Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
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Come for the setup. Stay for the yearning.

Eight Weeks in Paris by S.R. Lane

January 12, 2026 by carmelpie Leave a Comment

Note: It’s a lot of yearning. In writing this review, I tried to categorize the main characters’ relationship as enemies-to-friends-to-lovers or grumpy/sunshine, but neither one fits. I expected a sweet and charming romance set among the landmarks of Paris, but I got a very serious, surprisingly deep take on celebrity, fame, and integrity. Nicholas Madden is the brooding, short-fused, paparazzi-hating serious actor. After campaigning for and being cast as Frederick, the main character in The Throne, a queer romance period piece set in Belle Époque […]

Filed Under: Romance Tagged With: actors, celebrity culture, Coming out (Sexual orientation), enemies to friends, enemies to lovers, Film Industry, forbidden love, gay romance, Hollywood, paris, queer romance, S.R. Lane

carmelpie's CBR18 Review No:1 · Genres: Romance · Tags: actors, celebrity culture, Coming out (Sexual orientation), enemies to friends, enemies to lovers, Film Industry, forbidden love, gay romance, Hollywood, paris, queer romance, S.R. Lane ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments
Book cover: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. A woman stands in a glamorous green dress. We cannot see her face.

You’re not really famous if anyone still likes you.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

October 8, 2025 by carmelpie Leave a Comment

Isn’t that the very definition of power? Watching people kill themselves over something that means nothing to you? ― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo …do yourself a favor and learn to grab life by the balls, dear. Don’t be so tied up in trying to do the right thing when the smart thing is so painfully clear. ― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo CBR17 Bingo: Favorite Taylor Jenkins Reid is one of my favorite authors. This book […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Romance Tagged With: cbr17bingo, celebrity culture, Classical Hollywood 1930-60, Golden Age of Hollywood, gossip, Hollywood, LGBTQIA romance, queer romance, scandal, Taylor Jenkins Reid, twentieth century

carmelpie's CBR17 Review No:29 · Genres: Fiction, Romance · Tags: cbr17bingo, celebrity culture, Classical Hollywood 1930-60, Golden Age of Hollywood, gossip, Hollywood, LGBTQIA romance, queer romance, scandal, Taylor Jenkins Reid, twentieth century ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

A half-baked Taylor Swift fanfiction

Famous (A Famous novel, Book 1) by Jenny Holiday

August 5, 2025 by carmelpie Leave a Comment

Bingo square: Arts The MMC is an art professor and a painter. The FMC is a musician. Evan Winslow is an art professor at a liberal arts college in Dane, Iowa. After his father is exposed as an art fraud just as Evan was starting out as a painter, Evan fights to regain a scrap of respectability in the art world. He is a talented painter, but does not paint as he fears inviting comparisons between his father’s shady business and his own art. Despite […]

Filed Under: Romance Tagged With: cbr17bingo, celebrity culture, Iowa, Jenny Holiday, midwest, Pop Star, romcom, roommates to lovers, secret identity, Taylor Swift, they were roommates

carmelpie's CBR17 Review No:18 · Genres: Romance · Tags: cbr17bingo, celebrity culture, Iowa, Jenny Holiday, midwest, Pop Star, romcom, roommates to lovers, secret identity, Taylor Swift, they were roommates ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

The real happy ending is that she got to eat the whole plate of cheese.

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

March 31, 2024 by carmelpie Leave a Comment

“Since when do you wear dresses?” he said, the second he saw her. “Ugh,” Kit said, frowning. How were you supposed to change—in ways both big and small—when your family was always there to remind you of exactly the person you apparently signed an ironclad contract to be?” ― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Malibu Rising I’ve read two TJR books in the past two months. I plowed through both of them within seventy-two hours. Addictive is the only way I know how to describe them. Nina […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: celebrity culture, codependent relationships, glitz and glam, legacy, Malibu, misogyny, southern california, surfing, Taylor Jenkins Reid, the 1980s

carmelpie's CBR16 Review No:30 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: celebrity culture, codependent relationships, glitz and glam, legacy, Malibu, misogyny, southern california, surfing, Taylor Jenkins Reid, the 1980s ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments


Recent Comments

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  • wicherwill
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  • wicherwill
    on “Now, in a growing number of cities across the country, when a victim testified, she no longer did so alone.”
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