Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“So, you finally decided to come over to the cool side of the Kinsey scale. Welcome. We have flags and the best agenda ever.”

The Secret Crush Book Club by Karmen Lee

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The Secret Crush Book Club by Karmen Lee was a perfect read after two books that put me through the wringer. It’s soft, slow, and thoughtfully sweet. Things happen, but it’s not plot on top of plot. It’s a small town, slow burn, character driven, sapphic romance. Dani is the eldest of the Williams sisters, a single mom, and a nurse. Her sisters have found their one true loves (The 7-10 Split and The Relationship Mechanic), her son is developing more independent interests, and even her […]

A whole nation that never learned, “don’t bargain with the fae”

The Rose Bargain by Sasha Peyton Smith

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This was our July book club choice – one of the club members pays more attention to TikTok and BookTok trends so she mentioned this as one that’s been gaining attention. I’m old so I don’t purposely follow booktok but see the occasional reel on IG or Facebook. I think this was kind of a quintessential summer read – entertaining while you are reading it, nothing groundbreaking and if you remember the book exists in a year, you’ll totally get the sequel but also won’t […]

What Strangers Can Teach Us About Ourselves

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

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Best for: People who want an easy read that isn’t a quick read. In a nutshell: CN: Suicidal ideation Phoebe and her husband divorced just after the pandemic. She has come to a hotel to die by suicide, When she arrives, it turns out she’s the only person there who isn’t part of a wedding. Worth quoting: “What is one thing I can do right now instead?” “Everybody in my life is always telling me I can be anyone I want, but then whenever I […]

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

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I kept stopping and starting this one and at 30 percent gave up and moved onto two other books instead. I just think that Lisa Jewell is at best miss for me at this point. I think I will just check out a sample before I just borrow or buy anymore. This is the first in a duology I believe, and I have zero intention of finishing this. The only thing I can tell you is that a woman named Libby finds out about her […]

Catching up with the Ravenels

Hello Stranger by Lisa Kleypas

Chasing Cassandra by Lisa Kleypas

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When I first started getting into romance about 10 years ago (it was during a deployment when I also transitioned to being primarily an ebook reader), Lisa Kleypas, Tessa Dare, Courtney Milan and Sarah MacLean were my entry authors (have to start high – also, thanks, Malin). Sarah MacLean at some point stopped being an auto-buy for me because her characters always felt so angsty, Tessa Dare has unfortunately not published anything in a while and somehow I fell behind on Lisa Kleypas with her […]

A reminder of the importance of a good editor

Greatest Short Stories by Women - Grapevine Collectible by Virginia Woolf et. al

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Cbr17bingo purple Virginia Woolf, Kate Chopin, Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen — these are just a few of the 17 women writers whose works are featured in this collection. While I enjoyed most of the stories, the publisher/editors made some very strange and aggravating choices that left me bewildered.  No editors are listed, and no forward or afterward is offered to explain what criteria were used to determine which writers and stories were included. The 17 stories range in original publication dates from 1832 to 1926, […]



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