Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Queer as Folk(tales)!

Tales From Beyond the Rainbow by Pete Jordi Wood

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In pursuit of the idea that queer people have always existed (and therefore will persist), Pete Jordi Wood has put together this gorgeous collection of folk and fairy tales that earlier folklorists chose to “clean up” or dismiss. Tales From Beyond the Rainbow: Ten LGBTQ+ Fairy Tales Proudly Reclaimed is a darling little book with big important stories. While earning his folklore degree, Pete found a Danish folktale “The Dog and the Sailor” that felt undeniably queer. He self-published his translation of the tale, and […]

For Vampires, Every Night is that Time of the Month

Vampire Menstrual Syndrome: The First Cycle by S.C. Hunter

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Full disclosure here, I absolutely did choose this book for its cover. And its title. I saw the author posting about it on TikTok and and when she offered up some advance copies, I was immediately in. But of course, I am an epic procrastinator, so I just finished reading it in time for its publication date, which is today, Friday the 13th. Happy birthday, Vampire Menstrual Syndrome! (Or would that be unbirthday?) I need to admit that I made some assumptions about what this […]

Gay-Lesbian Solidarity

Gwen and Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher

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CBR 15 Bingo – Queer Lives: Both the main characters in this book are queer, and one of the major plot-lines concerns itself with what must change in society for them to live their lives openly. Hundreds of years after the time of Arthur Pendragon, his descendent Arthur Delacey is betrothed to Gwen, the princess of England. If only she wasn’t more interested in the only female knight in the realm; if only he wasn’t more interested in her brother… I picked up this book because […]

My Kind of Western

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

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This novella has been sitting on my kindle forever and I don’t know why it took me this long to read it but I’m so glad I finally did! I think I’ve talked before about my struggles with short fiction, I always want more. This one wasn’t any different. I don’t know if reading any of Gailey’s other novellas would help clear up some of the background on this story. It’s set in a dystopian America torn apart by war with most people reduced to […]

The Limits of a Good Metaphor

King of Immortal Tithe by Ben Alderson

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Listen: it’s fundamentally really tricky to pull off a romance when the premise for their connection is that this is the ONLY person who can physically touch you and not die. Our basics here are fairly simple: our ingenue protagonist is abducted in a kind of marriage trade to a fae prince whose touch drains people’s life force, causing instant death. Except it doesn’t work on our hero. Possibly because he’s already dying. And that creates an instant connection. But that premise only goes so far, right? […]

There is Such a Thing as Having TOO MUCH of a Type!

Lord of Eternal Night by Ben Alderson

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Okay, so, full disclosure: I’m trying to burn through my Kindle Unlimited backlog list, because I’m cancelling my subscription next month, because I hate a price hike. (The new fees system also charges readers more to pay authors less, which is corporate greed at its finest. But, theoretically, this review isn’t supposed to be my Rant About the Evils of Capitalism, but I digress). Lord of Eternal Night is your typical monster-y romance: ingenue protagonist gets sacrificed to the monster, finds out they’re not so monsterous after all, […]



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