Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy reteam for a m/m romance 4 years after “Him.” But is it any good?

Top Secret by Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy

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Four years ago, authors Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy teamed up to write my absolutely favorite m/m romance, “Him” (and the follow up, “Us,” which is also very good but more a relationship novel than a romance novel). So you can imagine my excitement when I discovered they had written another one together and were doing a surprise-release this week. The story: Keaton (rich, popular, starts off straight…) has had the same girlfriend since he was 16; they’re now 21 and in college. For her […]

To the one who provided womb and board all those months

My Two Moms and Me by Michael Joosten

Mom and Me, Me and Mom by Miguel Tanco

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Mother’s Day is around the corner. The following two books are a fun combination as gifts for the parent/mom but also something that can be read to the child with any parent. One is modern in its approach, while the other has a more stereotypical format. Both, however, are interesting additions to the world of “Mom Books” in the children’s section of your local store. One child’s voice is telling the story of them and their moms in My Two Moms and Me. However, you […]

A Love Letter to the Women Forgotten After Deemed No Longer Useful, Tucked Inside a Love-Hate Letter to a Hometown

The Melting Queen by Bruce Cinnamon

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Honestly, I’m probably a little biased with this one, and writing a review feels a little strange because not only was it written by an old pal of mine from high school but it is also quite a love-hate letter to the city I live (albeit a somewhat fictional one), Edmonton, which doesn’t always get much of a feature in a lot of the things I read or watch (though one of my previous reads this year, Birdie, did include the city as a part […]

Rainbow Rowell may have ruined me, but I’m not mad

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

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Last year was really the first time I read any YA books as an adult, aside from the first Harry Potter book my dad bought me for Christmas twenty years ago. Maybe I’ve just had a string of bad luck. Maybe I’m too much of a literary fiction snob (GAC) to get the same kind of enjoyment out of YA. Or maybe Rainbow Rowell, and to a lesser degree, Becky Albertalli, spoiled me for everyone else since their books resonated so deeply with me. I […]

He was so unknown, he was still all possibility, unopened cupboards and drawers

The Folding Star by Alan Hollinghurst

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I had a discussion with Classic a few weeks ago in the comments section of her review for The Paying Guests, which she said started off very slowly. At the time, I happened to be about 100 pages into Alan Hollinghurst’s The Folding Star, and I’d been worrying about how slowly it was moving until I thought back to the same time last year when I read his most recent novel, The Sparsholt Affair, which didn’t really click for me until the last 50 pages. […]

Sara Holmes

A Study in Honor by Claire O'Dell

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So, if you are a Sherlock Holmes purist, this is not the book for you. For instance, if you are like my dad who believes the Rathbone movies are the only ones where Sherlock is allowed to be modern, you most likely wouldn’t like this book. (My dad hates the BBC recent Sherlock series. Hates it. I don’t like for it entirely different reasons. My dad, however, admits that Disney’s Great Mouse Detective is good but that’s because Basil is named after Rathbone). I’m not […]



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