Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Never mix vodka and witchcraft.”

The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling

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When I started reading this book it wasn’t very far in before I was thinking to myself “hmm… I’m not sure he’s such a bad guy, ladies” as Vivienne is (accidentally) drunkenly hexing her ex, Rhys. This could be a function of any number of things including my age, my own romantic history, the fact that I waited three months on my library’s hold list to get a copy, or the general state of the world. But it did affect my enjoyment because the thing […]

“I never stopped trying to save you, so don’t you fucking dare stop trying to save yourself.”

A Spindle Splintered (Fractured Fables #1) by Alix E. Harrow

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A Spindle Splintered is a queer retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairytale, playing on the variations that exist and adding one of its own. The basic story has been around for almost seven hundred years and has flown through the hands of Basile, Perrault, and Grimm, and that’s before we get into the hundreds of adaptations so what’s another? Harrow brings her own lens to this, and imbues her lead, Zinnia Grey, with a wonderfully clear voice. It is so realistic that I initially thought […]

Ducks and biscuits and footnotes and fireworks

How to Be Brave by Daisy May Johnson

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A number of classic children’s stories start with death or dislocation: Anne leaves her orphanage for Green Gables, Mary crosses the ocean to arrive at Misselthwaite Manor and discover the Secret Garden, Papa Alcott is absent at the Civil War front, leaving his Little Women to fend for themselves–and, in a more explicit early twentieth-century influence of Johnson’s, the orphan and impoverished Bettany sisters head to the Austrian Alps to start the Chalet School. The disruption of normal life, and a stable family unit, is […]

A little disappointing…

It's Not Me, It's You by Mhairi McFarlane

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Mhairi McFarlane has become one of my favorite romance authors. I’ve read a number of her books, and I’m working through her whole collection. I ended up buying It’s Not Me, It’s You (2015) because it was not available at my library. I’ve always enjoyed McFarlane’s writing even though the English slang sometimes confounds me, but this one was a little disappointing. Delia Moss has a job that seems very much like The Office except there is no Jim around to make it bearable. Yet she enjoys her life […]

“But most of us are too scared to even ask for what we want, in case we can’t have it.”

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

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Emily Henry is a pro at taking fairly innocuous contexts like vacation and turning it into fertile ground to explore deeply emotional subjects. This is no different. Plot: Alex and Poppy did a road trip in college to visit family and despite being polar opposites in every way, became best friends. Alex stayed in their home town and set up roots while Poppy couldn’t get away fast enough, but every year, they still made time to go on vacation together. One minor hiccup. They’re in […]

Disney books are apparently a thing, and they’re not terrible!

Go the Distance by Jen Calonita

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This is a series of books that explores the Disney-verse. Since it has the brand name stamped all over it, it seems likely to be considered a proper part of canon too. If you want more time with your childhood favorites, this is just about the only game in town. Plot: Hercules is a god now! Horray! Only this means that he and Meg now live on two different planes, but Hera wants nothing but the best for Herc, so she challenges Meg to complete […]



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