Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Let me enjoy my vampire romance nonsense in peace.”

ZomRomCom by Olivia Dade

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“Do you ever read anything serious?” Good grief, Susan. Have you seen the state of the world lately? Let me enjoy my vampire romance nonsense in peace. -Random Facebook meme   The apocalypse is coming! Oh wait, it already happened. A decade ago, Zombies were loosed upon the Earth and they ate a LOT of people. Edie Brandstrup survived, but her parents did not. Now she is a forty-something (yeah!), plus-sized (HELL YEAH!) soap maker, who lives next door to a dude-bro named Chad (Boo!). […]

“Gods and goddesses above, he was dangerous, but not for the reasons she’d once feared.”

Zomromcom by Olivia Dade

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I was unsure about Olivia Dade’s Zomromcom from the moment she shared in her newsletter that this was what she was working on. I’m not, generally speaking, a big paranormal romance person and certainly a book featuring a woman beginning a relationship with a vampire during a zombie attack certainly falls into that category. But I’ve had great experiences with Dade books previously and was willing to give this one a shot; it certainly didn’t hurt that its bright, fun cover qualified for the Purple Bingo Square.  We begin the story by being dumped into action in progress, and it really hampered my ability to sink into the book initially. Honestly, […]

Cannonball! “Armed with a burrito, Edie rounded her car and sprinted to intercept the zombie.”

Zomromcom by Olivia Dade

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Olivia Dade may have asked herself, what if The Walking Dead had a baby with True Blood and it came out a rom com? What if fat women had post-apocalypse adventures and got the hunky vampire too? She may have asked herself those questions and then written ZomRomCom. Dade opens with Edie going after a zombie with a burrito to protect her seemingly oblivious neighbor, Chad. Chad is not only not Chad, he is also not oblivious. He is a vampire named Max* and furious […]

“No research, just vibes.”

Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade

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A workplace romance that somehow manages to sidestep all the icky problems that can arise and instead gives us a lovely friends to lovers story spanning years of building respect and community and supporting each other?! Will wonders never cease. Plot: Maria is huge in Sweden and curious about the professional challenge of becoming huge in Hollywood as well. Peter has been doing Fat Guy roles for two decades and is desperate for a chance to shine as a leading man. Neither knows of the […]

“Surely sasquaches have refractory periods too.”

At First Spite by Olivia Dade

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Plot: Athena’s short-lived engagement has just ended, because her fiancé was convinced by his brother that they were a bad match. Rude. Also, maybe a little bit accurate, since he’s a doctor and she is sort of a hot mess that was relying on this marriage to buy her time to figure out her career and finances after her teaching job burned her out. Well, she might be out of money and resources, but she was not out of spite. She’d put a downpayment on […]

I Bought into Amazon’s Author Exploitation Again

Under the Mistletoe: Cruel Winter with You by Ali Hazelwood

Under the Mistletoe: Merry Ever After by Tessa Bailey

Under the Mistletoe: All by My Elf by Olivia Dade

Under the Mistletoe: Merriment and Mayhem by Alexandria Bellefleur

Under the Mistletoe: Only Santas in the Building by Alexis Daria

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I mean, I assume it’s exploitive. It is Amazon. Having had some success with the Improbable Meet Cute collection for Valentines  Day, and, as someone who absolutely loves a Christmas novella, I paid for one (the Ali Hazelwood) and borrowed the other four of these Under the Mistletoe “get to know a romance author with a  free read” stories. I imagine Amazon is doing the same thing as telling someone to work for free for the exposure. I hope they were compensated in some way. […]



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