Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

This Is Not the Jess Show

This Is Not the Jess Show by Anna Carey

by Leave a Comment

It’s going to be pretty difficult to talk about this book without spoiling the big twist, although the twist is pretty obvious from the beginning. It’s advertised as a cross between Black Mirror and My So-Called Life, which partially gives it away to me. Anyways, I’ll try my best to toe the line… Jess Flynn is your typical late-1990s high school girl. You know, the late 90s, Spice Girls and BSB, Titanic, TGIF, Doc Martens and babydoll dresses, Clueless, pagers, inflatable furniture and lava lamps…that […]

“We were salt and sand and sea and storm”

Namesake by Adrienne Young

by Leave a Comment

I’m still loving this YA pirate girl trend, so of course I was excited to get back to Fable’s world. Also, I adore how the covers form Fable’s face! This is the second in the duology, and can’t be read as a standalone, so this review will contain spoilers for the first book. “We were salt and sand and sea and storm. We were made in the Narrows.” At the end of the last book, things were finally looking up for Fable – and then […]

Smash the demon lizard patriarchy.

The Gilded Ones (Deathless, #1) by Namina Forna

by Leave a Comment

I was really nervous about this one. I wanted so badly to love it. I made the rookie mistake of falling in love with the cover (it’s so pretty!). And I did end up liking it! A lot! I think I want to re-read before I fully pass judgment on it, because my main takeaway right now is that this is an extremely well-written YA fantasy story (written in the first person present POV, and I liked it despite that terrible choice) that does fall […]

“It’s enough to drive anyone mad.”

Down Comes the Night by Allison Saft

by Leave a Comment

That’s a delightfully gothic cover, huh? I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with this book, but I love books that star healers, especially ones that have to make hard decisions, and this book definitely lived up to that (and the creepy cover). The fragile peace between the kingdoms of Danu and Vesria looks ready to break, and Wren, the illegitimate niece of the Danubian queen, is the only person who’s able to stop it. After being thrown out of the guard for healing (and […]

“Heirs to thrones don’t have the luxury of saying no.”

The Stolen Kingdom by Jillian Boehme

by 4 Comments

A standalone fantasy novel feels like a real unicorn in today’s market, so I was very excited to be able to read something without having to commit to three (five, seven…) books. “If you’re planning treachery against our king, I want no part of it,” I said. “You’re already part of it,” Nelgareth said. “Heirs to thrones don’t have the luxury of saying no.” Mara has a connection to growing things, a magic her mother made her promise to hide from everyone, even her own […]

When favorite authors disappoint you, pt 2: disappoint harder

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

by 6 Comments

In my second review for CBR13, I wrote about how disappointing it is when one of your favorite authors writes a book that you just do not like. I don’t know if this is some kind of cannonball curse, but with book 6 of this challenge, it has happened to me again. I used to be a huge YA fan, and the first book in Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking trilogy still ranks as one of my favorites. His short novel A Monster Calls is amazing too […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo