Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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“No one had warned her it would be like this. Love was supposed to feel good. Wasn’t it? Not terrifying. Perhaps this wasn’t love after all, but malaria.”

Do You Want to Start a Scandal by Tessa Dare

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Last month when I was reading What I Did for a Duke I kept waiting for a particular scene to happen, and it never did. That is because I had superimposed the bathtub scene from Do You Want to Start a Scandal onto that book, which was all the excuse I needed to read it as well. Like with What I Did for a Duke this one is a reread of a book I only read a couple years ago. It deliciously fits into what […]

first up for Tessa Dare, but wasn’t the last!

Do You Want to Start a Scandal by Tessa Dare

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Someone’s review says: “Charlotte unravels the mystery of Piers while he just unravels” and while I cannot remember this book very well, having read it almost two months ago I remember even at that time reading that line and thinking that it tracked very well. What can I say about this book? THIS IS WHY I NEED TO WRITE REVIEWS AS I FINISH BOOKS. But also, we’re being kind to myself, and so it’s okay that I got behind. A thing that makes me giggle: […]

“Here, tell me which scent you prefer. Lilies and whale vomit, or lemon balm and beaver’s arse.”

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I like Tessa Dare. I know her books are derisively considered by many to be HINO (Historical In Name Only) but that’s something that’s never bothered me, personally. I like that her characters have modern sensibilities, because I don’t want to read about a hero with traditional Regency-era attitudes toward women. I like that her books each tend to have a designated Element of Silliness (see: Romancing the Duke‘s cosplayers, Any Duchess Will Do‘s terrible knitting) and in this one it’s the recurring joke of […]

Scandalous mystery tuppers and double cannonball!

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On the night of the Parkhurst ball, someone had a scandalous tryst in the library. • Was it Lord Canby, with the maid, on the divan? • Or Miss Fairchild, with a rake, against the wall? • Perhaps the butler did it. All Charlotte Highwood knows is this: it wasn’t her. But rumors to the contrary are buzzing. I was a little reluctant to read this book by Ms Dare, after thoroughly disliking the previous one, but reviews were good so when I saw it […]



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