Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Comeback Kid

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

by 2 Comments

At 37, Carrie Soto is well past the age of retirement for a professional female tennis player, and as the record holder of most Slam titles won, she can rest easy as the best player the world has ever seen – until a younger player matches her. At this point, I probably have to admit that Jenkins Reid’s historical novels have a distinct cheesiness about them, and that I enjoy it very much. Having first met Carrie in Malibu Rising in an unpleasant cameo, I knew she […]

Love in the Quiet Places

A Daddy for Her Twins by Scarlet Wilson

by Leave a Comment

Three years after the death of her husband, single mom and physiotherapist Madison must figure out if she is ready to move on with the new pediatric doctor Fletch. I don’t know if Harlequin’s been publishing a spate of single parent romances lately or I’m just reading more of them. Sometimes they can be too saccharine or the kids might seem to have been written by someone who’s never met a kid, but when done right it adds another dimension to the romance. This is […]

“But the question I find myself asking is this: How can a man control your fate when he is not even the master of his own?”

A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen

by Leave a Comment

Freya is sick of being stuck in a loveless marriage, spending her days gutting fish and keeping house. But when she reveals her identity as a child of the goddess Hlin, she is swept up into the politics of the realm, for it has been prophesied that whoever controls her fate will become king of the land. Fantasy was always my first love when it came to books. Nowadays I have ranged far from that familiar region, but sometimes you just want to go back […]

Meet-Cute + Forbidden Romance + K-pop = Adorable

XOXO by Axie Oh

by Leave a Comment

I picked this up for the 2024 Popsugar Reading Challenge, which has a prompt for a book about K-pop. Other than knowing that BTS is a huge band, I have no real grasp of the global phenomenon that is K-pop, and so had no idea where to start. Well, XOXO was the perfect entry for me, and it was so damn sweet I’m gonna need to call my dentist. Jenny is a cello prodigy, who is working hard toward her goal of admission into a […]

The Only Unrealistic Thing is the Length of the Podcasts

Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin

by Leave a Comment

A modern day take on You’ve Got Mail, where online friends realize that they’re real-life business rivals, and drama ensues. Hana Khan is the adult child of immigrant parents, living with her family in Toronto and working part-time in the family’s halal restaurant, Three Sisters Biryani Poutine. Sure, the décor is dated, the name is weird, and Hana is the only one who likes the namesake dish, but the restaurant is a staple of the Muslim community and the rest of the food is beyond […]

Romance Lost on Me

Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev

by Leave a Comment

I don’t do well with conventional romance novels; I don’t have much patience for personal drama among other reasons. For some reason though I’m usually ok with romantasy, and queer romances. I figured a Jane Austen riff should be safe; wrong. If you take away the manners and the romanticized culture/world, these people are terrible. There’s no one to really like. Not even the couples. You’re supposed to like at least one character in a romance, or least have a couple you hope gets things/themselves […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo