Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

It was comforting to return to an established world: cbr12bingo “Yellow”

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

by Leave a Comment

I love this gorgeous cover, from the golden yellow to the intricate details referencing elements of the story.  I’ve been looking forward to reading this, so I was delighted that it fits the yellow square!  Three colors now crossed off on my bingo card. After going through three long books, two of which were challenging and thought provoking, requiring close attention and processing of what I was reading, the other a chonker of an epic fantasy, I was ready to return to something familiar.  This […]

Secret Societies and Power

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

by Leave a Comment

Bingo Square: Fresh Start (Alex Stern, Book 1) I haven’t read too much by Leigh Bardugo – I wasn’t a big fan of the first novel in her Shadow and Bone trilogy – despite the interesting world building, I found the heroine boring and the forced love triangle that was almost mandatory in YA for a while included love interests with such extreme differences that it was a bit too obvious. I had heard from many people that her duology Six of Crows set in […]

Not for kids, seriously. Do not mistake this for YA

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

by Leave a Comment

Official book description: Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of […]

Loved the mystery and secret societies, current events made the excessive privilege stomach churning

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

by Leave a Comment

As much as I adore the Grishaverse, it was nice to see Bardugo flex her writer muscles in something new.  She certainly starts this book with a vivid sentence that seized me right away. By the time Alex managed to get the blood out of her good wool coat, it was too warm to wear it. Ninth House is gripping murder mystery, set in a version of our world where magic exists and is hoarded by the secret societies of Yale.  Perhaps you’ve heard of […]

Content Warning: Some triggering subjects and Grammar ranting ahead

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

by Leave a Comment

I’ve had Ninth House on a shelf for a while, but I hadn’t really been in the mood for what promised to be a pretty dark story, and as it turns out, it’s a good bit darker than I’d thought. Although, I do have to say the darkness does really suit the story. Ninth House is something of a mix between The Secret History and The Magicians, neither of which I liked. I did however somewhat enjoy Ninth House. So as it turns out, some […]

“All whiteboards are magical.”

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

by 6 Comments

From Goodreads: Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo