Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Sex Mystery sounds like a genre I want to read much more of.

Hither, Page (Page & Sommers, #1) by Cat Sebastian

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Well, the sex part of this certainly wasn’t as prevalent as the mystery, but it did deliver on Sebastian’s other promise, which was “Agatha Christie, but make it gay.” Small English village, check. The mysterious murder of one of their own, check. The discovery that the small village is hiding a bunch of secrets, check. An outsider coming in to unearth those secrets, check. Lonely spy falls in love with traumatized country doctor, check. This was very sweet in terms of the romance, and pretty […]

A unique approach to a romance plot that really works

Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid

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This is a slow burn love story, the kind that takes eight years to finally come together, the kind that has both main characters taking years to realize that the “casual” thing they started when they were teens is, in fact, the most important relationship in their lives. Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov meet in December 2008, when they are both 17, at the world junior hockey tournament. They’re both the best players on their respective teams, sure to be drafted by the NHL that […]

Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy reteam for a m/m romance 4 years after “Him.” But is it any good?

Top Secret by Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy

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Four years ago, authors Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy teamed up to write my absolutely favorite m/m romance, “Him” (and the follow up, “Us,” which is also very good but more a relationship novel than a romance novel). So you can imagine my excitement when I discovered they had written another one together and were doing a surprise-release this week. The story: Keaton (rich, popular, starts off straight…) has had the same girlfriend since he was 16; they’re now 21 and in college. For her […]

Great! But…

Witchmark by C.L. Polk

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  I found this book,Witchmark, on a list of best sci-fi/fantasy books from 2018. I wanted to try a new author. The setting is an alternate Edwardian England where the elites rule with weather magic. People who can’t control the weather and are born into the elite class are seconds, forced to give their secondary magic to the weather mages. Miles Singer runs from his family and servitude to his sister and joins the war between Aeland and Laneer. Now the war has ended and […]

Slightly-better-than-average M/M romance

Fired Up by Riley Hart

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I wanted my first review to be for a book that I really loved, but everything I’ve really loved has already been reviewed here (makes sense, given they were all recommended by Mrs. Julien) so I decided my inaugural post would be for a book I liked well enough… So, “Fired Up.” This is the first book in the Fever Falls series, a shared universe between authors Riley Hart and Devon McCormack. Riley Hart wrote  “Fired Up”, and Devon McCormack wrote book #2, “#Burn” (currently […]

That time I accidentally read an M/M erotic fantasy…

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This is the story of how I read something wildly out of my comfort zone and learned from the experience. My reading goals for this year have been to a) read more female fantasy writers and b) don’t buy books but use the library (part of an ongoing frugality goal). I have been pretty successful in both–I don’t think I’ve read a book by a single non-academic male author (I don’t include academic books in my write-ups), and I have only purchased one book this […]



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