Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Young love and demon hunting

Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu

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CBR14 Bingo: Cozy (this is a super-sweet YA comic. While there are some dark themes, the main vibe here is absolutely cozy.) Nova Huang (she/her) is an orphaned young witch, although she sees the ghosts of her parents during each major holiday, and sometimes just when they feel she might need advice or a good talking to. She lives with her two grandmothers, who sell books of both the mundane and magical varieties. Tam (they/them) on the other hand, seems to have been on their […]

The First Cut Is The Deepest

The Cutting Room by Louise Welsh

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Read as part of CBR14 Bingo: holiday. I was gifted this book for Christmas a few years ago and used this Bingo as an excuse to finally read it. Again, all love to book bingos for helping me find gems that are lingering on my very own shelves. I used the holiday square as an excuse to get to this one. I had considered donating it a few times, seeing as how the reviews were good but not exactly rapturous. I have a lot of […]

Oh, and I forgot to mention that this book takes place in a world with a cultural assumption of bi- and pan-sexuality, and people who aren’t are considered “gender exclusive”!

Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell

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This is going to be a short review. I read this too long ago, and have forgotten too much of it. I did like it, though! Quite a bit. I just wish I had gone into it with the correct expectations. Somehow, I’d gotten it into my head that this was a romance with some science fiction in it, rather than what it actually was, the other way around. This is waaaay more science fiction than it is romance, in a space opera sort of […]

I’ll make a man out of myself (Bingo!)

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

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CBR14 Bingo: Star (Zhu might be described as something of a rising star within the Chinese power structure of the day, and also the sun is literally a star. I’m so very clever). Back in the 14th Century, the Mongols had conquered and ruled Imperial China. In a small village, drought and famine have killed the majority of the population. A nameless girl (one of the few children left in the village) has managed to stay alive thanks to her ingenuity. When her older brother, […]

“Can I still listen to BTS if I’m a lesbian?”

Ti kniver i hjertet (Ten knives in the heart) by Nora Dåsnes

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3.5 stars Tuva is about to start seventh grade (age 11-12 here in Norway) and is very much looking forward to seeing her best friends Linnea and Bao and catching up after a long summer apart. She shares all of her hopes and fears writing and drawing in her diary. When she gets back to school, however, nothing is as she was expecting. Linnea has a boyfriend now, and doesn’t really want to hang out, playing in their secret treehouse in the woods. She just […]

“I don’t think happily ever after is something that happens to you, Dev. I think it’s something you choose to do for yourself.”

The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun

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I read The Charm Offensive back in July and I’m sad I didn’t sit down to write a review right away because I really loved this one, and it deserves a more nuanced discussion than I’m about to give it. This book was vaguely on my radar when I put together my 2022 Read Harder Challenge TBR, and a quick search for romances with asexual protagonists secured its place on that list (one of the main characters is demisexual). The basic plot is that tech-genius […]



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