Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Love, Destiny, and People You Can’t Fucking Trust

Stormwind of Shadows by Jasmine Jenkins, Sophia Suliman

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Listen, these books are damn good. I don’t know what to tell you! If Lost Stars was about the Greywick siblings discovering the chaos and pitfalls of fated purpose, this installment is about that same approach to fated love. Because it turns out: 1) The problem with magical Love at First Sight is that it doesn’t care if you live wildly incompatible lives, and also he’d readily murder you if he knew your biggest secret. 2) The problem with enemies-to-lovers is that you can’t fucking […]

CBR BINGO – On the Road: “. . . happiness comes not from bodily pleasures or wealth or power, but from living a life that’s right for your soul.”

In the Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune

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This was very sweet and a little bit unhinged, which I of course always appreciate. This is actually a bit more in line with Klune’s self-published stuff, with darker themes and humor with a little more of an edge to it. I am REALLY curious to know what the original story in this book looked like; he’s vague in the end notes but apparently somebody told him the world wasn’t ready for it (????) and things were changed up pretty heavily. There are some light […]

“Small talk with the dragon. How are you? Eaten any adventurers lately? Sure, just had one this morning. Look, I still got his femur stuck in my teeth. Is that upsetting to you?”

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Well, everyone was right. This was great, and the marketing/art department at Avon should be shamed heavily for the way they did this book and this entire series dirty*. I imagine there are many, many readers who would enjoy this book, and presumably the rest of the series, if the covers weren’t a) heinously misrepresenting the contents of the story, and b) butt ugly and embarrassing. I was one of those readers! And then people whose tastes I trust kept pushing them on me until […]

Adventures in the swamp.

The Tropic of Serpents (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #2) by Marie Brennan

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A great thing about these books is that because they all take place in different locations, I find it much easier to remember what happened in each book, and the actual movement of the plot even months later, not something that is common for me anymore. Aging is so fun. I’m glad because this is the last book I read in April and I’m only now getting around to reviewing this. This book follows Lady Trent’s first expedition as a scholar and a naturalist rather […]

“In Swahili it’s called utu. In Zulu, the word is ubuntu. It translates to ‘humanity,’ but what it really means is ‘community.’ I am because we are. Our humanity is tied together.”

The Monsters We Defy by Leslye Penelope

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Yet another book being done a disservice by its cover. (Should I switch careers and become a book designer? I have zero art skills but I could supervise people who do and like make decisions and stuff!) Anyway, it’s an attractive, colorful cover that I really like the look of, but it doesn’t convey at all the tone of the book or what it is about. I can’t even tell this is a fantasy from looking at this cover, and this is definitely a fantasy, […]

Masterful interweaving of past and present storylines to tell a slice of demon Kai’s life.

Witch King by Martha Wells

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CBR15 Bingo: Violence – “Kai looked at her through the black film of the veil, “You could say ‘be violent’ instead.”  Tahren, who Kai was beginning to suspect had a very dry sense of humor, patted his shoulder and said, “Be violent.”  Also, the Hierarchs are bent on committing genocide on a continent wide scale. Up to this point, my only exposure to Martha Wells was through The Murderbot Diaries.  I instantly fell in love with Murderbot and Well’s excellent writing.  I admire how she […]



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