Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

A Fresh Take on Magic, Mystery, and Love

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

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I’ve had my eye on this book for a while. A YA story with a school of magic, magicians, and vampires? I’m in. I had heard that the idea for the book started as Harry Potter fanfiction so I was curious to see how that turned out. Simon is the Chosen One who is being tutored by The Mage in order to be the best wizard the world of mages has ever seen (sound familiar?). His nemesis and roommate, Basilton “Baz” Grimm-Pitch is an undercover […]

Witty, funny, and definitely fanfiction

Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Finn Garner

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CBR 16 Bingo – Fanfic: I really struggled to find something I actually wanted to read for this category, but I finally found it. You might argue that this isn’t fanfiction, but it meets the definition so what can you do. It’s an adaptation of the original story written by an appreciator of the works. I don’t see the problem. You know a book is going to be good when it has a quote this spectacular. “The wolf said, ‘You know, my dear, it isn’t […]

1960’s noir, an art heist, dark family secrets, vintage cars, and loads of sex

Tenebroso by thesehands

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Tenebroso by thesehands Ronan was a portent, an omen, a sign that Adam might be in real danger; Declan had sent the most dangerous person he knew to protect him. ― thesehands, Tenebroso As he lay in Adam’s arms, Ronan noted the differences between what he remembered and what he currently felt. Adam was not as bony as he used to be, no longer elongated with the awkward stretch of adolescence. He was warmer than Ronan’s memories, perhaps only because he was real and tangible […]

I’m pretty sure Jane Austen would’ve mocked this book relentlessly. 

Miss Austen by Gill Hornby

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1840s England. Cassandra Austen, professional spinster and sister-of, arrives at the home of a relative who has just lost her father, and because said father was a parson, she is forced to vacate the house in which she’s been living to make room for the new guy. The relative, Eliza, is not thrilled to see Cassandra, but Cassandra doesn’t care: her sole mission is to find the letters that her sister Jane once sent, to protect her reputation and keep her secrets. **Spoilers herein** Spoiler […]

The Ministry of Time: the strangest fan fiction

The Ministry of Time by Kaliene Bradley

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mood music: running up that hill – kate bush This was the strangest little novel I have read this year. But, it was one of the most original plotlines I have read in a long time. I had to do real googling to understand the background details that inspired this story because one of the characters is based on a real historical figure.  Our unnamed protagonist, a British-Cambodian civil servant in London, is recently promoted to Bridge for a new pilot program in a new […]

There’s Something About Mary

Mary B: A Novel by Katherine J. Chen

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Cbr16bingo fanfic  As I have mentioned in previous reviews, I love Pride and Prejudice. It’s one of my favorite novels of all time. I have read and enjoyed several re-tellings of the novel, such as Jo Baker’s Longbourn, Curtis Sittenfeld’s Eligible, and Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I guess those are “fanfics,” but when I think of fanfic, I think of stories like All the Young Dudes, which use a famous novel as a jump off point to imagine life beyond the original […]



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