Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Smuggler Meets Shipping Heiress

Brazen and the Beast by Sarah McLean

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Naturally, after Devil found love in Wicked and the Wallflower, it’s time for his quieter brother, Beast, to find his match.  In this case, that match is Henrietta “Hattie” Sedley, daughter of shipping magnate.  She has grown up watching her father manage his business, and is ready to take over from him – of course, being in 19th century England, she has to deal with gender stereotypes and an incompetent brother who is seen as the natural heir. In fact, she has her brother to […]

Stories Bring Communities Together

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

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I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from this novel but entered into it with cautious optimism. I love The Thirteenth Tale but was disappointed with her follow up Bellman and Black.  While it was gorgeously written with lots of interesting historical detail, it lacked the same emotional intimacy as the previous one. While Once Upon a River has a wide cast of characters, they are all easy to get invested in. It’s a slow build, and starts one evening in an old inn on […]

It’s Always the Husband, Right?

The Hollow of Fear by Sherry Thomas

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I was in the minority of people that didn’t like the second novel in this series as much as the second. I thought it got a bit more convoluted than necessary, leaving me scratching my head rather than marveling at the way everything came together in the end.  I was pleasantly surprised with the third novel, and how much I enjoyed it, and I think it’s because it stayed focused on the core characters I already liked rather than introducing a series of new people […]

Just Desserts for the Terrible Nephew

Mrs. Martin's Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan

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This novella is part of Milan’s Worth Saga but it’s been long enough since I read any of the other novels or novellas in the series that I honestly couldn’t remember these characters from the other books. All I knew going in was that it followed two older/elderly women, and I had made an assumption about who one of the characters might be based on After the Wedding, but I was incorrect. Miss Violet Beauchamps has devoted her life to managing a rooming house for […]

Time is a River

The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway

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This was a weird one for me.  It has an interesting premise, and it sets up the beginning so well, but then I am not entirely sure where the author was going with it.  On the one hand, she sets up quite a few things that are never resolved so I assume she may have wanted to use this novel as starting off point for a series but it is almost to boring to be a series.  You can’t hint at a lot of interesting […]



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