Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

The Blood of the Lamb

Once You Go This Far by Kristen Lepionka

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Read as part of cbr12bingo: Gateway. I frequently recommend Kristen Lepionka’s work to budding mystery fans, especially ones looking for an LGBTQIA+ author and/or protagonist. I don’t know how long Kristen Lepionka plans to continue with this series. I believe her next book is going to be a standalone separate from Roxane’s character (and perhaps universe?). I think she’s of the modern age sort of writer that unless you really catch bestselling fire with a series (a la Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch), there comes a […]

A Voice of My Generation

The Stories You Tell by Kristen Lepionka

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There’s not much left to say about Kristen Lepionka’s Roxane Weary series that I didn’t already say in my last two reviews. Lepionka is a talented writer who foregoes the frills of many a bestselling mystery book in favor of telling a good tale. In other words: there’s minimal fluff to pad the story. I appreciate that. While I like these books a lot, what makes them difficult to recommend is the voice of the narrator. Roxane Weary is not inherently lovable. She’s a person […]

Oh-hi-oh

What You Want To See by Kristen Lepionka

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Kristen Lepionka’s Roxanne Weary series is one of my favorites to come along in recent years. This could be me dating myself as a end-of-the-spectrum millennial but Roxanne feels like someone I would know. And Kristen Lepionka gets her voice and atmosphere down well. This one is in some ways an improvement on book one, though I liked that one too. I don’t know why, especially because there wasn’t a Macguffin, but I got a real Maltese Falcon vibe from this story. It could have been […]

The Memoirs of a Chatty African Grey Parrot

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Bingo Square: Cannonballer Says! I saw lumenatrix’s review of this one, and was immediately intrigued.  Jewish pirates during the Spanish Inquisition and Columbus? A five-hundred-year old parrot narrator?  A gorgeous cover?  Yes, please! Or to quote the narrator, a story about, “Pirates. Parrots. Jews. Jewels. The Inquisition. Gefilte fish. Gold. A Girl.” While I quite enjoyed this one, I also feel like I approached it in the wrong way.  I was so excited about the whole Jewish pirate thing that I may have raced through […]



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