Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“If you can’t win the game, you have to cheat.”

The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Lee, Mackenzi

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Have you read Mackenzi Lee’s The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue? If not, stop reading this review and go read that.  This is the sequel, and both books are utterly delightful and disarming. This book is the second in The Montague Siblings series (or duology? there are only two of them) and the story belongs to Felicity, the more sensible and academic of the two.  Gentleman’s Guide made it clear that Felicity has more interest in science and medicine than domesticity and society and in her […]

Swashbuckling ladies who are scientists go on an adventure.

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I think I am in the minority in liking the first book in this series better. I just liked Monty as a narrator so much, whereas everyone else (even several people who didn’t like the first book at all) have really liked this one, and Felicity, better. And she is awesome, no doubt. This series overall is really fun, but I had the same problems with this one that I did the first one, but times about a thousand. It’s about a year after the […]

Pirates, Forbidden Love and a Quest

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Mackenzi Lee’s The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue is ripe for film or TV adaptation and is something I totally would have loved reading as a teenager. However, I am older than Lee’s target audience and still enjoyed the ride, but with some prudish gasps and doubts interspersed here and there. Guide is the story of young Henry Montague, the oldest son of an earl, bound for the traditional continental tour young men would take prior to settling down, with his best friend Percy […]

Mostly, this book just did not work for me

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2.5 stars Henry “Monty” Montague is a young bisexual lord sent off on a grand tour of Europe, accompanied by his best friend, Percy (who Monty has a massive crush on) and Felicity, Monty’s younger sister. For the first part of their journey, they are accompanied by an elderly tutor, but once they leave Paris, hijinks really ensue due to very poor decisions made on Monty’s part and soon the three young people are left to fend for themselves, on a crazy adventure through much […]

I hate when this happens.

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Have you ever expected to love something in pop culture — simply because everyone that you know and trust has loved it before you — and then been totally crushed when you just don’t? Recently, we rented the movie The Big Sick. I had been waiting for weeks to see it and just knew I would love it. I think Kumail Nanjiani is hilarious and was obsessed with the story about how he fell in love with his wife. So I thought I would love […]

Perfectly Pleasant!

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Just what I needed to take a little break from the lengthy and detailed epic fantasy book I’ve been working on for the past month or do: a sweet and slightly wonky adventure! I just heard of this novel recently, and upon reading Narfna’s positive review of it, I knew it would be great for a little breathing room after reading a couple of more dragging and heavy things as of late. And it was absolutely delightful! Not a masterpiece by any means, but light […]



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