Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Adventures (and prophecies) through space and time.

The Principle of Moments (The Order of Legends, #1) by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson

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I’m glad that my DNFing of a book I thought was terrible only thirty pages in led to me picking this book up much, much sooner than I would have otherwise, because I really enjoyed myself, despite some nitpicks I have with this, mostly to do with the author being a debut author, and an extremely young one. Overall, she feels like an author who could have some really, truly great books down the line. This book, which the author started writing when she was […]

CBRBINGO – IN THE WILD: “‘You can’t just not do things acause of the consequences.’ ‘Consequences are literally the reason not to do things. That’s what they’re *for*.”

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen (The Doomsday Books, #1) by K.J. Charles

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30 Books in 30 Days, Vol. 3 Books 15/30 I feel like this is one of those books I will re-read and then instantly bump up to five stars, but for now I’m leaving it at 4.5 rounded down because those are just my feelings right now. Despite the subject matter (smuggling! hiding things in swamps! thievery! treason! murder! leaving people to drown! worse things I don’t feel comfortable putting an exclamation mark after!), the relationship between our two main characters, Sir Gareth Inglis and […]

I’m really disappointed by how this one turned out :(

Arthur and Teddy Are Coming Out by Ryan Love

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A mediocre execution of a really fun and sweet concept. Not mad I read it but I wish it had been better. Ugh, that cover is so cute! Look at the little grandpa in his pink shirt and bowtie and he’s bonding with his grandson over coming out as gay! UGH UGH. So here’s the premise that made me fall in love with this and order it from the UK because it’s not published in the US: Arthur has been happily married to his best […]

CBR BINGO – On the Road: “. . . happiness comes not from bodily pleasures or wealth or power, but from living a life that’s right for your soul.”

In the Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune

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This was very sweet and a little bit unhinged, which I of course always appreciate. This is actually a bit more in line with Klune’s self-published stuff, with darker themes and humor with a little more of an edge to it. I am REALLY curious to know what the original story in this book looked like; he’s vague in the end notes but apparently somebody told him the world wasn’t ready for it (????) and things were changed up pretty heavily. There are some light […]

A low-stakes 1970s queer love story.

Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots (The Cabots, #3) by Cat Sebastian

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Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots, like all the Cabot books, is a low-stakes romance where there isn’t much conflict, just two people falling in love, or as in the case of this book, recognizing that they are already in love and coming to terms with it. No third-act breakups, no outside forces coming between them; even homophobia isn’t really an issue here. Our MCs are Daniel, son of the MC from the first in the series, and Alex, Ukrainian immigrant, doctor, neurodivergent, and Daniel’s best […]

The Limits of a Good Metaphor

King of Immortal Tithe by Ben Alderson

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Listen: it’s fundamentally really tricky to pull off a romance when the premise for their connection is that this is the ONLY person who can physically touch you and not die. Our basics here are fairly simple: our ingenue protagonist is abducted in a kind of marriage trade to a fae prince whose touch drains people’s life force, causing instant death. Except it doesn’t work on our hero. Possibly because he’s already dying. And that creates an instant connection. But that premise only goes so far, right? […]



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