Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Road trips, miscommunication and untruths

The Halifax Hellions by Alexandra Vasti

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Novella 1: In Which Margo Halifax Earns Her Shocking Reputation (3.5 stars) Novella 2: In Which Matilda Halifax Learns the Value of Restraint (4.5 stars) Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC. My opinions are my own. This book collects two previously self-published novellas of Alexandra Vasti’s, and includes an additional epilogue which has never before been available. Margo and Matilda Halifax are identical twins, the wealthy younger sisters of an Earl and have basically been seen as outrageous scandals for […]

Margo, you couldn’t be good if your life depended upon it. You are a walking hurricane.

The Halifax Hellions by Alexandra Vasti

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A few years ago I started hearing about some fantastic self published historical romance novellas by a new author, Alexandra Vasti, In Which Margo Halifax Earns her Shocking Reputation and In Which Matilda Halifax Learns the Value of Restraint. Naturally, I acquired them, plus a third one, In Which Winnie Halifax is Utterly Ruined. I bought them, but because of brain things, I never read them. The first two have been collected in one volume, The Halifax Hellions, which is being released next week. I’m […]

Gals being literary rivals, then pals, then more?

Ladies in Hating by Alexandra Vasti

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Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for this ARC. My opinions are my own. Lady Georgiana Cleeve was disowned by her father when she announced that she was the author of several popular novels, and has lived alone with her mother ever since, cut off from all contact with her brothers, convinced that the scandal she brought on herself and her family would irrevocably tarnish the reputations of anyone connected to her. She is selling well and her books are popular, but for […]

As she watched, a single dark red petal broke free from the vine just above the plaque and floated, strange and slow, all the way to the ground.

Ladies in Hating by Alexandra Vasti

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After reading Charlie Jane Anders’s Lessons in Magic and Disaster last month, I particularly enjoyed reading about two women writing books and falling in love in Georgian England. In Lessons, Jamie was researching magic and queer subtext in a fictional novel written by real 18th century woman, Sarah Fielding. In Ladies in Hating, Georgiana and Catriona are each authors of gothic books under pseudonyms. It is still scandalous for a woman to be an author, especially of gothic literature, though Georgiana’s identity is somewhat of […]

A madcap road trip (with zebras)

Earl Crush by Alexandra Vasti

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3.5 stars Nowhere Books Bingo 25: Book about a road trip or travelling Disclaimer! This was an ARC granted to me from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley. My opinions are my own. Lydia Hope-Wallace is a wallflower, and perfectly happy to remain so, because she has crippling social anxiety and tends to throw up if forced to interact too much with people outside her immediate family or friends. She’s been secretly writing seditious pamphlets and publishing them anonymously for the past three years, and for […]

“You bring the morning with you. You’re the light, sweetheart.”

Ne'er Duke Well by Alexandra Vasti

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Nowhere Book Bingo 25: Recommended by a friend (see, Des, I finally read it!) Buzzwords 2025 Cover Challenge: Foliage Peter Kent has lived most of his life in America, and certainly never expected to inherit a dukedom. Now he’s the Duke of Stanhope and desperately trying to be granted custody of his younger half-siblings, both of whom treat him with disdain and claim they are perfectly happy living with their decrepit guardian. It doesn’t help his case that Peter’s inexperience with English high society keeps […]



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