Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

But could I have some of the cake?

The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst

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Bingo Square: Purple (maybe I am colorblind but it feels like there is purple filter overlaying this or something) This was fine. Sometimes I can’t tell whether it’s my mood specifically when it comes to cozy fantasy or if it is the book but it’s a bit of a hit or miss genre for me. It’s hard to find that right balance between creating a world that feels cozy but also has just enough of a hook or plot to keep the reader engaged. This […]

The Pine Cone (Coven) Society

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

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I accidentally picked up the fat free half & half at the grocery store so I was sorely in need of a cozy comfort read to make up for that tragedy. Librarian Kiela and her trusty assistant Caz firmly believe all books are useful. But when those books are spellbooks rescued from the Great Library in the middle of a revolution in a land where magic is outlawed for the common folk but desperately needed… they are both useful and extremely dangerous. Kiela and Caz […]

A Hallmark Movie with Talking Plants and Flying Cats

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

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The Spellshop is not really a cozy romantasy as it has been sold; it is actually a Hallmark movie trying to disguise itself as romantasy. The premise: a young woman flees the city and her big city career to escape a bad thing, moves back to her very rural hometown, meets an annoyingly helpful and cute neighbor, starts a jam-making business. Along for the ride is the sassy sidekick bestie, and a variety of locals, nearly all of whom love her after some initial hesitation, […]

Right book at the right time

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

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I recently finished the last book in Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings series, and it pretty much made me into an emotional wreck for at least a few days. I needed a bit of a palette cleanser book, so I picked up The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst, mostly because out of all the books on my TBR, it looked like one of the least likely to make me want to ugly cry. Kiela is a librarian, taking care of the spellbooks at the […]

Of Birds and Trees

The Warbler by Sarah Beth Durst

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This one feels a bit more similar to Sarah Beth Durst’s novel, The Lost, than some of her other more recently published ones – even if The Lost is my most recently read of her. Something about the main character in this one felt very reminiscent of that earlier novel, and both novels were centered within a version of our world rather than within a fantasy world setting (like Race the Sand or The Spellshop). Regardless of the setting, mother-daughter relationships always play a prominent […]

And what did you lose?

The Lost by Sarah Beth Durst

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I thought this was a stand alone novel and it is and it isn’t … from what I saw on a Goodreads review, Durst actually wrote this as a trilogy and the follow up novels are even written but due to some corporate acquisitions and mergers, the new publisher chose not to proceed with the series. Fortunately, I feel like it ends less on a cliff hanger as much as an ambiguous ending in that lets you assume what happens next. As a fan of […]



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