Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Naina Kumar Makes a Familiar Story Her Own

Say You'll Be Mine by Naina Kumar

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Say You’ll Be Mine is Naina Kumar’s debut novel. She takes a familiar story, the fake engagement for reasons, and through her characters makes it her own. As a romance reader, I am happy to read the same basic plot over and over again. I do want to read books with fleshed out characters and a strong author voice. Naina Kumar does that beautifully. Meghna gets a shock when she’s invited to her college boyfriend Seth’s wedding. She hadn’t know he was serious about anyone […]

“I think, in this case, ‘alligator tears’ would be a more appropriate wording.”

Guilty Creatures: Sex, God, and Murder in Tallahassee, Florida by Mikita Brottman

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Two couples in Florida make up a close knit quartet of best friends, until one husband vanishes while out duck hunting, sparking a long running mystery that will remain unsolved for more than a decade. In the annals of true crime, murder as the solution to an affair is a common occurrence, mundane even when stacked up the ranks of serial killers and mass murderers who generally get top billing. But even a ‘mundane’ crime is a story in itself, and the people they victimize […]

Thank you for letting someone else remember this moment, treasure it with a hand against my belly.

Ready or Not by Cara Bastone

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Well this was lovely and exactly what I needed in this moment. Fellow Cannonballer LB was asking in another group we share what to call a surprise pregnancy trope. I realized that I also had an arc of the book they were asking about, and that I desperately wanted to read a surprise pregnancy book. For reasons, I had been thinking a lot about two recent deaths that I hadn’t allowed myself to mourn because my relationships with both people were so complicated and thorny. […]

Racing Time

Lexington: The Extraordinary Life and Turbulent Times of America's Legendary Racehorse by Kim Wickens

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A horse called Darley was born on a farm in Kentucky a decade before the Civil War; under the name Lexington, he broke the world record for speed and left an imprint on the world of American horse racing that persists to this very day. I was never a horse girl, but in elementary school I had a phase in which I read a great deal of Marguerite Henry and Walter Farley. As such, I’ve probably seen about four horses close up throughout my life, […]

Alphahole vs Therapy

A Christmas Consequence for the Greek by Lucy King

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Caterer Mia doesn’t think there’s any issue in topping off her triumph at billionaire Zander’s birthday bash by going to bed with him – until she realizes the one night stand’s resulted in a baby. Harlequin romances come through for me whenever I want a low brain happy read, and have done so again in this book. It’s part of the Harlequin Presents imprint, which is the line you’re thinking of when you think of the classic high drama romance with wealthy heroes and exotic […]

Sunshine tightly wound meets grumpy tightly wound, everyone comes undone

Wild Life by Opal Wei

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What happens when a burnt out, high strung cancer researcher runs into an anxious, handsome, recovering boy bander with a private island and a elderly cougar? Shenanigans, wild animal attacks, a massive storm, run-ins with the law, and the complete abandonment of The Plan. Zoey Fong already has an M.D., but she is in a prestigious doctoral program  to be a cancer researcher so she can cure cancer in kids like her sister. She hates her program, her lab mate, and the mug collection she […]



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