Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I Tried

Morning After the Revolution: Dispatches From the Wrong Side of History by Nellie Bowles

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I’m going to try and review this book as dispassionately as possible in the beginning. I’ll save my personal comments for the end. Nellie Bowles, a former New York Times writer who now works for The Free Press on Substack, found herself dismayed in the aftermath of lefty uprisings in the wake of George Floyd’s death. She’s a liberal, a woman, a lesbian no less and she suddenly found her words and identity out of step with what she saw as progressive overreach. So she attempted to […]

Love Lies Bleeding

Rainbow Black by Maggie Thrash

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What kind of book is Rainbow Black supposed to be? I speculate here because I finished it three days ago and still don’t know the answer or how I fully feel about it beyond, “I really liked it, loved it in some parts, wish I was moved by others.” It’s such a rigidly unsentimental book from beginning-to-end and I’m not sure if that’s what made me dock it or not because the writing here is so good. The book starts off with a bang. I was enthralled […]

It’s a nope from me, dawg.

Can't Spell Treason Without Tea (Tomes & Tea, #1) by Rebecca Thorne

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I’m so sad rn, but this was so dull. Cozy fantasy should still have emotional stakes. I’m actually writing this review straightly upon finishing because I just want to be done with it (barring my May YouTube wrap-up, but talking is easier than writing). Like many, I have been really, really into this cozy fantasy thing since Legends and Lattes first did its thing, and unfortunately, I think this author learned the wrong lessons from that book, which she tells us in the afterword was a huge […]

“God, if she caught feelings, she was going to have to kick her own ass.”

Role Playing by Cathy Yardley

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4.5 stars CBR16 Sweet Books: Cozy 48-year-old Maggie’s son has recently moved away to college and now she’s stuck in the big house she got in the divorce some years earlier, in a town where she barely knows anyone. She’s unapologetically grumpy and doesn’t actually want to expand her social circle. She worries about her son in college, however, and keeps trying to challenge him to socialise and make friends. He turns the table on her and demands that she do the same. She has […]

“Power doesn’t have to be the way the regent and your rebels make it be . . . Power can be looking after people. Keeping them safe, instead of putting them into danger.”

The Jasmine Throne (The Burning Kingdoms, #1) by Tasha Suri

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 I actually really ended up liking this and I’m going to need to use of one of my ten cheat books to pick up the sequel (I’m on a book buying ban for the whole of 2024 — I’ve already used three cheats 😬). It’s always lovely when as a lifelong fantasy reader you come across something that feels fresh and unique, and this book gave me that feeling the whole way through. The underlying story—about a society oppressed by an empire led by a […]

A good time, not a long time

Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner

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I’m always interested in Sapphic romance that features woman in middle age, so I was immediately drawn to Mistakes Were Made. While the overall story was engaging and fun, I had trouble connecting with the characters and buying into the central love story. But it was a fun read with some great love scenes that I would recommend for a quick vacation read. College senior Cassie is in an off-campus bar avoiding family weekend. Erin is in the same bar avoiding her ex-husband while he […]



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