Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Cletus Is Bold Choice of Hero Name

Beard Science by Penny Reid

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A friend (it’s emmalita) and I have a running joke about Penny Reid that she is on probation with us, though we clearly keep reading her contemporary romances and seem to take turns actually paying for them. Reid was on secret probation, then double secret probation, then an unprecedented triple secret probation, before peeling back to regular probation and now she’s on “wait and see” status. That’s all a long walk to say that Reid’s work has been uneven, but can be very enjoyable when the […]

Wonderfully Sarcastic, Quietly Romantic

Pretty Face by Lucy Parker

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Lucy Parker is TWO for TWO! Buy this one! Pretty Face follows the contemporary romance that I hope you’ve already read, Act Like It, in Parker’s London Celebrities series and she continues to mix clever writing and emotional sincerity to gain engaging, recommendable results. Herewith the only note I took while reading, “wonderfully sarcastic”; although, I highlighted several passages, such as, “It’s a lost art, condescension. Most workplaces are so PC these days that you just don’t get patronized in quite the same way.” and […]

Kicking Ass and Taking Fake Names

Chase Me by Laura Florand

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Relentless, determined, good with knives, and the hero is no slouch either. In this Laura Florand contemporary romance, Chase Me, she proves again why she’s one of my favourite authors by having two badass leads instead of the usual one. Violette Lenoir meets Chase Smith when he breaks into her Michelin two-star restaurant right before she leaves for the night. He’s some kind of former SEAL government operative – though he claims to work in private security –  but she doesn’t know that when she […]

Convenient Exoticism and a Wedding Night Without Central Heating

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This first book in Mary Balogh’s new Regency romance Westcott series got off to a good start with a great heroine, a play on a familiar romance plot, and a somewhat inscrutable hero. About halfway through, the story lost steam and fell prey to a trope whose day has past. Once again, a toad of an aristocrat has had the temerity to die and leave his estate in disarray as he failed to disclose a rightful heir to his fortune and rendered his own children […]

Unexpectedly Histrionic Historical Romance

The Secrets of Richard Kenworthy by Julia Quinn

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A new release, The Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworthy is the fourth book in Julia Quinn’s Smythe-Smith Regency romance series. I feel like all of my reviews of her recent novels are repetitive, to wit: Julia Quinn is an excellent gateway author for people who want to try Regency romance. The writing is light and fun. Deft is the word I always come back to. Since her Bridgerton series, her quality has fallen off a bit. The Bridgerton series is really strong though. It has […]

Another Historical Romance, Late Even for Epiphany

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I really like Cecilia Grant’s Regency romances, so I snapped up this novella over Christmas. She is a very strong writer and I buy or borrow everything she writes. In particular, she has a facility for changing tone and style according to the story she is telling. In this case, that means a light and droll spirit for a Yuletide sliding awry. A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong is a prequel novella for Grant’s Blackshear Family series. I read the books out of order and would […]



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