Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Fake Flame revisited with my ears

Fake Flame by Adele Buck

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I read and reviewed Adele Buck’s Fake Flame in April, 2024. When I saw an advance listener copy narrated by Moniqua Plante available on NetGalley I smashed the request button. I love being able to revisit books as audiobooks because I will notice different things, and plot points will hit differently in different formats. Moniqua Plante’s narration is warm and friendly, perfect for this lowish stakes, thoroughly adult romance. My favorite thing about Fake Flame, in any format, is that it’s romance for grownups. Eva […]

She now knew who she was dealing with: Buttface McKilljoy of the Speech and Debate club, class of 2010.

The Anti-Social Season by Adele Buck

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Adele Buck’s lovely and quiet The Anti-Social Season is for those of us who find the holidays stressful, but still love some parts of it. It’s for the people who have to deal with unreasonable family demands, and co-workers who think they can do your job better. It’s for those of us who don’t want to be perceived, except by the right person. And it’s for those of us who have had to make big life changes because of anxiety. Thea and Simon went to high […]

A love note to romance novels and healthy masculinity

Fake Flame by Adele Buck

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In the past few years it has been very difficult for me to read and review new to me authors without a deadline imposed externally. As a result, I have a whole bunch of books I really want to read, but I struggle to focus on them unless they are an arc with a looming publication date. Anyway, I was thrilled to see Adele Buck’s Fake Flame on NetGalley because I’m pretty sure I own all her books and have read none of them. My […]

Second chance, age gap romance – with a cat!

Acting Lessons by Adele Buck

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I’ve been curious about Freddie and James ever since Cath’s book (Acting Up), but there’s good reasons why this wasn’t the immediate sequel. This is a delightful second chance romance and well worth the wait. While I think you could read this as a standalone, it’s much more fun to have at least read the first book in the series. Two years ago, Freddie and James met on the set of a play while Freddie was an assistant stage manager and James, a screen actor, was […]

“I’m saying I think we could take care of each other.”

Method Acting by Adele Buck

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I absolutely adored Adele Buck’s first book so I was very eager to see where the next book in the series would take us. This one doesn’t focus as much on the behind the scenes bits of acting, but it does have a delightfully steamy opposites-attract couple! Alicia is finishing up a run in Romeo & Juliet at the Folger’s in D.C. and contemplating her next steps. But what’s not on her plan is getting insulted by Colin, a STEAM lobbyist, at one of the […]

Friends-to-lovers and found family goodness!

Acting Up by Adele Buck

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I’ll say right off the bat that I honestly don’t know anything about what goes on behind the scenes of a theatrical production. But I’ve been a big fan of Lucy Parker’s work, and when I saw that this was a friends-to-lovers workplace romance, I couldn’t request it fast enough. Paul and Cath, theater director and stage manager respectively have known each other for ten years – 14 if you count college – and have worked together for most of the time. They’re best friends […]



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