Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

This metaphor is a metaphor for my metaphor.

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

by 5 Comments

This is a really tough one for me to review, and not because of the subject matter. I wasn’t drawn to this one on my own, but picked it up because one of my real life book clubs chose it for January. I did the audio because it was available on SCRIBD, a service I already pay for, and I didn’t have time to do the hard copy with my already packed January TBR. This turned out to be a mistake, I think, though not […]

My first Lisa Jewell, and it will not be my last!

The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell

by Leave a Comment

This was really good! Part of me wanted to give it my first five star rating of 2022, but I’m holding out for true love on that one. This was very close, though. I think the only thing stopping me is that I was missing some of that elation that comes from being truly surprised by a book, because I did figure out several key elements/twists on my own before the book revealed them to me. What remains, though, is a very solid, extremely engaging […]

“It’s so much easier to obey orders. It’s not much fun to think.”

Spectred Isle (Green Men, #1) by K.J. Charles

by Leave a Comment

On the one hand, I wish I would have read this sooner, because it’s great. On the other, I wish I would have saved it, because the sequel seems to be postponed indefinitely for some ground-up retooling, and I would prefer to have it as soon as possible. I found the worldbuilding here to be one of the more intriguing urban fantasy set-ups I’ve read, especially when you factor in that a large part of it uses the consequences of WWI in such a thoughtful […]

“I don’t sulk; I brood. Like Batman.”

Work For It (Just For Him, #4) by Talia Hibbert

by 5 Comments

Perfect book at the perfect time. This is only my second book read out of Talia’s backlist (we are on a first-name basis apparently) and it was just as good as I’d hoped it would be. I haven’t read any of the other books in this series, but I probably will now that I’ve met some of the other characters and liked them, and vibe going on here. I don’t know if they will live up to this one, though. I was thisclose to giving this […]

Branching out for my final CBR13 review, and a brief summary of my CBR year

In Too Deep by Daryl Banner

by 1 Comment

Jonah works a job that is sucking the life out of him in Houston. He works with his best friend Rico and roommate, but that isn’t enough to make his life enjoyable. Jonah and Rico plan a weekend getaway to a fictional Texas beach town to escape the monotony of their lives by having a weekend that would make Dionysus blanche. Their plan is to drink too much, soak up the sun, and find multiple boys to have some fun with for just the weekend. […]

One of the first queer novels has a happy ending.

Maurice by E.M. Forster

by Leave a Comment

“A happy ending was imperative. I shouldn’t have bothered to write otherwise. I was determined that in fiction anyway two men should fall in love and remain in it for the ever and ever that fiction allows, and in this sense, Maurice and Alec still roam the greenwood.” -E.M. Forster Secretly, E.M. Forster had the heart of a romance novelist. I say that half in jest, but also half seriously. Romance novel HEA’s are serious business. We come to them for solace, for surety and […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo