Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Emmalita

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Lives in Austin, Texas. She/her. Loves reading books, writing about books and talking about books. On the CBR Board. May send you an email. Thinking about new challenges. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Emmalita's Quick Questions interview.)

Emmalita's Reviews:

I Just Saunter Amok These Days

Ballistic Kiss by Richard Kadrey

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Sandman Slim is still my favorite urban fantasy series. As Ballistic Kiss opens, Stark is living alone, doing his best to deal with his PTSD, trying to figure out what he’s going to do with this new life now that Candy has moved on with Alessa (he doesn’t blame her, he died after all), and whether or not he’s willing to move on with Janet (they/them) from Donut Universe. I listened to the audiobook narrated by MacLeod Andrews. He is still an excellent narrator. Thomas […]

Field Guide to Queendom

How to Catch a Queen by Alyssa Cole

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I think Alyssa Cole is really up there with Courtney Milan (5 steps ahead of me for sure), in thinking about and wringing all the juice out of romance tropes. How to Catch a Queen uses the arranged marriage trope to dive into toxic masculinity, patriarchy as governance, and recovering from the harms of Colonialism. I can always count on Cole for excellent mental health rep, and she brings it here. Shanti Mohapti might be my very favorite character created by Alyssa Cole, and that says […]

A Soaptastic Ending to a Soaptastic Series

Serving Sin by Angelina M. Lopez

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I have really enjoyed Angelina M. Lopez’s spectacularly soapy Filthy Rich series. The series has the melodrama and glamour of a 1980’s nighttime soap, but with a lot less misogyny. Lopez centers the stories around strong women who fight to be on top in their chosen profession. The stories sprawl across time and continents, but (mostly) stay focused on the romance. Serving Sin tightens up some of the excesses of Hate Crush. One of the joys of a romance series is knowing that interesting side characters are […]

A Promising Debut with Excellent Sex Toy Rep

Happy Endings by Thien-Kim Lam

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It took me a while to get into Happy Endings, but once Trixie and Andre got going, so did my reading. Happy Endings is a second chance romance set in my favorite city, Washington DC. There was a lot I liked in this book, but I have to point out that Thien-Kim Lam does a stellar job with the sex toys. It’s unusual to see a lot of sex toy use outside of erotic romance, and it’s even more unusual to see sex toys used well. […]

I can’t get behind this exclusionary manifesto

The Menopause Manifesto by Jen Gunter

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I have been eagerly anticipating both menopause and The Menopause Manifesto: Own Your Health with Facts and Feminism for quite a while, and right now I’m disappointed in both. I know Dr. Jen Gunter knows that not every one with a uterus is a woman. I have seen her speak inclusively about trans men and nonbinary people. She also started the hashtag IfMenHadPeriods, which, well, some men do have periods. Unfortunately, The Menopause Manifesto seems to be only for women, and this undermines her stated desire […]

Modern Day Epistolary Romances

Call Me Maybe by Cara Bastone

Sweet Talk by Cara Bastone

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I’m struggling right now with three reviews. Two of them are fantastic books that give me a lot of feelings I’m trying to translate into words. One of them is for a book that has disappointed me and I’m trying to find 250 words to say “White feminism is bad.” When I get stuck like this, the best thing for me to do is to write low stakes reviews about books I enjoyed. I listened to Cara Bastone’s Love Lines series while engaged in a […]



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