Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Flowers are definitely better than people. Because you can find a person’s ratio of light, water, and attention, and it still won’t be enough. For flowers, it’s enough.”

Forget Me Not by Julie Soto

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Ama Torres is an excellent wedding planner, who really gives her all to make sure the weddings she arranges go off without a hitch. However, personally, she doesn’t believe in marriage or in relationships that really last a lifetime. Probably because her mother has been married so many times (Ama has arranged a lot of her weddings). Now she has a whole host of former step-siblings, some of which she works with, others who she can rope in when she needs a favour. Despite Ama […]

An Interesting Queer Horror

The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo

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One of my favorite elements of horror from queer voices (and other marginalized identities) is the examination of monstrosity and what makes for horror. I think Mandelo comes at it from an interesting angle in this novella, and I really did enjoy the final arc with Stevie. I also enjoyed Stevie and Les’ dynamic over the course of the story, seeing that call of like to like but also hesitancy given the locale. In many ways, though, I don’t overall know how I feel about […]

A thirty-three-year old widow is an older woman here. I’m basically a crone now.

A Christmas Affair to Remember by Mia Vincy

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Sylvia Ray was married to a charming, persuasive man, who died and left her destitute. Because he lied to his family, they believed she was the reason he had ended up with massive debts, so they refused to give her any financial assistance after his death. After years of trying to support herself and keep herself from starvation, she’s found a man who wants to marry her, and who can give her a secure future. Isaac DeWitt went to see as a young boy and […]

The Dragon, the Princess and the Assassin

Consort of Fire by Kit Rocha

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Disclaimer! This was an ARC from Netgalley (but I have also paid to buy the book myself, after reading it). My opinions are my own. Every one hundred years, the king of the Sheltered Lands has to send one heir to serve as consort to the ancient dragon god who acts as its protector and guardian. The previous consort went mad with fear not long after bonding with the Dragon, and Ash, the Dragon, worries that history will repeat itself. Ash has lived for over […]

“Both history and future are fictions. Only the present is real.”

Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson

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From the official plot description: At the dawn of their adolescence, on the eve of the summer solstice, four young girls–Helena, Leonie, Niamh, and Elle–took the oath to join Her Majesty’s Royal Coven, established by Queen Elizabeth I as a covert government department. Now, decades later, the witch community is still reeling from a civil war and Helena is now the reigning High Priestess of the organization. Yet Helena is the only one of her friend group still enmeshed in the stale bureaucracy of HMRC. […]

Woof.

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

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The Dog Stars is a post-apocalyptic tale of a pilot in North America who goes by the name of Hig. Big Hig, his prepper-turned-survivalist ‘mate’ Bangley, and his dog Jasper have carved out a fairly safe refuge at a regional airport, left empty at the end of the world. They spend their days farming, salvaging, hunting, and going on recon flights around the area. Hig and Bangley have a fractured yet symbiotic relationship that is not without turmoil. Hig’s a big ol’ softy, see, who […]



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