Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Featured Review Archive

These reviews, which were promoted in CBR social media, on our homepage, and in Pajiba Love, appear below by review publication date, not by date featured.

 

Technically Not A Mystery, But I’ll Allow It

Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen

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Perspective is everything. To many readers, this may very well be a mystery. Reading as a disaster bisexual, however, my take was very different. The mystery is no mystery to me as a queer person, and I’m willing to bet a silk pajama that every single queer person who reads the book can determine who the killer is almost immediately. Why? How? If you know, you just know. (I could be wrong, obviously. Queer folks aren’t a monolith. But I’ll still take the bet every […]

Thee Most Adorable YA Sapphic Summer Romance

Summer Official by Rebekah Weatherspoon

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I have high expectations for a book written by Rebekah Weatherspoon. Summer Official exceeded them and now I know my expectations weren’t high enough. I fell in love with Saylor and Heaven quickly and enjoyed reading about their developing friendship and romance. This is a lovely slow-burn, introvert/extrovert, acquaintances to lovers romance. I want to talk about cake in a minute. The book starts with Saylor finding out her mother, a momfluencer, has posted a video crying with joy that Saylor has come out to […]

OutFoxing the Paranormal

The Forgotten Dead by Jordan L. Hawk

Rattling Bone by Jordan L. Hawk

Into the Dark by Jordan L. Hawk

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I’ve been a fan of Jordan L. Hawk since I was introduced to his Whyborne & Griffin series in 2018, and his stories have only improved in that time. OutFoxing the Paranormal is one of his few contemporary series, and it follows a group of ghost hunters who have a YouTube series and a professor at Duke’s Institute of Parapsychology who uses their adventures as part of his studies for papers. It is one of my favorite JLH series, and I cannot wait to see what Oscar, […]

Revisiting a queer collection from my ’90s youth

Am I Blue by Marion Dane Bauer

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I picked up Am I Blue?, an anthology of “gay and lesbian” stories for young adults right around when it was published in 1994. I was in middle school, which I had entered with a new haircut that earned me a lot of accusations from more ignorant classmates. But I think this was just a coincidence; I don’t remember questioning my sexuality or gender despite those comments. I expect I either picked it up out of curiosity about the gay community, or that my mom […]

For Pride Month and any month

Guinea Pigs Don't Wear Pants by Chris Paul Rainbows Farias

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The email came that said: PW’s Grab a Galley – Guinea Pigs Don’t Wear Pants. It continued Dear You Thank you for requesting Guinea Pigs Don’t Wear Pants through Publishers Weekly’s Summer 2026 Grab-a-Galley event. I’m excited to share that your name was selected as one of the winners for the title. See attached for your digital advance review copy.   So, since I won, I should read it, right?  I had a few minutes before I needed to send some reports and a few […]

The best surprise I’ve had so far this year

Fastest Things on Wings by Terry Masear

by 2 Comments

In spite of being a fervent animal lover, I rarely read animal-centric memoirs, and I’m especially avoidant of ones with “rescue” on the front cover. I find these books are generally either too depressing, too saccharine, or they are written by dedicated, well-meaning individuals with questionable writing talent. So when my husband brought Fastest Things on Wings home from one of his Little Free Library jaunts, I eyed it with suspicion. He read it first and assured me there were just a couple of heartbreaking […]



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