Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Too Many Bumps in the Night

The Last Girl Left by A.M. Strong, Sonya Sargent

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Five years after surviving the horrific crime in which all her friends were killed, Tessa returns to the lonely beach house where it occurred in the hopes of overcoming her trauma and writing a book. But as things become increasing sinister, she fears that the danger may not be fully past. I’ve been in the mood for a thriller recently, and thought this book should scratch that itch. The summary promised plenty of suspense and chills, and I am a sucker for the ‘last girl’ […]

Between the Freeze and the Thaw

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

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When midwife Martha Ballard is called to inspect the body of a man found frozen in the Kennebec River, the last person she expects it to be is the accused rapist of one of her patients – and when she determines that he has been murdered, the situation only becomes more complex. I first heard about Martha Ballard a few months ago, when I picked up the Pulitzer Prize-winning book based on her life (A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her […]

It was a relief and a horror to be known so perfectly.

These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever

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I’m not sure if I can categorize this book as dark academia, but the characters and the story remind me so much of what I enjoyed about “If We Were Villains” and “The Secret History,” it is impossible for me not to draw parallels between them. All three stories are linked by a sudden and violent death, and how those left behind cope with their secrets. Paul is a seventeen-year-old who has recently graduated from high school. He lives with his mother and his two […]

What It Says on the Label

Identity by Nora Roberts

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Morgan’s life is destroyed when a serial killer murders her best friend and steals her identity. She moves back in with her family and starts rebuilding her life as well as she can. But she’s not out of danger yet – for it was she who Rozwell had intended to be his victim, and he’s not done with her yet. Of Nora Roberts’s many author hats, I like her romantic suspense books best. They are quite formulaic, I will admit. There is a heroine whose […]

The Truth Doesn’t Matter

Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera

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Five years ago, Lucy was found wandering the streets, dazed and covered in the blood of her best friend. No one knows what happened, but everyone believes that it was Lucy who killed Savvy – until a podcaster comes to town to dig up the whole case again. I generally avoid the recent spate of mystery books that use podcasts as plot devices. For one, I’m not even a fan of investigative podcasts, and it’s always seemed more like a framing gimmick than anything else. […]

“It was the sad privilege of blood relations to love him despite all.”

This House of Grief by Helen Garner

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In Australia on Father’s Day, 2005, a car carrying a man and his three young sons careened into a dam. Robert Farquharson survived, but his sons drowned. The ensuing murder trial would drag on for seven long years. You really do stumble across books on Goodreads that you’d never get to read otherwise. I have never heard of this case or this author before, but when it popped up in my recommendations, I was intrigued enough to put in a request at the library – […]



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