Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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The Dark Corners of the Past

Great Scandals of the Victorians by Debbie Blake

Public Faces, Secret Lives by Wendy L. Rouse

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Great Scandals of the Victorians: Disreputable Stories from the Royal Court to the Stage – 3.5 stars For all that Victorians had a reputation for being straitlaced, they had their fair share of scandals – and some of them ended up having major effects on contemporary society, sometimes even driving forth social changes which still affect us today. I love a good gossip session about people I’ve never met, which is why history is one of my favorite subjects. In this book, we learn about […]

Matters of Inheritance and Love on the Brink of Waterloo

Deserted by Mary Lancaster

Beloved by Mary Lancaster

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Deserted – 4 stars Sophia thinks she’s escaped the clutches of her tyrannical cousins when she comes to be companion to the Duchess of Cuttyngham, even if it’s under strange circumstances. But when her employer makes her escape to Brussels and her family pursues her to her new home, Sophia is forced to turn to the icy but beguiling Earl of Frostbrook for help. This is the third book in The Duel series, which follows the fallout of the Duke of Cuttyngham’s death in a […]

RIP Celestin you would have loved r/Brochet

Bitter Promise by Ila Dell Youngblood

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Though Micaela falls in love with pirate’s son Dominique, she agrees to marry Celestin, the man she’s been betrothed to since she was a child. I went into this book expecting a historical romance – I was not aware that the Baroness Pontalba was a real person with a lengthy Wikipedia entry, and so that the story does not necessarily have a happy ending. In that light the way this book is written, with plenty of emphasis on the more mundane up ands downs of […]

Ye Olde Childrearing

Ungovernable: The Victorian Parent's Guide to Raising Flawless Children by Therese O'Neill

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I was a huge fan of O’Neill’s first book, Unmentionable, so when a friend sent along the link for her newest publication, I immediately ordered it from the library. Similar to Unmentionable, O’Neill tackles the crazy of the Victorian era with wit, sarcasm, and a dose of brutal honesty that both criticizes the dark parts of Victorian parenting culture while also contextualizing it in a way that makes it understandable, if not condonable. Where Unmentionable focused on sex, love, and marriage for young women, Ungovernable tackles the next stage […]

Makes me not want to read any more Brontë.

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I am sorry to say I did not enjoy this at all. I’m very sure this was well-written, a masterpiece of the English language, etc, etc. But not for me. And there were all these reviews! From people saying it was better than Jane Eyre! What! I don’t get it. At all. George Eliot, were you smoking something when you read this? Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for it, but Lucy Snowe < Jane Eyre. I mean, I didn’t even need to have […]

“Fool that I am,” said he, “that I did not tear out my heart the day I resolved to revenge myself.”

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Hi, remember when our book club discussion for this book was December 1st but I didn’t finish the book until January 23rd? And also how I’ve been reading it since November 13th? Because I do. I definitely remember all of that. Ultimately, I’m really glad I did the audio version of this book. I don’t think I could have finished it otherwise. I previously got about 1/3 of the way through this book when I tried reading it in high school, but it defeated me then. The beginning 20% or […]



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