Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Copper Script

Copper Script by K.J. Charles

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Funnily enough I mentally get T. Kingfisher and KJ Charles confused, just because of the vague similarities of their pen names and the fact that I enjoy a lot of what they write (and because a lot of it is about older characters, and not all of it is straight, and it’s often set in other world, either historical or fantastical) (okay so not entirely confusing why). So to read them back to back, when I’d just been mildly disappointed by a T. Kingfisher book […]

Sometimes a tiny bit of blood magic is fine, right?

A Queer Trade by K.J. Charles

Rag & Bone by K.J. Charles

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A Queer Trade is set in the same time period as A Case of Possession. Crispin Trederloe is having a bad week. Returning to London after visiting his ill mother, he learns that his mentor, Mr. Marleigh, was a dangerous warlock and is now dead. Marleigh’s possessions have already been sold or marked for auction, and this includes his boxes and boxes of research. Marleigh and Crispin practice blood magic, which is both extremely dangerous, unpredictable, and explicitly forbidden by England’s magical overseers. At fifteen, […]

“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 […]

or books written by authors I love but whom I lack alerts for

The Duke at Hazard by K.J. Charles

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This is how you create an interwoven universe in Romancelandia, my friends, take note take note. I am starting to believe that every gentleman in K.J. Charles’ England who isn’t a villain might be queer or gay in some way, because that’s certainly the vibe so far. Who else is left to be the hero of the next novel? Because there needs to be a next novel. Even though it does feel very tidily fixed up here? Our main characters are the Duke of Severn, […]

bit too much plot for me, but I enjoyed a number of the threads and will read the next

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by K.J. Charles

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The Will Darling books mean that I will read almost anything by KJ Charles for a while. This, however, which was hotly awaited and eagerly devoured didn’t quite do it for me, although I think it would do it for other people! If I had to put a pithy point to it, it reminded me a bit of The Queer Principles of Kit Webb in that there were way too many plots and characters and side quests and backstories all over the place, to the point where […]

CBRBINGO – IN THE WILD: “‘You can’t just not do things acause of the consequences.’ ‘Consequences are literally the reason not to do things. That’s what they’re *for*.”

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen (The Doomsday Books, #1) by K.J. Charles

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30 Books in 30 Days, Vol. 3 Books 15/30 I feel like this is one of those books I will re-read and then instantly bump up to five stars, but for now I’m leaving it at 4.5 rounded down because those are just my feelings right now. Despite the subject matter (smuggling! hiding things in swamps! thievery! treason! murder! leaving people to drown! worse things I don’t feel comfortable putting an exclamation mark after!), the relationship between our two main characters, Sir Gareth Inglis and […]



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