Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Not on the bandwagon for this series

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

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Throne of Glass sounded promising and it’s been on my list for a while. I finally picked it up; it starts off well, but then it seems to forget about the actual plot and focuses on the romantic possibilities of the incredibly obvious possible triangle between Celaena, Chaol, and Dorian, and the courtly scheming, mostly by two totally underdeveloped characters who might actually rather deserve each other. There is some supernatural evil looming in the background the whole time, but that too is pretty predictable […]

“The magic is not in the ceremony of pouring the tea or the sharing of the cup. It is in the connection, the brief joining of souls. The tea leaves are a channel, the ingredients the signposts.”

A Magic Steeped in Poison (The Book of Tea, #1) by Judy I. Lin

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A Magic Steeped in Poison is a YA fantasy that follows Ning, who is an apprentice teamaker (shennong-shi) in a world where teamaking is magic. She was an apprentice to her mother, but one day accidentally brews the tea that poisons and kills her. Her sister did not die, but is gravely ill and fading fast. Amidst a rash of poisonings across the country, and Ning’s frantic attempts to cure her sister, the government announces that they are looking for the greatest shennong-shi in the […]

I’m so sad about it, but this was so flawed.

The Sunbearer Trials (The Sunbearer Duology, #1) by Aiden Thomas

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This was fine. But “fine,” after reading this author’s wonderful debut, Cemetery Boys, is not enough. I feel like there were so many flaws baked in to this book before the author even started writing it, and they didn’t do enough to overcome them. The worldbuilding choices made in this book baffled me, and it read like a middle grade novel with f-bombs thrown in. (Not good when you’re aiming for upper YA.) Gonna bullet point this one to sort out my thoughts. *This was pitched […]

Who’s Your Daddy

The Frozen Crown by Greta Kelly

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I got The Frozen Crown on audiobook a while ago and only recently finished it. Not because it wasn’t good, I did like it, I think I’ve just been more interested in print books lately. Askia is the heir to the kingdom of Saravesh. Her kingdom is invaded by the ruler of the Roven Empire, Radovan, who wants her for her magic abilities. Magic abilities she has to keep hidden because of the Shazir, magic hunting priests and zealots killed her parents for plot reasons. […]

“He was a book, and he was holding his final pages, and he wanted to get to the end to find out how it went, and he didn’t want it to be over.”

The Raven King (The Raven Cycle, #4) by Maggie Stiefvater

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This was a very good series and I’m glad I read it. This final book is all the more impressive, knowing how sick the author was when writing it. It read sort of like a fever dream, and this series was already very dreamy. I did think The Moment we were all waiting for was completely anti-climactic, and the Glendower resolution was disappointing, but for me this series was not really about those things, but hanging out with these characters in their world and watching […]

This ending made me love the series more.

The Golden Enclaves (The Scholomance, #3) by Naomi Novik

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This was such a great series, and this book a great ending to it. I feel like I was waiting for sure to say that until I finished this book, and now I can say with certainty that The Scholomance is worth reading. It all just comes together SO WELL. I was happy with the story on the surface, I was happy with the characters and their arcs, and I was happy with what is going on underneath. This one picks up exactly where we […]



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