Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Destined for love: video game developers

Two Can Play by Ali Hazelwood

by Leave a Comment

By this point, I will read any book by Ali Hazelwood, and I’m usually not disappointed. However, she’s so prolific that her books often sneak up on me. As soon as I became aware of its existence, I put Two Can Play (2026) on hold at the library and just recently finished it. Two Can Play feels very much like a Hazelwood romance novel, but it is also shorter than many of her novels–about 200 pages. The story is about two video game developers who work for rival […]

The Book Jacket Wrote a Better Story

Palaver by Bryan Washington

by Leave a Comment

For the first time since I started using my current rating system a year or two ago, I’m giving a book less than 3 stars. Typically, I give a book at least 3 stars if I finish it because if I’m not liking it, I’ll usually DNF. But I kept expecting this book to redeem itself. The novel follows a mother and son who are only ever referred to as “the mother” and “the son.” They have been estranged since the son moved to Japan […]

The Charms of a Competent Man

Lord Ravenscar's Revenge by Barbara Cartland

by Leave a Comment

After Romara is beaten and thrown out of the house by her sister’s abusive lover, the last thing she expects is to wake up married to Lord Ravenscar, who wed her while extremely drunk. But when he steps in to help her solve Caryl’s problems, she starts to wonder if they will be able to make a real marriage work. I read a lot of historical romance, so of course I am familiar with the insanely prolific Barbara Cartland, though I haven’t read any of […]

Pining, Second Chances, Plots, and Strategies

Just for the Season by Rachel Griffiths

by Leave a Comment

tl:dr: I am bumbling around trying not to tell you everything about Just for the Season. It works on many levels. I enjoyed Rachel Griffith’s first book, The Trouble with Anna, but I immediately knew that Charlotte and Wolfgang were going to be the couple I wanted to know more about. Charlotte romps her way through Trouble, while Wolfgang has a rather short, but memorable, cameo. Still, I’ve been reading romance long enough to know when characters are meant for each other. A few years […]

Privateers and puppies

Scandal of the Summer by Alexandra Vasti

by Leave a Comment

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this ARC. This book is on sale now. Lady Ruby Ballimore has tried her very best to be the perfect debutante, but no matter how hard she tries, she can’t be quiet and biddable and seemingly empty-headed. After yet another disastrous dinner party, which has shown off her unladylike academic prowess to the Ton and enraged her father, she decides that she needs a change of setting. Ruby’s father is the ambassador to a small European […]

Pow, Right in the Feels

Heart the Lover by Lily King

by Leave a Comment

Heart the Lover is a new(ish) book from Lily King, published in October of last year. The narrator is a writer, nicknamed “Jordan,” after Gatsby’s Jordan, by two of her classmates. The book follows her relationship with the young men from college through their late-40s. It’s not a long book, only 249 pages, but it definitely packs a punch. I’m a big fan of author Lily King. I think she’s a phenomenal writer and I’ve loved everything I’ve read of hers. That being said, I […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo