Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Life, love, and sex are better when you reject the idea of cringe and embrace wonder

Falling for a Villainous Vampire by Charlotte Stein

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Charlotte Stein has been writing romance for a long time. I’ve followed her on social media for years, and she has a keen eye for observing culture. I say this because her paranormal romance series, The Sanctuary for Supernatural Creatures, is in conversation with the culture she’s observing. The series is a plea to embrace “cringe”, embrace wonder, and embrace big feelings. In each of the books, characters have to reject being ashamed of themselves and playing it cool. Only authenticity is rewarded. Right before […]

Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser

Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser

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Trigger warning: Discussion of rape without being shown. So this was an interesting retelling. I thought that Hochhauser did a great job with character development of someone we have always just known as the wicked stepmother in Cinderella. But, at times, I thought she was way too naive for her age and what she had gone through (that was in the latter part of the book). And parts of the book I thought dragged way too much. Lady Tremaine follows Lady Etheldreda Verity Isolde Tremaine […]

Dun dun dun…. all gone!

Heartstopper: Volume Six by Alice Oseman

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The final chapter of the series, Heartstopper: Volume Six by Alice Oseman has arrived. It is the end of our couple, Nick and Charlie. Or actually, it could be. Oseman explores “Will they make it or not?” Charlie is starting to find himself outside of Nick’s circle. And Nick is getting ready for university. Everyone is telling them teen couples never last. And while some of their friends’ relationships are stronger than ever, some are breaking up, and others are being revamped.  The pacing is […]

Ok, ok, I’m biased, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t one awesome book!

The Little Stone Buddha by Grace Lin

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Like many readers, I keep journals filled with the titles I read. But I don’t always have it with me (like at work) so I email myself the information with the Subject Line: I Read This; to mark the book later.  In my odd little shorthand, I know what I read (I have a memory like Swiss Cheese some days),  but it never says what I really feel about the book.  Yes, I Read This book called  The Little Stone Buddha by Grace Lin, but […]

I’m posting the reviews in the order I read them 2

Kodi Book 1 by Jared Cullum

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Having read the Kodi by Jared Cullum books out of order, I wasn’t grasping everything I needed in book two and assumed book one was going to be more of the same adventure, themed story as Kodi: A Place to Call Home (book two) was. However, this one is a lot more sweet, simple and quick to read. I don’t think I would have wanted to read book two if I had read this first. With that said, ages 8 and up will devour both […]

Dead Birds Can’t Fly

An Evening with Claire by Gaito Gazdanov

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This is a good book, in the sense that it is honest. But don’t be fooled by the cover! It is no delicate romance — and Claire hardly figures. In An Evening with Claire (1929), Gaito Gazdanov drags the reader through the emotional swamp of emigré estrangement, through a barely-disguised “Kolya.” Like Gazdanov, Kolya joins the ill-fated White Army in the 1910s, seemingly on a whim, after a largely apolitical and lonely childhood. Over the course of a few years, he drifts to the edges […]



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