Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A very interesting fantasy debut.

The Last Phi Hunter by Salinee Goldenberg

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Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the ARC. It hasn’t affected the content of my review. This was an interesting debut. Not perfect, 3.5 stars, but I enjoyed myself! Before I talk about the book itself, regarding the audio, I wish I had done the hard copy instead. The narrator wasn’t bad necessarily, but he didn’t bring anything to the narrative, either. It was a pretty meh listening experience, and I’m pretty sure he negatively affected my enjoyment of the book, so keep that […]

It’s a nope from me, dawg.

Can't Spell Treason Without Tea (Tomes & Tea, #1) by Rebecca Thorne

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I’m so sad rn, but this was so dull. Cozy fantasy should still have emotional stakes. I’m actually writing this review straightly upon finishing because I just want to be done with it (barring my May YouTube wrap-up, but talking is easier than writing). Like many, I have been really, really into this cozy fantasy thing since Legends and Lattes first did its thing, and unfortunately, I think this author learned the wrong lessons from that book, which she tells us in the afterword was a huge […]

“Go then, there are other worlds than these.

The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1) by Stephen King

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I rated this four stars the first time I read it. I think that was because I hadn’t read the rest of the series yet, and now that I have in my head what this series can really do when it’s going, this one just feels a little anemic in comparison. Also, it’s such a weird book that I didn’t know what to make of it at the time, but I can see what he’s doing now that I’ve read the rest of it. In […]

“She would build herself a life of plenty. She would force her world to bloom as she’d made the pomegranate tree grow, and Santángel would help her do it. Even if blood watered the soil.”

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

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The Familiar is an atmospheric historical fantasy set in the late 1500s Spain, when the Inquisition was up and running at full power. Our heroine is Luzia Cotado, a scullion in the house of a poor noble family who uses small ancestral magics taught to her by her secretly Jewish family to get through the day: unburning burnt bread, multiplying the potatoes when there wasn’t enough coin at market, heating water, fixing a seam. The plot kicks off when Luzia’s mistress, Doña Valentina, catches her at […]

The Mushrooms from Hell and A Dragon in a Mary Poppins Bag

The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft

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The longer I think on it, the more I think I liked The Hexologists. Sometimes while I reading, I wasn’t feeling super into it, and as soon as I finished I still wasn’t sure. I think part of the challenge for me was that there’s a lot of necessary world-building going on at the same time characters and scenarios are being set up, and some things don’t get even attention. I’m still not sure about the narration; the narrative voice for random reasons suddenly seems […]

Not What I Was Hoping For, but I’m (Probably) Not Giving Up

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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I don’t think I’ve read a science fantasy book before, so this was a cool first for me. It also had more horror elements than I typically read, and I found the darkness didn’t bother me (mostly). I liked it, but I didn’t love it. I’ve realized that I tend to have trouble explaining my feelings on 3-star reads and the mix of things that worked and didn’t work for me, but let’s give it a go. Gideon Nav is an orphan living in the […]



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