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.

Highly enjoyable and very cute

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert

February 2, 2023 by Malin 3 Comments

CBR15 Passport Challenge: Books from different countries (the UK) Celine Bangura and Bradley “Brad” Graeme used to be best friends until Brad callously decided to ditch Celine and get with the popular crowd (this is Celine’s interpretation of past events, anyway). Now, every time they are near each other, they trade insults or compete academically. Their mothers are still best friends, though, which means they keep hearing glowing accounts of any accomplishment the other has achieved. One of Celine’s dreams is to become a lawyer, […]

It Takes a Village. To save you from the Fae.

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

February 2, 2023 by RevGirlUtena 2 Comments

Emily Wilde is a Cambridge Professor who specializes in Dryadology, the study of Faeries. This includes all kinds of Faeries, from cute little Brownies to the more fearsome “Hidden Ones” who are known to steal people away to the world of Faerie. She has been traveling the world, attempting to create the world’s first Encylopaedia of Faeries, and she only has one more place to visit, the frozen town of Hrafnsvik, in the country of Ljosland. Unfortunately, the town is incredibly insular and Emily has […]

Maiden voyages

A Restless Truth by Freya Marske

January 29, 2023 by Michellers66 4 Comments

For my maiden voyage in Cannonball Reads, it is a happy coincidence that my first review is for A Restless Truth by Freya Marske which is a book about a maiden on a voyage both literal and metaphoric. This is the second book in a series about an alternate Edwardian England that involves magicians, a murder mystery, and queer romance. Which is to say, entirely my cup of tea. The first book, A Marvellous Light which I also thoroughly enjoyed, centers on the adventures of Robin and Edwin. This […]

“All that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity.”

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

January 29, 2023 by acrackedkettle 5 Comments

It’s a novel about unbearable loss and terrible grief that feels deeply, vibrantly alive. The language is spare, yet lush, because to describe the world rightly can only be lavish, even when the words are simple. A monkey’s paws are described as “black and shiny, like boot leather, with nails like apple pips.” A feverish child’s face is covered with a “sheen of sweat making it glimmer like glass.” A woman in labor sees her child being born, “turning, twisting, slick, like a water creature, […]

A perfect way to start the year

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

January 26, 2023 by postcardsandbooks Leave a Comment

This book was the best way I could think of to start my reading year. After going through a bit of a reading slump the last couple of months of 2022, I awoke on the first of January to the first of Brandon Sanderson’s secret projects in my inbox, and I was so excited to get to it, I was done with it by January 3rd. For those of you who don’t know, Brandi Sandi spent his lockdown year (the year I spent in despair […]

Subverting fairy tale tropes… and llamas!

Cursed Princess Club vol 1 by LambCat

January 25, 2023 by llamareadsbooks 2 Comments

I’ve become a huge fan of webtoons/tapas/etc lately. So when I saw the amusing cover art, I couldn’t resist picking this up and I’m so glad I did. This is a silly and sweet graphic novel that gleefully subverts the usual fairy tale tropes. Gwen is the youngest daughter of the King of the Pastel Kingdom. Rather than a room full of cute forest animals or an enchanted garden like her older sisters, Gwen attracts a possum who keeps biting her head. She’s kind and […]

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