Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I don’t know if you’ve heard of this Jane Austen person, but she’s pretty good. She’s going places.

Persuasion by Jane Austin

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At the risk of sounding melodramatic, there is a feeling that I love, but don’t get to experience that often. It’s a kind of melancholic beauty, piercing in its intensity, with a haunted mien and nebulous structure that can be hard to pin down. It is the beauty of autumn rain, dark chocolate, and sad songs. The beauty of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars. The beauty of Joy Williams singing “Don’t Let Me Down”. The beauty of unrequited love, and […]

Revisiting the Shades of Magic world with a captivating new story that also brought back fan favorites

The Fragile Threads of Power by V.E. Schwab

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CBR15 Bingo: Sex – V.E. Schwab does not include sex scenes in any of her books.  They tend to be more ‘fade to black’ moments.  However, I wish this book had more than just suggested sexy times! Several years ago when Schwab finished the original “Shades of Magic” trilogy, she left a door open to potentially revisit the series in the future.  Apparently inspiration struck and we now have The Fragile Threads of Power to build upon the first trilogy.  First off let me say that […]

“So this is merely romance,” she frowned disapprovingly. “I was hoping for an epic adventure, or a gothic mystery at the very least.” Ned laughed. “Darling, don’t worry, the story has just begun.”

The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton

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Official book description, because I finished this book two months ago, and the plot is rather convoluted: Cecilia Bassingwaite is the ideal Victorian lady. She’s also a thief. Like the other members of the Wisteria Society crime sorority, she flies around England drinking tea, blackmailing friends, and acquiring treasure by interesting means. Sure, she has a dark and traumatic past and an overbearing aunt, but all things considered, it’s a pleasant existence. Until the men show up. Ned Lightbourne is a sometimes assassin who is […]

The Winter of Our Discontent

Bliss Montage by Ling Ma

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In Bliss Montage, a woman and her family live in the same house as her one hundred ex-boyfriends, women trapped in a toxic friendship take a drug that makes themselves invisible, and a pregnant woman must caretake the protruding arm of her fetus as she awaits giving birth to the rest of it. The distance from everyday life that fantasy brings us can be used to magnify reality, and Ling Ma takes takes ample advantage of this in Bliss Montage, a short story collection that examines […]

CBR15 Bingo: Sex (Bingo AND Cannonball)

Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey

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CBR15 Bingo: Sex (the protagonist is a god-touched masochist courtesan spy) Kushiel’s Dart is the first novel in the Kushiel’s Legacy series, which came to number six books in total. Jacqueline Carey also wrote an additional trilogy in her Terre D’Ange universe, and over the course of all of her books, pretty much explored every continent in her alternate-history fantasy world. This first book is set in an alternate historical version of Europe, set at about Renaissance times, or somewhat earlier, although the descriptions of […]

Delightful Baking Competition Romance

Love at 350° by Lisa Peers

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This ended up being a really cute, fun romance. Tori is a single mother, a chemistry teacher, and a home baker. When her twins sign her up for American Bake-o-Rama, she is hesitant but then sees it as an opportunity to prove her abilities and skills, most especially to herself, and if she wins she can take the prize money to finally start the bakery she’s always dreamed of. Kendra is a well-renowned chef but her restaurant of the heart, Gamma Rae’s, isn’t doing as […]



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