Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Some romantic books I read this summer and am reviewing now to reach a double Cannonball

Fangirl, the Manga: Volume 3 by Rainbow Rowell and Gabi Nam

Deal with the Devil by Kit Rocha

How the Wallflower Was Won by Eva Leigh

Knockout by Sarah Maclean

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Fangirl, the Manga: Volume 3 – Rainbow Rowell and Gabi Nam Rating: 4 stars This August saw the release of the third installment of Rainbow Rowell’s manga version of Fangirl, my absolute favourite of her books (did I just buy a fancy tenth-anniversary edition, even though I own it in three other formats, NOT counting the mangas? You betcha). Cath is still struggling at college. Her writing partner Nick steals the story they’ve been working on together and makes her seem unreasonable for being upset […]

“Everything begins and ends at exactly the right time and place.”

Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay

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On St. Valentine’s Day in 1900, three Australian schoolgirls and their teacher vanish while on a school outing at Hanging Rock. Though they have disappeared from view like a rock dropped into water, the consequences of what happened will ripple outward until they touch the stories of even those who had been on the periphery of their lives. I’ve had my eye on the book for a few months now, so when I opened my Cannonball Book Exchange package from ElCiccio to find she’d send […]

A lovely return to Wedgeford

The Marquis Who Mustn't by Courtney Milan

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This is an ARC I received from the author. My opinions are not influenced by my free copy. I have also already pre-ordered the book. Official book description: Miss Naomi Kwan has long wanted to take ambulance classes so that she can save lives. But when she tries to register, she’s told she needs permission from the man in charge of her. It would be incredibly wrong to claim that the tall, taciturn Chinese nobleman she just met is her fiancé, but Naomi is desperate, […]

“So this is merely romance,” she frowned disapprovingly. “I was hoping for an epic adventure, or a gothic mystery at the very least.” Ned laughed. “Darling, don’t worry, the story has just begun.”

The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton

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Official book description, because I finished this book two months ago, and the plot is rather convoluted: Cecilia Bassingwaite is the ideal Victorian lady. She’s also a thief. Like the other members of the Wisteria Society crime sorority, she flies around England drinking tea, blackmailing friends, and acquiring treasure by interesting means. Sure, she has a dark and traumatic past and an overbearing aunt, but all things considered, it’s a pleasant existence. Until the men show up. Ned Lightbourne is a sometimes assassin who is […]

Life and Death in the Asylum

Broadmoor Inmates by Nicola Sly

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CBR 15 Bingo – Violence: On their path to the asylum, nearly all of the people profiled in this book committed violence to others, and many to themselves as well. Broadmoor is a well-known psychiatric hospital that originally opened in 1863, but until the 1950s or so, the “criminally insane” people sent there were mostly there for confinement rather than effective treatment. I’ve always enjoyed true crime, but having also recently become intrigued by attitudes toward mental illness throughout history, I was excited to have this […]

“I may of use to you yet, my dear dragon”

Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

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4.5 stars CBR15 Bingo: History (set in an alternate history, in the Victorian era) 15-word review: Introverted lady scholar goes to fictional Iceland to research faeries, followed by her handsome colleague. Official book description (because I finished this at the start of May): Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is […]



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