddly feeling since then. It’s more obvious to adult me that the books were written in the expectation of reaching a certain sort of child, and that child did not look like me. The Kachina Doll Mystery – 3 stars When Nancy Drew is summoned to […]

Love in Masquerade

My Only Valentine by Victoria Henshaw, Julia Parks, Donna Simpson

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Three couples in Regency England find their way to each other through various Valentine’s Day related events and hijinks. In “The Valentine Poem” by Victoria Henshaw, Susan Kimball falls in love with her Italian tutor, little suspecting that he is actually a nobleman undercover. This is a cute romance with little plot, and I liked the relationship between John and his half-brother the duke. However, Susan’s bleak moment seemed very illogical for a generally logical heroine – it really should have been timed for before […]



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