Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Damen’s understanding of Laurent rearranged itself, in order that he might despise him more accurately.

Captive Prince: Book One of the Captive Prince Trilogy by C.S. Pacat

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“Is there anyone at this court who isn’t my enemy?” “Not if I can help it,” Laurent said.” ― C.S. Pacat, Captive Prince Prince Damianos is having a bad time. After the king dies, Damianos’s brother Kastor claims the throne and manages to get rid of Damianos. By declaring Damianos dead, Kastor is able to guarantee his ascension to the throne. Raised in the palace, Damianos is shielded from the grim realities of the way of life he and his kingdom enable: slavery. That is […]

Talking wordy to you

Maddie and Mabel by Kari Allen

The Magical Clay Doll : A Legend Retold in English and Chinese by Ning Sun

Maribel’s Year by Michelle Sterling

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Picture book round-up with a family and friendship theme attached to them! All titles are currently available but were read via an online reader copy. I like how the publisher copy of Maddie and Mabel by Kari Allen describes our young sisters, “two spunky sisters who navigate their relationship with humor and heart.” There is heart, some humor and a lot of spunk, but not everything is for everyone. The dynamic between the siblings is old fashioned, but is not dated. If you have a […]

What’s worse than ghosts? Puppets.

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

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So I wasn’t a fan of Horrorstor and had no interest in reading more of Hendrix’s books, but I couldn’t help grabbing How to Sell a Haunted House. I’m not even sure why. Honestly, I think it was just the cover. I mean, maybe we just got off on the wrong foot with Horrorstor and needed a second date to figure out if the chemistry really worked or not. This may come as a surprise, but this story is about a haunted house. But even worse, […]

Catching Up On Some Reviews

Still Life by Louise Penny

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

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Still Life by Louise Penny Back when I was hoping to complete a Cannonball Bingo, Still Life was my choice for the North America square. The first novel in Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache mystery series, it’s set in the little town of Three Pines in Canada and follows the search for the murderer of 76-year-old Jane Neal. I don’t often read mysteries, so I was surprised at how Penny approached the mystery. We spend a lot of time with other characters in the town […]

Fairy Tales Can Be Deadly

The Last Tale of The Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi

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This book is the very definition of the word Gothic. It belongs on the shelves next to Jane Eyre and Rebecca.  As in Rebecca, the main character in the novel isn’t given a name. He is just referred to as The Bridegroom. The Bridegroom is a curator of myths, legends, and fairy tales. While tracking down a rare book, he encounters Indigo Maxwell-Castenada, an heiress to a massive fortune, and a woman obsessed with fairy tales. They get married rather quickly, and she makes him […]

Twisty, Serial (the podcast)-style thriller

I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai

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Here is my first book of 2023 released in 2023 – and yet, with much of the action taking place in 2018, and 1995, it feels like an artifact of a different time altogether. At times, this reads like a Serial origin story. In 2018, Bodie Kane is invited back to Granby, a boarding school in New Hampshire that she attended in the early 1990s. Her graduating class was infamous for the deaths of three students – one of those students being her roommate, Thalia Keith. […]



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