Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

This review ended up way more angry than I thought it would.

King of Scars (Nikolai Duology, #1) by Leigh Bardugo

by Leave a Comment

I thought this was miles in quality above the original Grisha trilogy, but I’m still a little conflicted in my reaction to it. In terms of the actual writing and my engagement with the characters, I enjoyed this book so much more than the original trilogy, though not nearly as much as the Six of Crows duology. You can tell she’s improved as a writer, but for my personal taste, this book relied too heavily on older storylines and characters, and I wish she wouldn’t […]

What if you could weaponize memories?

The Memory Thief by Lauren Mansy

by Leave a Comment

Lauren Mansy’s The Memory Thief was the Mocha Girls Read book club read for October. I appreciate how all my book clubs push me to read stories I may not have picked on my own. I love the YA fantasy genre, so I was intrigued by the premise of using memories as power. In this world, the Gifted can take memories and weaponize them by forcing bad memories on other people. There’s an evil tyrant named Madame who enjoys wielding memories for cruel means and […]

Just a real bummer here, as this first trilogy sputters to a close.

Fire Study (Study, #3) by Maria V. Snyder

by 3 Comments

What a bummer of a book. In more than one way! It’s a bummer in that I didn’t like it and it didn’t live up to how good the first one was, and the second to an extent as well. And a bummer because seemingly nothing good ever happens to these characters, only bad things, horrible things, and everyone spends the whole book arguing basically. The plot was also messy as hell. It supposedly focuses on Yelena and Leif, along with Marrok, Moon Man and […]

Not as good as the first; in retrospect, better than the third.

Magic Study (Study, #2) by Maria V. Snyder

by Leave a Comment

I liked this book and enjoyed reading it. I basically read it in a day. I did think it was a little scattered, but that was probably inevitable as Snyder builds up her world, and Yelena isn’t confined to the castle in Ixia anymore. But that does mean that it wasn’t as purely pleasurable as that first book, which was so well constructed and centered. I think this book does manage to avoid second book syndrome. Things I liked: *The worldbuilding in Sitia, Yelena’s homeland, […]

Beasts of jargon.

Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

by 2 Comments

Let’s face it. If Rainbow Rowell wrote the instructions on the back of a box of oatmeal, I would read it. Many Cannonballers understand exactly what I’m saying and I have to thank their rave reviews from the early days for introducing her to me. “Fangirl,” in particular, is one of my favorite books. Rowell captures what it’s like to be a college freshman: starting at square one, trying to make new friends, and figuring out who you are. The main character in that novel, […]

Thank You, Next: Throne of Glass

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

by 2 Comments

Throne of Glass – Sarah J. Maas Finished March 19, took 12 days to read 3 Stars on Goodreads Genre: Young Adult Rating: 2/3 Young Adult I had incredibly high hopes for this series as I devoured Sarah Maas’s other series: A Court of Thorn and Roses. Unfortunately, Throne of Glass did not draw me quite as quickly. I can’t quite put my finger on why, as there were a lot of similarities between the two first books of each series. We meet Celaena, an […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo