Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Good mystery and puzzling puzzles

Winterhouse by Ben Guterson

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“Some people say this world of ours is just a tumbling stone. No soul, no guide, no heart within, mere atoms all alone. But I believe there’s more to things than simply meets the eyes. There’s good and bad—and so I say: Make sure the good survives.” I first read this book years ago, but recently was cleaning and reorganizing my bookshelf, saw it, got inspired, and decided to revisit it. Elizabeth Somers, an orphan, got shipped of to Winterhouse Hotel buy her aunt and […]

A Jamaican-inspired YA fantasy with dragons

So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole

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So Let Them Burn is the debut YA fantasy from Kamilah Cole. Our leads are two Afro-Caribbean sisters. They live on a small tropical island, which was inspired by Jamaica. We meet Faron who called on the gods and was blessed with power to save her country from colonial invaders on dragons. It’s been a few years since the traumatic battle. Now she is kind of a bratty teenager who uses her magic to win races against bullies. Much to the chagrin of her sister Elara […]

There’s a magical home for everyone, even if you stopped looking

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

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The House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune is worthy of all the hype. Linus works for a government agency that manages magical children. He is essentially a social worker. He sticks to himself and follows the rules to the letter. How else can he minimize conflict in his life? He lives alone with his cat and is rather ordinary if you ask him. He isn’t quite coasting more like he doesn’t want to upset the order. He absolutely does not want to garner […]

Ignore the Marketing on This One—This Is a Different Kind of Dragon-Novel

The Sky on Fire by Jenn Lyons

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Jenn Lyons is back on the dragons again, it would seem. Is she also back with her complexity addiction? Let’s find out! Despite already having a fantasy series tied to dragons, this new book has no link back to that story whatsoever. This is its own new thing; a new kind of story with a new set of dragons. And just what kind of story is The Sky on Fire? Rather than a sprawling fantasy epic, this time we’re dealing with heist! We are also dealing […]

“But perhaps that’s the point: the trials and tribulations of life weigh heavily upon us, but we find people to help lighten the load.”

Somewhere Beyond the Sea (Cerulean Chronicles #2) by TJ Klune

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THIS IS IT. I’M DOING IT. MY 52ND BOOK REVIEW OF 2024 BABYYYYYYYYY. And what a delightful tome to end it on!  I have been eager to read the 2nd in this series since it came out, but of course the holds list at the library is five-ever deep. And then, I walk in two weeks ago and TAH DAH it’s on the hot picks shelf, where they put out 1 or 2 copies of new books that you can check out, for one less […]

Time loops that feel like fairyland.

The Last Hour at the End of the World (The Echo Archive, #1) by Melissa Caruso

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Thanks to NetGalley, Hachette Audio, and Orbit for the ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review. Firstly, this is way more fantasy than it is sci-fi, for those who want the proper expectations. There are time loops and parallel universes, but they function on what feels like magic much more than science. And this is a book with a fantasy heart. Feeling blah right now, so here’s the (truncated) blurb: Kembral Thorne is spending a few hours away from her newborn . . […]



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