Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Red or Dead

The Pledge by Kathleen Kent

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This one followed the same pattern as the Hunger Games trilogy: interesting first book followed by an excellent second and a concluding one that basically made me say “Eh, ok, I guess that’s an ending.” Part of why I loved (indeed loved) The Burn, the second book in the Betty Rhyzyk trilogy, is because I thought Kathleen Kent did an excellent job covering Betty’s PTSD from the end of the events of the first book. Too often, series writers put their characters through hell only to have them […]

Burn it all down, and start over. Again.

Extasia by Claire Legrand

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A young girl has finally been anointed to sainthood. Though she is young, a prepubescent teenager, it has been her life’s goal to be anointed. She also wants sainthood to atone for the sins of her mother. Amity is her new name. Saint Amity. She is one of four saints in a small town called Haven. It’s the only town left in the world after wars and famine, all caused by women, destroyed the world. Only the four saints can keep Haven safe from the […]

“This sort of thing happens more and more as I age out of ‘attractive and unattached’ territory and into ‘destined to die a spinster’ territory.“

The Life Revamp by Kris Ripper

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What do you do when what you want more than anything is to get married, but your perfect man is married to the woman who set the two of you up on a blind date? Mason has been dating a man who seems perfect, but they keep not taking the step from casual to serious. Meanwhile, his friend Claris has finally nagged him into agreeing to a date with her husband, a fashion designer named Diego. They are in an open relationship. While Mason is […]

Not your regular girl scouts (Triple bingo!)

Lumberjanes, vol 1: Beware the Kitten Holy by Noelle Stevenson and Grace Ellis

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CBR13 Bingo: The Wilds Official book description: FRIENDSHIP TO THE MAX! At Miss Qiunzilla Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s camp for hard-core lady-types, things are not what they seem. Three-eyed foxes. Secret caves. Anagrams. Luckily, Jo, April, Mal, Molly, and Ripley are five rad, butt-kicking best pals determined to have an awesome summer together… And they’re not gonna let a magical quest or an array of supernatural critters get in their way! The mystery keeps getting bigger, and it all begins here. I’m not outdoorsy in […]

Another feel-good entry from T.J. Klune.

Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune

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For me, this needed just a little more dark elements to balance out the schmoop, which is a thing I’m still not fully on board with in terms of Klune’s writing, although it hit me less here than it did in Cerulean Sea. But overall this was a lovely read, like a warm hug. While I do have some criticisms, mostly to do with an overdose of earnestness and not enough subtlety (also known as schmoop), I really did enjoy this book. It was an escape […]

Big Red

The Burn by Kathleen Kent

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The Dime, Kathleen Kent’s first Betty Rhyzyk novel, went from being an interesting if conventional police procedural mystery to something else. If you appreciate the out of nowhere, somewhat bananas turn (as I did), you’d probably be moving on to the second book to see how she dealt with it. If not, you’d likely skip it. When I read the reviews for it, opinions were mixed and I get it. The twist was perhaps imperfectly handled and may have felt gimmicky. But I thought it made […]



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