Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Blue was perfectly aware that it was possible to have a friendship that wasn’t all-encompassing, that wasn’t blinding, deafening, maddening, quickening. It was just that now that she’d had this kind, she didn’t want the other.”

Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Boys, #3) by Maggie Stiefvater

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I’m mad at myself because I really liked this one but it’s been since early September that I read it so I kind of forget the specifics of why. I think the next time I read this series I will just read them all back to back and then tab all my favorite bits. Most of which will be about Ronan. Does this make me basic? I don’t care. Basic things are awesome. That’s why they are basic. Also, just the way this series is […]

A little disappointed in this one.

The Merciless Ones (Deathless, #2) by Namina Forna

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I’ve been going back and forth, and then back and forth again over whether to round this up to four or down to three stars. I think I’m settling on three stars because the plot made my head swim, and not in a good way. No one but Deka, Ixa, and perhaps Britta get significant development, so I had very little incentive to actually remember who any of them were, which didn’t help with my confusion. This is very different from the first book, where […]

Another fight to the death book, pretty good.

All of Us Villains (All of Us Villains, #1) by Amanda Foody & Christine Lynn Herman

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The end of this was messy, but overall I liked it. Really wishing for half-stars on this one. ELEVEN DAYS LATER: Okay, now that I’m actually sitting down to write this review, I’ve decided to round down on this one because the ending really killed my buzz. It was just so messy, I’m not even sure how to explain it. The premise here is that there is a town where every twenty years or so, there is a tournament, the family of the tournament winner […]

“She wore a dress Ronan thought looked like a lampshade. Whatever sort of lamp it belonged on, Gansey clearly wished he had one. Ronan wasn’t a fan of lamps.” #CBRBINGO – Holiday

The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle, #2) by Maggie Stiefvater

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I’ve been holding off on reviewing this one for a couple of days because I wasn’t sure if I was going to round my 4.5 stars up to five or not. Turns out I’m not—for now. This series and its premise make me nervous. I know that most YA goes in for happy endings, but there’s always the occasional tragical one, and I’m nervous this is one of those. So, I’m sort of holding out to see how the last two books go. If it […]

“My mother used to say that once you’ve made a choice, you have to act as though it’s been made forever. But I don’t know if I believe that’s true. Our lives aren’t decided by one choice, but by a series of small decisions that build up to pivotal moments. You can always make a different choice at the next juncture.”

The Ivory Key (The Ivory Key Duology, #1) by Akshaya Raman

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This is a book I definitely wouldn’t have picked up on my own, but it came as the second bonus book in my January Illumicrate box, so I thought why the heck not. And it was pretty good! Not great, but good. The book follows four estranged royal siblings in the made-up country of Ashoka who set off on a quest to find a magical item that will save their country. One of them is the ruler, one of them is in prison for killing […]

I found this Persian-inspired fantasy intriguing.

This Woven Kingdom (This Woven Kingdom, #1) by Tahereh Mafi

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I always try to go into books with an open mind and wanting to like them; it’s not fun for me to read books I don’t like. But even so, I haven’t had great luck with YA fantasy in the past so I mostly stopped reading it. For some reason, as a genre it’s particularly vulnerable to publishing trends and the resulting books often end up feeling the same as all the other books to me, even when having seemingly original sounding premises. Also, I’m […]



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