Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Pierce absolutely sticks the landing

Shatterglass by Tamora Pierce

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So concludes The Circle Opens Series, and a what a way to finish the series! Tris Chandler and her teacher Niko Goldeye are travelling just like the rest of the young yet extraordinarily powerful mages from Winding Circle. They make their way to the South to a Tharios. Tharios is a Greek/Mediterranean inspired town with a horrible and dehumanizing caste system added on. In Tharios, Niko attends a conference on vision magic, and Tris stumbles upon an immigrant glass blower, Keth, who isn’t in control […]

If you like lots of angst in your YA and stories about teenagers being assholes and doing stupid things, you will like this more than I did.

May the Best Man Win by Z.R. Ellor

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I was disappointed by this one, I don’t think through any fault of the book. I was really looking forward to it because of the premise, but it wasn’t really to my tastes, though I think what the author did with it was interesting. It just didn’t resonate with me. So what we’ve got here is two exes both running for homecoming king. Jeremy is trans (and newly out) and a cheerleader, and Lukas is the boyfriend dumped over the summer. They used to be […]

“It’s not because–they don’t want me. They want someone who’s going to cast death spells on their enemies. And if I gave them that, I wouldn’t be me anymore, so I might as well not go live with a bag of dicks.”

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

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Picking up immediately after the end of A Deadly Education, The Last Graduate is a gripping read that starts with El holding the cryptic note from her Mum and ends on a terrific cliffhanger.  At one of Novik’s events for the book release she did apologize for both books one and two ending on a cliffhanger.  When she set out to write A Deadly Education she envisioned it ending where The Last Graduate does.  Novik is a writes as she goes author, not a big outliner/planner.  While […]

It’s history, it’s the Little Mermaid, it’s fantastic!

Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen

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Mix West African lore with The Little Mermaid and you get this exciting fantasy novel and the beginning of a series featuring Simidele (Simi) the Mami Wata (mermaid) who inhabits the waters around West Africa in the 15th century when the trans-Atlantic slave trade is beginning to grow. This YA novel is a combination of fantasy and fact, allowing Natasha Bowen to introduce readers to factual information about West African cultures and society as well as the myths and lore of the diverse people who […]

A sneaky, dark YA fantasy hiding inside the skin of a cliched, predictable YA fantasy.

Dark Rise (Dark Rise, #1) by C.S. Pacat

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This did NOT go where I thought it was going. What the flippin’ heck. This book lulled me into complacency, then ripped the rug out from under my feet and pushed me down the stairs, where I landed in a pool of razor sharp knives. I am bleeding out currently. And the thing is! I should have known better! I have read Captive Prince! I know she is tricksy. I should have known she wouldn’t write a cookie cutter YA fantasy book, even though during […]

This was a miss for me.

The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan

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This was ruined for me by the writing style :\ I feel like it actually walks the line between being written in a style that just wasn’t for me, and actually being poorly put together. Which is a shame! Because this premise has real meat to it. The titular Rukhsana Ali is a Bengali-American teenager, the daughter of Bengali immigrants, and also identifies as a lesbian. She has a girlfriend she’s in love with who is white, and they plan to go away to California […]



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