Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Casting couch jokes land a bit differently these days

Pretty Face by Lucy Parker

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I’d actually have rated this slightly lower if I could have, but as is the usual in reviews 2* seems horrific, and I’m well aware that my issues are specific to me and things that I tend to dislike. That thing being mismatched power dynamics, whether in the sense of age (much older man to a younger woman), power (boss/employee, teacher/student), etc. As you can imagine, this book–which has both the age and career issues–was always going to be an uphill battle. At the end […]

“We’re all a hundred different things at once. A different person to everyone who knows us.”

The Austen Playbook (London Celebrities #4) by Lucy Parker

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Lucy Parker is an auto buy author for me, one of very few. The stories she is telling in her London Celebrities series use the extravagant backdrops of theatre, television, and movies to tell small scale, human love stories. I am an unabashed fan of Romance books – I am here for the guaranteed happy ending – and Parker is perhaps the most reliable author I’m reading right now. There is a lot of plot packed into this one. We meet Frederica “Freddy” Carlton and […]

A Majestic Nose and the Sensitivity of a Sledgehammer

The Austen Playbook by Lucy Parker

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YAY! Lucy Parker is back with another wry, gratifying, and witty romance featuring a difficult man and a delightful woman. Freddy Carlton is theatre royalty, descended from generations of performers and the granddaughter of the playwright of a seminal masterpiece called The Velvet Room. Poised to move into the highest ranks of Serious Acting, she’d rather do work that brings joy to herself and others. We met her as a late teen in Pretty Face and she is now a full adult, though only 23. With her father strong-arming her […]

An Effervescent Romance

The Austen Playbook by Lucy Parker

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This review is spoiler free. I signed up with NetGalley in hopes that I would be given this book in exchange for an honest review. I was so excited when I got the email from the publisher that my mood did a wild swing from morose despair to OHMYGODREALLY??? I loooooooved it. Grumpy hero – check witty heroine – check sparkling banter – check sexy sexy times – check a brief spot of soulful pining – check meddling families – check shenanigans – check The […]

There Are No Magical Cures, But a Good Book Can Soothe the Soul

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This was a lovely, comfy read after a weekend of intense emotions and anxiety attacks. Making Up is the third in Lucy Parker’s London Celebrities series. You don’t have to read Act Like It, but you should read Pretty Face first. You should read them both because they are delightful, but Pretty Face provides a lot of context. Lucy Parker has become an author I will definitely buy. She creates great characters and some very steamy romance. She has a way with turning phrases that are funny and […]

My Fair Actress

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I initially gave this book four stars, however upon reflection I don’ think it’s quite a four star read and I downgraded it to three stars, so we’ll say a solid three and a half stars. This book is set in the same world as Act Like It, which I read last year and loved. This book isn’t as good and features a trope that I strongly dislike, even if that trope is fairly well handled and disguised it still bothers me. However, there were […]



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