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:

The Charms of a Competent Man

Lord Ravenscar's Revenge by Barbara Cartland

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After Romara is beaten and thrown out of the house by her sister’s abusive lover, the last thing she expects is to wake up married to Lord Ravenscar, who wed her while extremely drunk. But when he steps in to help her solve Caryl’s problems, she starts to wonder if they will be able to make a real marriage work. I read a lot of historical romance, so of course I am familiar with the insanely prolific Barbara Cartland, though I haven’t read any of […]

Magical Thinking Gone Wrong

The Vampire's Cult: The Untold Story of Obsession, Control, and a Shocking Small-Town Murder by Chet Hardin

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When Sydney Loofe goes missing after a date with a woman she met online, people fear that she’s met with foul play, but no one can predict the strange long road that brought her killers to the point of her murder. Despite this case having occurred in the past decade, I didn’t have much of a recollection of it going into this book. As such I was the perfect audience to be jerked around by each strange twist and turn as it happened. This is […]

The Audacity of Princes

The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I, Queen of Naples, Jerusalem, and Sicily by Nancy Goldstone

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Joanna I, Queen of Naples, is best known today for having stood trial for the murder of her husband during the height of the bubonic plague, but she faced many other challenges during her thirty-year-long reign. The whole time I was listening to this audiobook, I kept marveling at the absolute audacity of the royal men of this era, who over the decades launched a number of invasions and plots in an attempt to claim Naples for themselves. A woman on the throne seemed to […]

The Hand that Mows the Lawn

The Secret Lives of Murderers' Wives by Elizabeth Arnott

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Three women who met because they were all at one point married to a serial killer band together to try and stop a potential new killer when women start disappearing around where they live. This book picks up with an unusual premise – what is it like to have been the closest person to a serial killer, and not have it believed that you knew nothing of their crimes? The author does an excellent job of grounding us in the place and time of the […]

Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Abduct

Sweet Savage Love by Rosemary Rogers

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July 18, 2021 Ginny Brandon, a senator’s daughter, is sent to nominally ride a wagon train to California, but is actually smuggling gold to Mexico to support the Emperor’s cause. She is relentlessly drawn to the wagon train guide, Steve Morgan. But unbeknownst to her, Steve is actually a spy intent on thwarting her father’s plans. What can I say about this book? It’s a wild ride, but one I never wanted to get off of. Ginny and Steve are a quintessential, swashbuckling romance hero […]

“Luck is an undependable commodity.”

Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon by Michael P. Ghiglieri, Thomas Myers

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Two veteran adventurers and employees who worked in the Grand Canyon compile the stories of all the many people who have died in the canyon and the diverse fates which have befallen them. I visited the Grand Canyon about a decade ago, and I remember being struck by the sheer immensity of the landscape, as well as how colorful it was. My family and I just biked along the rim for a few hours, but always took plenty of care to keep away from the […]



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