Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“So this is merely romance,” she frowned disapprovingly. “I was hoping for an epic adventure, or a gothic mystery at the very least.” Ned laughed. “Darling, don’t worry, the story has just begun.”

The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton

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Official book description, because I finished this book two months ago, and the plot is rather convoluted: Cecilia Bassingwaite is the ideal Victorian lady. She’s also a thief. Like the other members of the Wisteria Society crime sorority, she flies around England drinking tea, blackmailing friends, and acquiring treasure by interesting means. Sure, she has a dark and traumatic past and an overbearing aunt, but all things considered, it’s a pleasant existence. Until the men show up. Ned Lightbourne is a sometimes assassin who is […]

CBR15 Bingo: Sex (Bingo AND Cannonball)

Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey

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CBR15 Bingo: Sex (the protagonist is a god-touched masochist courtesan spy) Kushiel’s Dart is the first novel in the Kushiel’s Legacy series, which came to number six books in total. Jacqueline Carey also wrote an additional trilogy in her Terre D’Ange universe, and over the course of all of her books, pretty much explored every continent in her alternate-history fantasy world. This first book is set in an alternate historical version of Europe, set at about Renaissance times, or somewhat earlier, although the descriptions of […]

“Small talk with the dragon. How are you? Eaten any adventurers lately? Sure, just had one this morning. Look, I still got his femur stuck in my teeth. Is that upsetting to you?”

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Well, everyone was right. This was great, and the marketing/art department at Avon should be shamed heavily for the way they did this book and this entire series dirty*. I imagine there are many, many readers who would enjoy this book, and presumably the rest of the series, if the covers weren’t a) heinously misrepresenting the contents of the story, and b) butt ugly and embarrassing. I was one of those readers! And then people whose tastes I trust kept pushing them on me until […]

CBR15 Bingo: Dwelling

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

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CBR15 Bingo: Dwelling (the “haunted” house is pretty central to the story). This was my fantasy/sci-fi book club’s selection for May, and while I normally don’t like horror books, I read this mainly because I was so impressed with T. Kingfisher’s Nettle & Bone, and also because it really was very short. It’s a retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, which I have never read, and because I’m not a huge fan of Poe, I didn’t bother reading it […]

“I may of use to you yet, my dear dragon”

Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

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4.5 stars CBR15 Bingo: History (set in an alternate history, in the Victorian era) 15-word review: Introverted lady scholar goes to fictional Iceland to research faeries, followed by her handsome colleague. Official book description (because I finished this at the start of May): Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is […]

I finally understand the French Revolution.

A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians (The Shadow Histories, #1) by H.G. Parry

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Okay, I always understood the French Revolution, meaning I understood why there was one, and that it got out of control because hUmAnS, but I have never before been able to hold the chronology of it in my head, or remember the various stages, or the political parties or players. And it never descended to the human level for me before, never really reached my emotions because of the ways it’s been funneled at me before. It feels sort of perverse to say that a […]



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