Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Pharaoh (Female), the Pharaoh (Male), and the Priestess

Neferura by Malayna Evans

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As the daughter of two pharaohs and the sister of another, princess and high priestess Neferura is one of the foremost people in the kingdom. But as her co-regent mother and brother fight for power, she’s just another piece on their board – unless she can manage to break free. In first grade we had a unit about ancient Egypt, where we learned all about how they worshipped cats and pulled brains down through mummies’ noses and invented paper. And of course we learned about […]

“If you had better sense you’d have learned by now that nothing thrives so well as wickedness.”

Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor

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CBR17 Bingo: Play – Amber works as an actress in the Theatre Royal for a section of the book. Also, she’s always playing one role or another to ensnare her latest protector as she works her way up society’s rungs. Amber starts life as the adopted daughter of a farmer, but her beauty and her naked ambition has her destined for greater things – if only she can break free of her love of the unfaithful privateer Bruce. I read on this book’s Wikipedia page (because, […]

“You are the queen. You are the queen that Antoinette wanted to be . . .”

Antoinette's Sister by Diana Giovinazzo

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CBR17 Bingo: Black – Behold, the cover. Though her tragic sister Marie Antoinette is better known today, Maria Carolina Charlotte, the queen of Naples, ruled with better success but faced her own share of troubles and tribulations in her years on the throne. The thing with historical fiction is that the story can live or die by the events it’s based on, especially when it follows the life of a historical figure. Luckily, Charlotte is an interesting main character. Though her attitudes toward the monarchy […]

The King is Dead and Secrets Will Roll

The King Is Dead by Benjamin Dean

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Taken from a review found online:  Sometimes I find it really hard to rate a book, and The King is Dead is one of them. A lot of my friends had already read it and almost unanimously gave it three stars. Their conclusion: a nice story, but … a bit boring and a rushed ending, a fun read but off pacing, a solid book but lacking subtlety, you name it. And I can understand them all. And still … I found The King Is Dead […]

The Other Empresses

The Rebel Empresses: Elisabeth of Austria and Eugénie of France, Power and Glamour in the Struggle for Europe by Nancy Goldstone

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While Victoria of Great Britain is the most well-known of the empresses who reigned in Europe in the 19th century, she is by no means the only one. While Eugenie of France and Elizabeth of Austria-Hungary did not rule in their own right, they left their own marks on the lands and people over which they reigned too. I read omnivorously, but sometimes one wants to come back to the basics, and for me books about royalty count among the basics. I’m quite familiar with […]

“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 […]



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