Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I finally read Fourth Wing (Bingo blackout, just before the deadline!)

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

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3.5 stars CBR16 Bingo: Smash (romantasy – I want it on record that I hate this term, by the way) Since this has been a huge success and had lots of attention on the TikToks and the like, I’m not even sure if I need to give much of a plot summary, but here goes: All her life, Violet Sorrengail has wanted to become a Scribe, like her father. However, her mother, a commanding general of the army of Navarre (the fictional country this is […]

“I had you in my life, and I had you in my future, and that was enough for me.”

The Undermining of Twyla and Frank by Megan Bannen

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In December of 2022 I read Megan Bannen’s The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy. I devoured it, it sunk into my soul a bit and left me with big feelings that I had a tough time initially putting into words. When Bannen’s second book, The Undermining of Twyla and Frank was announced I immediately put it on my to read list and was even more excited by Emmalita’s review in June about a love story between two folks in their 50s. When I got my […]

Something Skittering Just Out Of Frame

Dead Country by Max Gladstone

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Max Gladstone’s Craft Sequence series is one of my favorite examples of fantasy world building. Gladstone took the core idea of ‘what if soul-stuff could be traded?’ and built a magical system—known as The Craft—out of it. He then expanded further and asked ‘So what if a world’s sole currency is well, the soul? What would this mean for the financial system? What kind of corporate world would develop around this? Imagine a metropolis or two arising out of this system? How would they operate?’ […]

I Hope It Doesn’t Suck

The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman

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Read as part of CBR16 Bingo: smash. This book is a vampire novel, a historical fiction novel, and a mystery novel all rolled into one.  Christopher Buehlman’s Between Two Fires isn’t the kind of book I’d normally read: gonzo fantasy. But it came highly recommended and — in spite of itself — it worked. The imagery was overpowering and the narrative eventually caught up with it near the end. It made sense for the kind of story it was trying to tell: take the apocalyptic overtones of […]

MysterFantsyMance

The Fox Wife: A Novel by Yangsze Choo

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Cbr16bingo Smash mystery/fantasy/romance = MysterFantsyMance The Fox Wife is a beautiful novel that combines mystery, fantasy and romance, and even some history. Set in China and Japan in the early 20th century, its main characters deal with the pangs of first love, lost love, obsessive love, and the loss of children against a backdrop of revolution and a world in the grip of major change. Author Yangsze Choo writes at the end of this story about her personal interest in the fox legends of China […]



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