Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I finally read Fourth Wing (Bingo blackout, just before the deadline!)

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

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3.5 stars CBR16 Bingo: Smash (romantasy – I want it on record that I hate this term, by the way) Since this has been a huge success and had lots of attention on the TikToks and the like, I’m not even sure if I need to give much of a plot summary, but here goes: All her life, Violet Sorrengail has wanted to become a Scribe, like her father. However, her mother, a commanding general of the army of Navarre (the fictional country this is […]

Filled my Earth Day square! (Double bingo)

The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older

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CBR16 Bingo: Earth Day (while this novella is set off-Earth, a lot of the plot involves conservation efforts to try to reintroduce healthy biodiversity on Earth) Mossa is investigating the mysterious disappearance, most likely a suicide, on one of the human colonies on Jupiter. Mossa discovers that the missing man worked at the colony’s university, where conveniently for her and her further investigation, Mossa’s ex-girlfriend is a scholar working with others to try to recreate the ecosystems of Earth before it collapsed. Pleiti is surprised […]

“Happy wedding”, Evemer said. “I got you this door.” (Bingo)

A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland

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CBR16 Bingo: Golden Gold in the title and gold as a pivotal part of the plot. Also pretty much all of the central characters are solid gold. Kadou is the younger brother of the sultan of Arasht, and is delighted that she’s just given birth to a healthy baby, putting him further down the line of succession. Unfortunately, the baby’s father, a powerful ambassador at court, believes Kadou to be jealous and a threat to both his baby niece and his sister. Nothing could be […]

Is there anything more we can ask of a romance than for it to make us feel swoony? 

Georgie All Along by Kate Clayborn

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Once upon a time, I told a story about myself. And maybe if I can make some of that story come true—Buzzard’s Neck, The Bend, whatever—I’ll be closer to writing a new one.   Much like how I’m finding younger heroines less relatable, I think I’ve also reached the point in my reading life where perfect/mostly perfect main characters are no longer that interesting to me.  True, the saintly, virginal, personifications of perfection that populated many of the books that blooded me (as the folks […]

I Loathed This Book. Hostile Review Follows

The Au Pair Affair by Tessa Bailey

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Is this grumpy/sunshine romance or old coot/youth? Do vegans wear leather skirts? How much does an average hockey player weigh? Why does she keep cooking them dinner? How is this a rational custody arrangement? Keep reading to find out. From Amazon: Tallulah is smart, vivacious, and studying to be a marine biologist. She’s also twenty-six and broke. So when Burgess, a battle-scarred hockey veteran and newly single dad, offers her a job as his live-in nanny, she jumps at the opportunity to get paid while […]

A Spoooky Gothic Romance

The Cruel Dark by Bea Northwick

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You’re promising me some traumatic amnesia, a giant scary estate, and possible ghosts and/or fairy shenanigans? Yes please thank you Bea Northwick! A perfect read for the week before Halloween. Millicent Foxboro is alone in the world. Having overcome a difficult childhood and amnesia that mysteriously erased four years of her life, she now craves stability. When an unexpected job offer arrives with a ridiculously large salary Millicent feels she must take it. She arrives at the once grand but now overgrown estate with its […]



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