Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

How Many Warm Beverage-Centric Books Can One Woman Read in 2023?

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

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Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree has been all over Cannonball Read the past couple of years, and given my penchant for comforting reads involving warm beverages, I knew that there was a good chance I would love it. Spoiler alert: I did! The story opens as Viv, an orc who is a ferocious and skilled warrior-for-hire, finishes up her final job and marches away from her crew. Following her heart and a spell, Viv finds the perfect spot to start putting down roots – […]

Good old fashioned pop culture salutes

Villains' Vignettes Volume 1 by Drew Hayes

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Bingo 4: Hold Steady Drew Hayes has been one of very few authors who has been both reasonably consistent and prolific without getting dull; he’s also a favorite of mine, so for all those reasons, he counts as Holding Steady. What’s new is that Villains’ Vignettes Vol 1 is a story without a connecting plot building; the three tales are a bit long to be short stories, so maybe we’ll call them novelettes. The style somehow manages to be straightforward but still have snappy dialogue […]

The Limits of a Good Metaphor

King of Immortal Tithe by Ben Alderson

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Listen: it’s fundamentally really tricky to pull off a romance when the premise for their connection is that this is the ONLY person who can physically touch you and not die. Our basics here are fairly simple: our ingenue protagonist is abducted in a kind of marriage trade to a fae prince whose touch drains people’s life force, causing instant death. Except it doesn’t work on our hero. Possibly because he’s already dying. And that creates an instant connection. But that premise only goes so far, right? […]

Beware the . . .What? Were-Cat?

Other Worlds: Peasants, Pilgrims, Spirits, Saints by Teffi

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cbr15bingo strange worlds If, one fine morning in Old Mother Russia, you are out for a ramble through the countryside, and you happen upon a beautiful but sad young woman sitting in a steam looking piteously in your direction, do not attempt to render her aid. The tears are a device to lure you to her, the reason she is sitting in the stream is because her bottom half is a fish, and it will not go well for you at all. Water spirits are […]

Sebastian huffed. “You make it sound like a crime.” “Yes, darling,” Wesley said, slow and patronizing. “Because it is.”

Once a Rogue by Allie Therin

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When I started reading Allie Therin a few years ago, I didn’t expect that she would become one of my go to authors for banter. She has though. Wesley, Lord Fine, and Sebastian de Leon give good banter as they try to find out what’s happening in the paranormal world. I enjoyed this so much and there’s so much I can’t talk about because it’s spoilery. Once a Rogue, is the second book in the Roaring Twenties Magic series, which is itself a spinoff of […]

How to Bang Your Dragon (Without Necessarily Knowing Her Personally!)

Treasured by Poppy Woods

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Listen: if you want to bang the dragon that sorta kinda grave-robbed your mother, go for it. Have fun! Dragons are sexy! But if you want to decide that the dragon that sorta kinda grave-robbed your mother is now the LOVE of your LIFE, you probably need to have a little more going for your relationship than that she’s: 1) hot And 2) here. Don’t get me wrong: the sex is good. Aside from a somewhat creepy start to the first sex scene, the sex […]



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