Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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About Pooja

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Ardent reader of pretty much anything, including the backs of shampoo bottles. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Pooja's Quick Questions interview.)

Pooja's Reviews:

More Murder, Less Family Drama Please

The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins

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Decades after the heiress Ruby McTavish was kidnapped as a toddler and dubiously recovered a year later, her adopted son Camden and his wife Jules return to her ancestral home in a bid to claim her long-neglected inheritance. This book draws inspiration from several cases in the early 20th century in which a kidnapped or vanished child was thought to be returned, only for it to be later discovered that it was instead some unrelated child who for whatever reason was trying to be forced […]

A Handful of Lanterns Are Probably Enough

The House of a Thousand Lanterns by Victoria Holt

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Jane Leslie never dreamt when she first heard of the House of a Thousand Lanterns that she might one day live there, or that it might end up being the death of her. This is another somewhat lackluster Victoria Holt gothic romance rescued by the quality of her writing and the strong main character. I did enjoy also going out to colonial Hong Kong, though you must take the attitudes of most of the characters with a grain of salt in regards to the custom […]

Your Confederate Sympathies May Vary

The Outlaw Hearts by Rebecca Brandewyne

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When schoolteacher Jenny Colter takes the train into the little Ozarks town of Tumbling Creek, she’s hoping to leave behind the violence which destroyed her family in post-Civil War Atlanta. But when she catches sight of the uncovered face of Luke Morgan when he’s robbing the train, he’s determined to keep her quiet by any means necessary… Rebecca Brandewyne is another of those writers of big off-the-wall 80s bodice rippers which I love, though her work doesn’t reach for the soaring heights of WTF-ery that […]

But We Dream Different Dreams

The Last Boleyn by Karen Harper

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Though it is Anne Boleyn who became the second queen of Henry VIII, her sister Mary had her own entanglements with royalty which in many ways paved the way for the rise of the Boleyns. Philippa Gregory retreads this same ground some two decades later, but my understanding is that The Last Boleyn is a more restrained retelling of this already dramatic story. I thought that Harper did an excellent job of fleshing out all the many historical figures which people this book, including members of both […]

Between the Accident and the Incident

Curse of the Blumenthals by Phyllis Karas

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Three generations of journalist Phyllis Karas’s family are marked by two great tragedies – the car crash which killed six members of the family, and the murder committed by the first grandchild born after that accident hardly twenty years later. This is an interesting mash-up of a book – part family history, part true crime, and sometimes even a scrapbook. Karas dives into the crimes which impacted her family, whether they were those who committed them or the victims, studying how their effects rippled through […]

“I have received many love notes about my wit. Though they are often disguised as strongly worded letters which request I hold my tongue.”

A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales

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When a rich, eligible young man comes to town, Beatrice Steele, a Regency-era miss with an unseemly interest in crime, is determined that her younger sister Louisa will be his bride. But when he is poisoned in front of the whole ball, she must solve his murder instead with the assistance of the prickly detective Drake. This book is a humorous pastiche of Jane Austen and Agatha Christie with plenty of intrigue and funny characters, but its inspiration is while in some ways its greatest […]



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