Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

She Grows On You

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

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More comfort reads! More comfort reads! Nimona is a real favourite of mine. Before Noelle Stevenson saw success with the She-Ra series, she was writing Nimona—an absolutely glorious webcomic-turned actual-comic. The setting of Nimona isn’t actually too far divorced from what we see in She-Ra: rather high fantasy on the surface, with a lot of nerdy science and magi-tech elements scattered throughout. We have heroic and villainous knights in shining armour with jousting sticks but said knights also have high-tech research labs where they develop […]

A strong heroine, political intrigue, and magic? Yup, it’s YA fantasy time!

The Frozen Crown by Greta Kelly

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I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect from this fantasy debut, but I enjoyed it immensely. While this book doesn’t really do anything new with the various standard fantasy bits and pieces, it’s an engrossing and fast-paced read. As a warning, this is the first book in a duology, and it does have a heck of a cliffhanger. Askia’s cousin has killed her grandfather the king, stolen the throne, and basically made Seravesh into a vassal state of the Roven empire. Askia and her band […]

“There are many kinds of love. But there is nothing like a sister.”

The Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner

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3.5 stars Official book description: In a remote village surrounded by vast forests on the border of Moldova and Ukraine, sisters Liba and Laya have been raised on the honeyed scent of their Mami’s babka and the low rumble of their Tati’s prayers. But when a troupe of mysterious men arrives, Laya falls under their spell – despite their mother’s warning to be wary of strangers. And this is not the only danger lurking in the woods.   As dark forces close in on their […]

A rose in concrete

Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas

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When I heard that Angie Thomas was publishing a third novel, I cheered. The Hate U Give is one of the best young adult novels out there, and I greatly enjoyed On the Come Up, even though it is VERY different. I paused when she announced it would be a prequel…about Maverick. I was not so sure I wanted to read a whole book about Maverick. And then I promptly devoured the whole thing last weekend and soaked up every word. As it turns out, […]

Proof that prequels can absolutely work if you have the right story.

Concrete Rose (The Hate U Give, #0) by Angie Thomas

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To be quite honest with you, not only do I feel this is an excellent prequel (a rare beast in and of itself), I may actually have liked this one better than it’s predecessor, The Hate U Give. I will hold off on stating that for certain as I haven’t read that book since it was first published, so my memories of it aren’t the freshest. But this book was great! Prequels CAN be done, if you have an author that isn’t scrambling to justify […]

A queer YA space fiction that’s more about social media than space? Yes, please.

The Gravity of Us by Phil Stamper

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I’m a big consumer of young adult fiction, and when the opportunity arises to read a young adult novel, I take it. I find that my college students graft onto YA quicker than literary fiction (although dystopian literary fiction has been real popular), and so I read up in order to provide recommendations. Phil Stamper’s The Gravity of Us sounded somewhat interesting, so when I saw it on display at my local library, I checked it out immediately. Cal Lewis, Jr., is a budding social […]



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