Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Some Young Adult to close out Bingo

Enchantee by Gita Trelease

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

The Lady Rogue by Jenn Bennett

The Lovely War by Julie Berry

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  Four more reviews to finish catching up on my backlog. CBR11Bingo squares for I Love This (Enchantee), Award Winner (Speak), Far and Away (the Lady Rogue) and Reader’s Choice over Own Voices (The Lovely War).   Enchantee (apologies, but I can’t figure out how to accent the ‘e’) is a beautifully written young adult romance. Set in Paris during the final days of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI’s excesses, it shows both the splendor of the rich and the desperation of the poor. Camille […]

When my brain is about to melt, I pick up YA

Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett

Two Can Keep A Secret by Karen McManus

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CBR11Bingo Travel- both books involve moving across the country   **Alex, Approximately This is the first book I’ve read by this author. I see a lot of authors that I follow on Twitter shouting her out, so I thought I would try her new book, The Lady Rogue. No luck- the bookstore was sold out. Instead, I picked up an alternate title and ended up with Alex, Approximately. It is a cute book and had some great aspects, but also some things that I found […]

A cute YA book with mystery and romance

Serious Moonlight by Jenn Bennett

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3.5 stars From Goodreads: Mystery-book aficionado Birdie Lindberg has an overactive imagination. Raised in isolation and homeschooled by strict grandparents, she’s cultivated a whimsical fantasy life in which she plays the heroic detective and every stranger is a suspect. But her solitary world expands when she takes a job the summer before college, working the graveyard shift at a historic Seattle hotel. In her new job, Birdie hopes to blossom from introverted dreamer to brave pioneer, and gregarious Daniel Aoki volunteers to be her guide. […]

I bet just you love that Mr. Darcy, and your sentimental heart beats widely at the thought that he and, well, you know, whatever her name is, are truly, honestly going to end up together.

Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett

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Tell me there’s a book based on You’ve Got Mail and I’m pretty much going to read it immediately. Which is what I did with Alex, Approximately and I found it UTTERLY DELIGHTFUL. (Sidenote: I don’t know of any other books based on You’ve Got Mail/The Shop Around the Corner/Parfumerie but if you do, why haven’t you told me about them yet?) I digress. Back to Alex, Approximately. Bailey is a classic film loving teen who moves across the country to live with her dad, […]

An interesting premise, a generic execution.

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I  was underwhelmed by this book. It was an easy read, and it was entertaining, but a lot of the time it felt forced (especially at the beginning), and I thought it was a little too long. I’m glad I read it, but I probably won’t be reading it again, and unless the premise is too good to resist, I probably won’t be reading any future books from this author. So Alex, Approximately is basically a retelling of The Shop Around the Corner/You’ve Got Mail […]

90% of this book was amazing. The other 10% was not.

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I loved a lot of this book. It was a cute rom-com story based on the fabulous The Shop Around the Corner (which is also the basis for the very good, You’ve Got Mail). Strangers who start up an anonymous pen pal relationship and fall for each other suddenly meet in real life, where things aren’t as perfect. Here, we have Bailey Rydell, moving across the country to live with her dad for her senior year of high school. Her parents are divorced, and she […]



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