Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I’m so curious what Jemisin will do next.

The World We Make (Great Cities, #2) by N.K. Jemisin

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This was a good ending to this series. It’s still not my favorite thing from N.K. Jemisin, but I very much enjoyed reading it (and it’s a fast read). I’m also glad that we didn’t get the original story or ending that Jemisin had planned (she talks about it in her author’s note); it sounded much bleaker and the series was originally going to be a trilogy instead of a duology. We’ve done the bleak N.K. Jemisin trilogy before. I appreciate that this ended on […]

I’m so sad about it, but this was so flawed.

The Sunbearer Trials (The Sunbearer Duology, #1) by Aiden Thomas

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This was fine. But “fine,” after reading this author’s wonderful debut, Cemetery Boys, is not enough. I feel like there were so many flaws baked in to this book before the author even started writing it, and they didn’t do enough to overcome them. The worldbuilding choices made in this book baffled me, and it read like a middle grade novel with f-bombs thrown in. (Not good when you’re aiming for upper YA.) Gonna bullet point this one to sort out my thoughts. *This was pitched […]

“With this book, I wanted to pit a man freed from all responsibilities but his appetites against women whose lives are shaped by their endless responsibilities. I wanted to pit Dracula against my mom. As you’ll see, it’s not a fair fight.”

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

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Despite very recently giving five stars to the latest Grady Hendrix weirdo horror book (review HERE), I was surprised by how much I liked this. As I’ve been exploring the horror genre over the past year, I’ve learned that my tastes usually run towards the lighter end of the horror spectrum, and that I don’t do well with gore and violence just for gore and violence’s sake*. I need that sort of thing to have a purpose, and I need it to not make me […]

Murder mystery romance magic ON A BOAT.

A Restless Truth (The Last Binding, #2) by Freya Marske

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I am really enjoying this series. It has so many things that I love: Lonely people falling in love, hijinks, magic, secrets, murder mysteries, an overarching plot that advances while leaving each book to be satisfying on their own, a fun Georgian England setting, queer representation in a historical time period, cheeky humor (there is a runner in here about pornography), benign and helpful ghosts, and I could keep going but that would be a bit much. And this one’s set on a boat! I […]

Time to start putting this one to bed.

Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun (Finlay Donovan, #3) by Elle Cosimano

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We’re definitely experiencing diminishing returns with this series, but I’m still enjoying myself. I think I’m ready for it to have a definitive ending, though. I don’t want the author to beat this horse to death just because we keep buying the books out of remembered affection for how crazy good we thought book one was. To be honest, I no longer remember most of the details of the plot of this book. Finlay and Vero have to find out who EasyClean is (the hit […]

Math problems on Mars.

Singer Distance by Ethan Chatagnier

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I said in a status update while reading Singer Distance that it was giving me Contact vibes, and that’s true. The homespun science and grungy academic feel of the book, along with a group of characters working towards contacting aliens does give me the same feelings I get watching that movie (I have the book and I really need to finally read it!), but Singer Distance also has its own unique feel. This is an alternate history where back in the late 1800s, scientists spotted a message on Mars and began […]



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