Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The devil you know

Wicked and the Wallflower by Sarah Maclean

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This is book one in the Bareknuckle Bastards series, which has a rather complicated premise that takes the reader a little too long to figure out at the start.  There is a prologue regarding three boys born to three women on the same day that are illegitimate and one girl born the same day who may or may not be a duke’s daughter.  From there the first chapter jumps into action with a mysterious stranger planning to sneak into a ball held in honor of […]

A revenge plot that thankfully goes completely wrong

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Felicity Faircloth may be the daughter of an Earl, but she is now on the fringes of society and her family desperately need her to land a rich husband, sooner rather than later, please. She’s not at all happy to discover just how dire the family’s finances are (and that they’ve kept the truth from her for over a year), but she may have just doomed them all, but telling a very inconvenient lie at a ball held by the reclusive Duke of Marwick. The […]

A scandal in London

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I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ve found that when I’m backpacking, I do very well with romances. They are entertaining enough to keep my attention in physically uncomfortable circumstances, when exhaustion can make it hard to focus. And as long as I avoid thrillers, they are not scary enough to make me nervous when I’m sleeping alone in the woods. Knowing I was going on a trip, I picked up A Scot in the Dark (2016) by Sarah MacLean. Lillian Hargrove is a beautiful red-haired […]

I just didn’t care…at all

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2.5 stars Three years ago, Seraphina “Sera” Bevingstoke, Duchess of Haven, miscarried her daughter (seriously this is NOT a spoiler, it happens in like the second or third chapter) and was persuaded by the Dowager Duchess of Haven that maybe it was best if she just disappeared. With financial help from her antagonistic mother-in-law, Sera flees her disaster of a marriage and goes to America, where she finds a business partner and something she enjoys doing enough to dull the pain in her heart. But […]

I think we all know what’s under the kilt

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3.5 stars. I’m a little picky when it comes to romances, but I had such a good time with The Wedding Date that I was in the mood for another. Very happy to report that my second attempt at a Sarah MacLean was successful! Lillian Hargrove, orphaned at a young age, grew up pretty sheltered. When she falls in love with an unscrupulous, but talented rake, she allows herself to be painted nude. Said rake promises Lily that it’s just for him and that they’ll […]

Alpha Hero to Alpha Feminist

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The Day of The Duchess made it on to Entertainment Weekly’s 10 Best romances of the year list. It’s also notable because MacLean tore up an earlier version and rewrote her hero, Malcom, Duke of Haven, in response to the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States. I’ve linked to the piece she wrote explaining that, but if you aren’t a Washington Post subscriber, I pasted most of the text below. This is a second chance at love story. Malcolm and Seraphina […]



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