Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

‘The spook and her pet’ take on an alien empire in this amazing sequel – and Bingo #2!

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

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CBR 13 Bingo: New Series – This is the sequel to A Memory Called Empire which was published in 2019 and completes my second bingo. I loved A Memory Called Empire , in my review said it was deserving its spot on the Hugo nominee list and I was delighted when it won!  The follow up, A Desolation Called Peace, is similarly incredible.  In preparation for reading this, I found an excellent recap that goes over individuals and factions, and their motivations.  I highly recommend it. The […]

“How could she ask either of them to go back when they were supposed to be moving forward?”

What We May Be by Layla Reyne

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I’ve read and loved several of Layla Reyne’s previous m/m suspense romances, so I was very interested when I saw she was writing a poly one. Specifically, a poly second chance romance! While this has some callbacks to her earlier series, it can be read completely as a standalone. “A decade we’ve been here, never quite moving on, never quite making it work, neither one of us, and when we’re finally ready for a fresh start, here you are. The past thrown in our faces. […]

Second chance, age gap romance – with a cat!

Acting Lessons by Adele Buck

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I’ve been curious about Freddie and James ever since Cath’s book (Acting Up), but there’s good reasons why this wasn’t the immediate sequel. This is a delightful second chance romance and well worth the wait. While I think you could read this as a standalone, it’s much more fun to have at least read the first book in the series. Two years ago, Freddie and James met on the set of a play while Freddie was an assistant stage manager and James, a screen actor, was […]

Second-chance category romance with a bit of intrigue

Homecoming Heartbreaker by Joss Wood

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This is the first in a new connected trilogy by three Harlequin authors. I originally requested it for the Reese Ryan book (the last in the trilogy) but was intrigued that this first one was a second chance romance, one of my favorite tropes. Mack and Molly were instant friends from the moment he arrived at Moonlight Ridge when he was eight, and it was perhaps inevitable that their relationship evolved into a romance. But after an accident that left one of his adoptive brothers […]

Little less insta-love, little more plot, please

Off Balance by Aileen Erin

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“Off balance” is definitely an apt description of how Amihanna is feeling as she’s trying to adjust to life on Sel’Ani. This book picks up directly where Off Planet left off, so this review will contain spoilers for that book. Amihanna is safely on Sel’Ani, but that doesn’t mean things are getting any easier for her. The trauma of the past few months is catching up with her and she’s not quite sure what’s expected of her as Lorne’s betrothed. Amihanna’s more used to staying […]

Trope-y vacation novella goodness

The Bed Hierarchy by Lauren Connolly

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This is a cute and funny novella that was previously in the Only One Bed anthology. So, as you can probably guess, it includes the only-one-bed trope plus the best friend’s sibling trope. Theo has had a crush on his best friend Tim’s sister for six years. She visited one weekend while they were in college and ended up staying over at his place after a party. While they were both extremely drunk, they had a conversation they completely changed the course of Theo’s life. […]



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