Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Fond of Zombies, Are You? What about Zombies AND Pirates?

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

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Well now!  Steampunk with zombies and pirates, and a certain amount of historical fact to boot?  Welcome to turn of the century Seattle. IRL, Seattle suffered a devastating fire in the late 1890s which tore through the lumber constructed Pioneer Square, its original downtown.  There was also the issue of frequent rain-induced flooding, due to the steep coastal shoreline.  So the civic leaders swapped out timber construction for masonry, and rebuilt, streets and all, on the top of the original buildings.  The lower levels acted […]

It’s a bit sweet for me

Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire

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Beneath the Sugar Sky is the third book in Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series. There will be some spoilers for book one, Every Heart A Doorway in this review. The series centers around the students and faculty at Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children. A school for children who have gone through magical doorways into other worlds (e.g. Narnia and Wonderland), and then come back for some reason. They are having a hard time adjusting to life in the “real” world and wind up at […]

Fall into the sea with Mina

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh

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I discovered The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea last year, when I was searching for a read that would evoke similar feelings to a Studio Ghibli movie – and this book did not disappoint! Axie Oh’s retelling of the Korean folk tale “The Tale of Shim Ch’ŏng” delivered on its description as a feminist retelling. The heroine was strong, determined, and spoke for herself, without being overshadowed by the powerful male characters who accompanied her journey through the Spirit Realm. Mina is a young […]

Miss for me, hit for you?

Where Black Stars Rise by Nadia Shammas

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CBR16SweetChallenge #Exciting (excited to read, excited to share with others becuase this needs to be read/known about) The concept of mental health and representation of a not usually talked about community had great potential. However, the execution of Where Black Stars Rise did not work for me. Things were too abstract and messy for my eyes to focus and my “reader eye” lost the flow of things. I was not always sure where I was, who was who and what was what. For the right […]

Finally Reading This…

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

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I am a huge fan of epic fantasy, especially long, sprawling, multi-book series, and have been since childhood, so it’s a little surprising that it’s taken me so long to read anything by Brandon Sanderson (he’s been on my TBR for over 10 years). Honestly, I think the thing that finally pushed me to read one was that a trade paperback edition was released last year (I’d previously only seen it in mass market, which I hate reading, especially for longer books — I feel […]

Scheming to the Finish Line

Crush the King by Jennifer Estep

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Evie’s been queen of Bellona for a year. While she’s survived plenty of sinister plots and assassination attempts, she knows that her position will never be secure until she can defeat the threat of Morta once and for all – and the Regalia Games seem to be the perfect time for that. This is the final book in the Crown of Shards trilogy. While I loved the first book, I found the second rather disappointing, so I was hoping that the author would be able […]



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