Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“You take a bunch of people who don’t seem any different from you and me, but when you add them all together you get this sort of huge raving maniac with national borders and an anthem.” (Bingo)

Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett

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Nowhere Book Bingo 2025: A book with LGBTQIA-rep CBR17 Bingo: Border (this book is all about a very drawn-out war with borders between the opposing countries constantly changing, depending on who’s currently winning) Spoiler warnings for a 22 year old book. I don’t think I can review it well without revealing some of the more essential plot points. Official plot summary: It began as a sudden strange fancy… Polly Perks had to become a boy in a hurry. Cutting off her hair and wearing trousers […]

Refusing to conform to stereotypical gender norms on two different continents

My Name is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende

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3.5 stars Thanks to Netgalley and RandomHouse for this ARC. My opinions are my own. Emilia del Valle Claro grows up in San Francisco in the latter half of the 19th Century. Her mother, Molly, is of Irish descent and was a nun before she was seduced by an unscrupulous young Chilean aristocrat, who left her pregnant and entirely without support (she obviously had to leave the convent). She married Francisco Claro, the intelligent and kind-hearted teacher at the Aztec Pride School, and he’s the […]

Dead gods, decapitated corpses and dastardly ex-husbands

Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher

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CBR17 Bingo: Purple (most of the cover, barring the cover image, is a lovely lavender purple) Stephen is one of the paladins of the Saint of Steel (who was a god, despite the name), who died very suddenly and unexpectedly a few years back. No one thought gods could die, and a lot of his paladins killed themselves and caused massive amounts of damage when it happened. Now, Stephen and the six other paladins who remain are housed at the Temple of the White Rat […]

Sometimes, scoundrels make the best partners

The Wedding Con by Janine Amesta

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Thank you to Janine Amesta and Tule Publishing for this ARC. My opinions are my own. This is the second book in the Love is in the Air series, but this book can be read as a standalone as well. If you prefer to start at the beginning, the first one is Love at First Flight (which I literally, just NOW, as I was writing this, realised is a pun on “love at first sight”. Now I feel stupid.) Naomi Moreno wants to help her stubborn and independent older […]

“You built a nice adulthood over the ruins of a shitty adolescence, my therapist once said.”

Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood

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Nowhere Book Bingo 2025: A book set on vacation   Official plot summary (because it’s better than anything I could come up with): Maya Killgore is twenty-three and still in the process of figuring out her life.   Conor Harkness is thirty-eight, and Maya cannot stop thinking about him.   It’s such a cliché, it almost makes her heart implode: older man and younger woman; successful biotech guy and struggling grad student; brother’s best friend and the girl he never even knew existed. As Conor […]

“Shay had always had one of those faces meant for smiling. Not every face was meant for smiling but Shay’s was one of them.”

In a Jam by Kate Canterbary

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3.5 stars CBR17 Bingo: I (A book title beginning with I) Official plot summary: When Shay Zucconi’s step-grandmother died, she left Shay a tulip farm—under two conditions. First, Shay has to move home to the small town of Friendship, Rhode Island. Second—and most problematic, since her fiancé just called off the wedding—Shay must be married within one year. Marriage is the last thing in the world Shay wants but she’ll do anything to save the only real home she’s ever known. Noah Barden loved Shay […]



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