Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Wealth is just security. Luxury is living care free.”

The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater

by 1 Comment

4.5 stars CBR17 Bingo: Culture (A lot of people from a lot of different backgrounds, countries and cultures are forced together for a time during World War II) Official plot summary: January 1942. The Avallon Hotel & Spa has always offered elegant luxury in the wilds of West Virginia, its mountain sweetwater washing away all of high society’s troubles. Local girl-turned-general manager June Porter Hudson has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. The Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, have trained her […]

Dud Avocado

The Hotel Avocado by Bob Mortimer

by Leave a Comment

The Hotel Avocado is a sequel to Mortimer’s 2023 novel The Satsuma Complex, also published as The Clementine Complex in the U.S. In that novel, 30-year-old Gary Thorn, a legal assistant and perpetual screw-up, gets involved in a police investigation of his co-worker’s death while also trying to track down an intriguing woman who ghosted him around the same time. It was a charming novel chock-full of Mortimer’s trademark brand of absurdist, off-handed humor. (For the uninitiated, Mortimer is a British comedy legend, and a […]

Takes a “Characters Welcome” first approach

The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman

by Leave a Comment

Bingo Square: White It’s been about a year since the events of the last Thursday Murder Club novel, and it has been quiet as characters are dealing with grief and changing circumstances. But when the best man at Joyce’s daughter’s wedding approaches Elizabeth during the reception to ask for help, it is enough to kick-start the events of the novel and get the gang back together to investigate a potential murder or kidnapping. There are also a few other loose threads from previous books that […]

“Every war is a war against the child.”

The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear

by Leave a Comment

CBR17 Bingo: White – Behold, the cover. Also, a bonus! The title. Elinor is a veteran of two world wars and a trained killer, but all she wants now is to retreat into a peaceful, solitary existence in the English countryside. But when a violent past comes back to haunt her neighbors, she cannot help but become drawn in. I’m sure I’ll eventually get around to checking out Winspear’s long-running Maisie Dobbs series, but in the meanwhile I figured I’d pick up the standalone The […]

Back when there were still witches

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

by Leave a Comment

While I really enjoyed a few of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s novels, I was hesitant about this one. While her release before this one, The Seventh Veil of Salome, should have been right up my alley, I ended up giving up on it fairly early. It also had a bit of a dual/multi timeline and narrator thing going on and I just ended up not quite being as interested in some of them to keep reading. When I saw this one also involved multiple time lines, I […]

Asian inspired urban fantasy series? Yes, please

Ebony Gate by Julia Vee

by 3 Comments

Emiko left her place at home and in her family two years ago, leaving Tokyo and all the politics behind for San Francisco. However, when a death god calls in on a blood talon (a commitment for a future favor in exchange for services rendered) given by Emiko’s mother, Emiko finds herself answering the call to protect her younger brother. Someone has stolen the gate between the realm of the dead and our world, and Emiko has less than 2 days to get the gate […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo