Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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When a bookstore owner falls for a book cover model

The Fiancée Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur

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If you’re looking for a light-hearted sapphic rom-com, The Fiancée Farce does the job. Bookstore owner Tansy is shy and sick of her family asking about her love life.  She tells a small lie to get them off her back when dragged into wedding prep for her stepsister. She bases her fake girlfriend on a sexy and captivating romance cover model. As fate would have it, said cover model Gemma van Dalen walks into Tansy’s life at a party with all her friends and family […]

I Bought into Amazon’s Author Exploitation Again

Under the Mistletoe: Cruel Winter with You by Ali Hazelwood

Under the Mistletoe: Merry Ever After by Tessa Bailey

Under the Mistletoe: All by My Elf by Olivia Dade

Under the Mistletoe: Merriment and Mayhem by Alexandria Bellefleur

Under the Mistletoe: Only Santas in the Building by Alexis Daria

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I mean, I assume it’s exploitive. It is Amazon. Having had some success with the Improbable Meet Cute collection for Valentines  Day, and, as someone who absolutely loves a Christmas novella, I paid for one (the Ali Hazelwood) and borrowed the other four of these Under the Mistletoe “get to know a romance author with a  free read” stories. I imagine Amazon is doing the same thing as telling someone to work for free for the exposure. I hope they were compensated in some way. […]

“You mean because you’re built like the Abominable Snowman and I’m the size of the Sugar Plum Fairy?”

Cruel Winter With You by Ali Hazelwood

Merry Ever After by Tessa Bailey

All By My Elf by Olivia Dade

Merriment and Mayhem by Alexandria Bellefleur

Only Santas in the Building by Alexis Daria

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Amazon has put out a holiday collection of five stories that is free to Prime members, and it grabbed my attention when Olivia Dade publicized that she had a story in the collection (Ali Hazelwood, Tessa Bailey, Alexandria Bellefleur, and Alexis Daria are the other authors). I requested an ARC and was granted it, so here we are with me reading a holiday collection earlier than I normally would because we all deserve nice things when the world feels like it is crashing down. Cruel […]

Elves, Santas & Mayhem

All by My Elf by Olivia Dade

Merriment and Mayhem by Alexandria Bellefleur

Only Santas in the Building by Alexis Daria

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For someone who is pretty meh about the winter holidays, I sure do love to read holiday romances. They have to be a certain kind of holiday romance though. No the magic of the season made me love life again stories. In these three Christmas shorts, Christmas festivities bring the characters together, but the holiday isn’t the reason they fall in love. Olivia Dade’s All by My Elf is a classic Dade novella. It’s got sweetness, spice, a realistic portrayal of adjunct faculty life, double […]

Waiter, there’s a Parent Trap in my dirty talking queer romance!

Truly, Madly, Deeply by Alexandria Bellefleur

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I almost opted to not finish Truly, Madly, Deeply but finally decided that I liked the banter enough to push through. I like Alexandria Bellefleur’s books. She writes some really excellent disaster gays and disaster bisexuals.  What almost made me quit though was Truly’s plan to Parent Trap her newly separated parents. I have never in my life met a divorced couple that shouldn’t have gotten a divorce and a whole bunch of them that hung on to their marriages much longer than was healthy […]

Fake Dating Relationship Speedrun

The Fiancée Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur

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When Tansy made up a fake girlfriend based on a romance novel cover model to get her family off her back, she never expected the woman to show up at a wedding she was attending.  But not only does she play along with Tansy’s lie, but she ups the ante, announcing that they’re engaged.  Gemma needs a spouse in order to receive her inheritance, and Tansy needs funds to keep her beloved family bookstore from being sold to a megacorporation.  A marriage of convenience suits […]



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