Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

No Reunions

There Should Have Been Eight by Nalini Singh

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Especially do not attend any reunions that are in memory of a lost friend or are being held in New Zealand.  Between this book, Wellington Paranormal, and Taskmaster NZ I’m starting to be very suspicious of what’s happening on that island. Eight teenagers were the best of friends until everyone’s favorite, Bea, died. Over the next nine years the group has drifted apart but Bea’s sister Darcie has organized a reunion for them at her family’s creepy mansion out in the countryside. It should be […]

When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?

High John The Conqueror by Tariq Goddard

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I don’t know who I would recommend this book to at all but I know that person wouldn’t have otherwise been me. There’s a lot going on with this book: mystery, folk horror, urban wyrd (which is apparently an English subgenere), as well as running commentaries on police brutality and gentrification. I’m not sure it all works — and at times it is a bit wobbly — but I enjoyed reading it. There was something about Tariq Goddard’s storytelling that made me really connect with […]

Childhood Nostalgia / American Propaganda

The Kachina Doll Mystery by Carolyn Keene

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

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I devoured both the Nancy Drew and Little House books when I was in elementary school, so it feels a little odd to read them in such close succession now. I still enjoy them, but I’ve rather lost the cuddly feeling since then. It’s more obvious to adult me that the books were written in the expectation of reaching a certain sort of child, and that child did not look like me. The Kachina Doll Mystery – 3 stars When Nancy Drew is summoned to […]

“What I am is an adult woman with agency and the tools to make choices. Feel free to, you know, treat me accordingly.”

Bride by Ali Hazelwood

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Nowhere Book Bingo: One-word title CBR16 Sweet Books: Exciting (This was one of my most anticipated book releases of the first half of 2024) Misery Lark is the only daughter of a powerful vampyre councilman, and for much of her life, she lived among human strangers as a diplomatic hostage, to maintain the fragile peace between vampyres and humans. To make her a bit less lonely, an orphan named Serena came to live with her, and now that Misery is all grown-up, Serena is her […]

“A dilemma, my father used to say, is nothing but two bad options.”

One Puzzling Afternoon by Emily Critchley

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I started this book with minimal expectations, having never heard of the book or the author, and I can now say this book wasn’t for me. Overall it was paced too slow and the book was too long for me to find it enjoyable or gripping, but it wasn’t so bad that I stopped outright (plus, it was for a book club and I tend to see book club picks through to the end). The subject matter of this book is heavy and for me […]

What if Lara Croft and Indiana Jones worked together on a dig?

Raiders of the Lost Heart by Jo Segura

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3.5 stars Official book description: When archaeologist Dr. Socorro ‘Corrie’ Mejía is invited to join an all-expenses-paid dig in the Mexican jungle, she thinks her wildest dreams have come true. It’s her life goal to lead an expedition in search of the long-lost remains of her ancestor, Chimalli, an ancient warrior of the Aztec empire. But as the world-renowned expert on the topic, Corrie should be leading the expedition, not sharing the glory with her disgustingly handsome nemesis. Dr. Ford Matthews has been finding new […]



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