Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

run, do not walk, and read these

Slippery Creatures by K.J. Charles

by 4 Comments

Narfna has stolen my first line for this review, which is: I love everything about this. Seeing as how I’m 90% certain I put this on hold because of her recommendation, I suppose it’s only fair. So, yes. This was everything. I had this outstanding on my Kindle for ages, constantly pushing it off because I didn’t think I was in the mood for whatever it was. I think I had this vibe of like, cozy mystery x aristocrats, and considering that cozy mystery is […]

Two KJ Charles books I loved

Subtle Blood by KJ Charles

The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting by KJ Charles

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When KJ Charles envisioned the Will Darling Adventures, she thought she was going to release them bing-bang-boom in quick succession, but then the pandemic happened, and Will and Kim stopped cooperating. While Will and Kim refused to get to their happily ever after, Robin Loxleigh and Sir John Hartlebury insisted on theirs. I loved The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting so much. I devoured the historical romances of the 1990s and 2000. In those books, Robin Loxleigh and his sister Marianne would have been the […]

Double Cannonballing with a good series-ender.

Subtle Blood (The Will Darling Adventures, #3) by K.J. Charles

by 11 Comments

**30 Books in 30 Days** Book 23/30 To be honest, I think if (when) I read all three books in this series back to back in the future, I will bump up both books two and three from four to five stars. It has been top notch in all areas: romance, class examinations, mysteries, historical fiction set in the 1920s, books about friendship, books about secret agents and spies, suspense novels. Seriously, just in all the things this series sets out to do, it succeeds […]

Thank God they were British. He took a deep breath. “Cup of tea?”

Slippery Creatures by KJ Charles

The Sugared Game by KJ Charles

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When KJ Charles initially announced the three book Will Darling Adventures series, it looked like it would all be released in 2020 and so I thought I would read all three and then review them together. However, 2020 is awful and apparently it’s hard to write when the world is on fire and your government is trying to kill you (KJ Charles is British). I have given in and decided to review the first two books without waiting for the third. Will Darling has returned […]

That rare unicorn, a good middle book.

The Sugared Game (The Will Darling Adventures, #2) by K.J. Charles

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This book wasn’t as purely enjoyable for me as the first one, but it was really an excellent middle book that does what all middle books should do: It furthers the character arcs of the characters we care about so that they are not stagnant and wallowing, it pushes the main story arcs along further and things actually happen, and it provides its own enclosed story arc so that you are left satisfied by the presence of a beginning, middle, and ending within the book […]

”My name, since you raise the topic, is Arthur Aloysius Kimberley de Brabazon Secretan. What would you do in my place?” “Leave the country … You poor bastard, you never stood a chance.” #CBRBingo – The Roaring 20’s

Slippery Creatures (The Will Darling Adventures, #1) by K.J. Charles

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I loved everything about this. K.J. Charles is honestly spoiling me for other historical romance authors. There’s just something about her style (very detailed, historically accurate, flawed but compelling characters) that gets me right in the pleasure center. She also doesn’t just write in one time period or keep it to straight-up romance. She’s always messing around with spy fiction or mystery or golden age pulp (here and Think of England) or jewelry heists or homages to Georgette Heyer regency fiction. Sometimes many of these […]



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