Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I waited too long to read this one :(

The Secret History of the Pink Carnation (Pink Carnation, #1) by Lauren Willig

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DNF @ 47% Dang, two DNFs in one day (the other was The Sun and the Void)! I got 200 pages in to this and realized I felt like I was just wasting my own time, so I stopped. This is a book that ten years ago—so a LOT closer to when I actually bought it—I would have probably given it four stars and then read at least the next two books in the series. Instead, I waited a ridiculously long time (this is now […]

CBR Bingo – Listicle – Snooooooooooooze

The Glass Ocean by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, Karen White

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OKAY. This book was a journey, a real struggle to the finish line. It was listed (I think this counts?) as one of the selections of my local library book club for this year, so, like a dutiful former English major, I read it. I had a sneaky suspicion from jump that this wasn’t my kind of book. I like historical fiction and was intrigued by the juxtaposition of this story over the sinking of the Lusitania, but this book boasts three different authors who […]

You’ll root for the missile

The Glass Ocean by Beatriz Wilson, Lauren Willig, Karen White

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Boy oh boy, I sure wonder if the attractive people in this story without any other competition end up together? I mean, it’s a complete mystery. Sarah is an author, and she’s described in terms vague enough to know that she’s beautiful, but ordinary enough to be relatable and intimidated by John’s model ex-wife.  And John, why he’s so dashing and proper, he couldn’t possibly fall for the woman researching his family’s role in the sinking of the Lusitania. Besides! He’s British! And she’s American! […]

Old Money, Twelfth Night and Murder

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Though I’ve read the entirety of the Pink Carnation series, this was my first time trying any of Willig’s other work, and while her voice was recognizable, it had a very different feel.  While the Pink Carnation series certainly deals with dark subject matters (espionage, war, murder, and secret societies), especially the first few novels in the series were very light hearted.  As a result, I was surprised by how much darker and more serious this one felt in comparison. While at her brother Bay’s […]

Becoming a Bright Young Thing

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This book is set in the late 1920s in Britain, the era of the Bright Young Things who were rich and titled and carefree.  Our heroine, Rachel Woodley, however is none of those things.  At the start of the book, she is working as a governess to a trio of children in Paris and receives a telegram informing her that her mother is at death’s door.  Due to the fact she rebuffed the advances of one of her co-workers, he delayed passing along the telegram […]

A Gilded Age mystery

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From New York Times bestselling author, Lauren Willig, comes this scandalous novel set in the Gilded Age, full of family secrets, affairs, and even murder. This book is a mixture of historical romance with an intriguing plot of family secrets and mystery that is very well done.  It’s set at the end of the 1800’s, in the wealthy environs of New York society where rigid rules of appearance were adhered to.  Bayard and Annabelle Van Duyvil are the glamorous couple that appear to have it […]



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