Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Asil the Great and Powerful

Blind Date with A Werewolf by Patricia Briggs

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In which we find out what happens when the most legendary (in his own mind) werewolf in all the land is set up on a series of blind dates. Asil is perfectly content living a reclusive life tending to his flowers. When a Concerned Friend sends him an e-mail informing him that he has been set up on five dates through various websites over the next three weeks, Asil takes it in stride. Who wouldn’t want to spend a delightful evening with all of his […]

“Gods and goddesses above, he was dangerous, but not for the reasons she’d once feared.”

Zomromcom by Olivia Dade

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I was unsure about Olivia Dade’s Zomromcom from the moment she shared in her newsletter that this was what she was working on. I’m not, generally speaking, a big paranormal romance person and certainly a book featuring a woman beginning a relationship with a vampire during a zombie attack certainly falls into that category. But I’ve had great experiences with Dade books previously and was willing to give this one a shot; it certainly didn’t hurt that its bright, fun cover qualified for the Purple Bingo Square.  We begin the story by being dumped into action in progress, and it really hampered my ability to sink into the book initially. Honestly, […]

Southern Fried Vampires

Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan

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This is the story of a family of women (the Evans) in Southeast Texas whose family business is running the only funeral parlour in town.  Well, that is their main business, but their side hustle is killing the restless dead (vampires) who end up in their funeral home.  The Evans are standing between their town and the Strigoi, who occasionally show up.  But the latest round of undead really puts the family to the test, and unearths some family secrets rising up from the grave. […]

“I am given no voice in decisions or plans!” but she wants one

Elusive by Genevieve Cogman

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Bingo 14: Citizen Elusive is part 2 of a trilogy that re-imagines some things about the French Revolution. It’s definitely fiction, but given the historical context of citizens trying to take back power from the elite which is a theme in the novel in more ways than one, I argue this counts. A major part of the fiction is the addition of the (former?) maid Eleanor to the Scarlet Pimpernel and his crew, and the addition of vampires (Marie Antoinette might still be around in […]

When the coconuts are the most interesting part of the vampire story

A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal

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Bingo 10: Migrant More than one important character in A Tempest of Tea appears to have migrated due to war/colonization/etc. to the main location of White Roaring, Ettenia. The effects of colonial violence is a actually a theme in the story, so here it is in the corner top square. I figured that a story featuring a street-wise crook (that’s Artie) and her crew, vampires, and political tensions might get a little dark, but yikes, both to the violence and the suggestions for the sequel. […]

Shepherds Watch over Their Flocks. And Angels Watch over Shepherds

The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison

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I’m a bit boggled—how did I miss one of Katherine Addison’s books? Addison is the author of the magnificent The Goblin Emperor and the follow up trilogy, The Cemeteries of Amalo*. Usually her books are an automatic pre-order for me. But somehow, I missed that she had also written an alt-universe take on Sherlock Holmes as well.  The book comes with the following tagline: “This is not the story you think it is. These are not the characters you think they are. This is not […]



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