Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

When she wants something, she has the knack of making it seem inevitable.

Marple: Twelve New Mysteries by Naomi Alderman; Leigh Bardugo; Alyssa Cole; Lucy Foley; Elly Griffiths; Natalie Haynes; Jean Kwok; Val McDermid; Karen M. McManus; Dreda Say Mitchell; Kate Mosse; Ruth Ware

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I enjoyed this collection of contemporary writers writing new short stories featuring Agatha Christie’s Miss Jane Marple. Two of the things that make Miss Marple such an interesting character, and so ripe for reinterpretation are her clear eyed, somewhat cynical view of humanity, and the way she is underestimated because of her age. The stories that worked best were the ones that embraced these aspects. Some stories worked better than others with a couple of standouts and a couple of authors whose backlist I’ll be […]

Choose the person you want to be.

A Ghost in Shining Armor by Therese Beharrie

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One of the frequent fights that happens on the borders of romancelandia is whether or not a romance is a romance if the love interest dies. The two central elements of the romance genre are: the romantic relationship is central to the story, and there is a happily ever after/happy for now ending. Nicholas Sparks’ books, among others, are often trotted out in this fight because he is known to kill off his romantic partners. In Ghost in Shining Armor, Therese Beharrie is going one […]

“Like the Royal Society, but better, because we’re in it.”

The Rake Mistake: Heist Club 1 by Erica Ridley

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The Rake Mistake is a novella set between books 1 and 2 of Erica Ridley’s The Wild Wynchesters series. I haven’t read either book, or anything else by Ridley, but she’s been recommended frequently. And I am trash for heist plots. I thought I’d try this little bite and see what I thought. I liked it. Miss Philippa York is starchy and entirely uninterested in men. She wants to read her books and spend time with her circle of Bluestockings. Her mother’s greatest wish and driving […]

#ActuallyAutistic

Sensory: Life on the Spectrum by Rebecca Ollerton

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Years ago I was visiting with a friend from college. During our conversation she looked at me and wondered if I had a lot of air signs in my star chart or if I was perhaps on the autism spectrum. At the time, neither of those things made any sense to me, but I figured that since she was a professional astrologer and the mother of an autistic daughter that she was seeing what she was used to seeing. At the time, my ideas about […]

‘Those who see the dead soon join them.’

Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald

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CBR 14 Bingo: Time Raine races against time to save Ovitus and to provide proof at the trial. Raine and the cult she has been traveling with for years are besieged in an ancient monastery when she rescues a mysterious wounded girl. But this act of kindness only serves to pull her into a dark conspiracy. I picked up this book because I am always on the lookout for fantasy authors I’ve not read before, and because I’ve always enjoyed stories with death magic. But […]

You’re still the person who crossed a room to pick me out of the crowd.

Extra Witchy by Ann Aguirre

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Ann Aguirre’s Fix-it Witches series is doing some really interesting things within the contemporary small town romance genre. In Extra Witchy, Aguirre puts two characters who would typically be side characters in the middle of the action. Leanne is the ambitious career woman and Trevor is the stoner slacker who lives in his parents’ basement. In Witch, Please, their bathroom hookup at Danica and Clem’s party was a source of amused befuddlement, (though not unkindly because Ann Aguirre doesn’t do unkind). In another romcom, they […]



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