Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Magic in the Tea and Maybe Something Else

The Elegant Courtly Life of the Tea Witch vol. 1 by Ameko Kaeruda, Yorifuji

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By the cover and title, The Elegant Courtly Life of the Tea Witch looks like a mildly entertaining cozy fantasy. Remy is a tea witch, meaning she can magically make perfect tea, which o the one hand is enough that she gets to work in the royal palace, but on the other hand classifies her as basically a servant. Remy seems a little lazy and not minding this, but as you might guess, there’s more to her and her situation (mostly just hints in volume […]

A Hallmark Movie with Talking Plants and Flying Cats

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

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The Spellshop is not really a cozy romantasy as it has been sold; it is actually a Hallmark movie trying to disguise itself as romantasy. The premise: a young woman flees the city and her big city career to escape a bad thing, moves back to her very rural hometown, meets an annoyingly helpful and cute neighbor, starts a jam-making business. Along for the ride is the sassy sidekick bestie, and a variety of locals, nearly all of whom love her after some initial hesitation, […]

“Toby, please stop punching Etienne in the head. It’s not helping.”

Late Eclipses by Seanan McGuire

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Ah, the continuing saga of Toby Daye getting kicked in the teeth. After the events of last book, Toby now has to deal with her friends being poisoned, her death getting ever closer, the Luidheag not talking to her, four of five people who just need a fresh one across the face, and the possibility she’s slowly going insane; just another day in San Francisco. Rereading the series, I’ve started noticing how many books have Toby behind the eight ball for most of the plot. […]

“He also has only nine months to live, although he doesn’t know it yet.”

The Life of Chuck by Stephen King

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Based on the African proverb “When an old man dies, a library burns down” and the line from Walt Whitman’s poem Song of Myself “I am large, I contain multitudes”, The Life of Chuck is about the life of Charles “Chuck” Krantz, told backwards from his death to his early childhood, and how his death is causing the death of the universe held inside of him. Setting aside the contents for a moment, you have to love any book with Tom Hiddleston on the cover. […]

She died for the third time in a week and a half

The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam by Megan Bannen

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Tanrian Marshal Rosie Fox dies in chapter one of The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam, but that’s not her biggest problem. Her biggest problem is that she comes back to life. She’s immortal and she doesn’t like it. Rosie’s death happened when she tried to touch something inside a malfunctioning portal device. The portal device also died in the incident, requiring Dr. Adam Lee to visit Tanria to fix the portal. Marshal Fox and Dr. Lee met five years earlier, and she bound his wounded […]

Being a samurai isn’t easy

The Worst Ronin by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

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I’ve wanted to read The Worst Ronin since before it came out as I was seeing online reader copies. I did not actually get a copy until it was over a year old. With that said, it was worth the wait. I don’t think I would have appreciated the humor or elements before now. I recommend for ages at least 12 and up as there are several places where there is violence, injury, blood and other sensitive subjects.   Overall, it is the opposite of what […]



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