Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Funny, Quirky, and Heartfelt

Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K. Reilly

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What an underhyped gem this is. It’s funny, with quirky characters and an emotional core. Set in New Zealand, the book alternates the POVs of the titular siblings, who are biracial, gay, and living together as roommates. It’s a slice of life novel with a large focus on the main characters’ romantic and family relationships. This might be the funniest book I’ve read. Usually when I read something funny in a book I smile or just internally recognize that it’s amusing. It’s fairly uncommon for […]

Breaking up is hard to do

Change of Plans by Sarah Dessen

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Thank you to Simon and Schuster and Netgalley for this ARC. My opinions are my own. This book is out on May 5th, 2026. Finley is graduating from high school, and is worried about several weeks away from her charismatic boyfriend, Colin, their friend group and her entire social circle. Most of all, she would have wanted to join Colin and his family on a Disney cruise, but her distant mother, Catherine (her father has custody and she only sees her Mum a few times […]

“The beginning of a novel is like a first date.”

Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

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Nowhere Book Bingo 26: Adapted into movie or TV show (on Apple+ now) 19-year-old Margo Millet has an ill-advised affair with her English professor at college and gets pregnant. Against the advice of absolutely everyone, including her mother (a former Hooters waitress), she decides to keep it. Unfortunately, being pregnant and then a young single mother isn’t especially attractive on the job market, and before she knows it, two of her roommates have also moved out, because they just can’t handle the noise and the […]

I was not expecting to feel personally victimised by a Rainbow Rowell novel

Cherry Baby by Rainbow Rowell

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This may be a 3.5 star book, but I’m not actually sure right now. Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for this ARC. My opinions are my own. This book is out on April 14th. Cherry’s husband, Tom, is in Los Angeles, working on turning his web comic-turned extremely successful graphic novel, Thursday, into a movie. His semi-autobiographical comic, which happens to have a caricatured version of Cherry in it, who is called Baby. Now that there are multiple trailers, even complete strangers recognise […]

Depression, But Make it Funny

Small Admissions by Amy Poeppel

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Small Admissions, by Amy Peoppel, is a contemporary novel set in New York City and supposedly features a group of friends trying to help one of the group get back on her feet. I say “supposedly” because one friend, Chloe, makes the entire situation about herself. In fact, she’s the only character written in first-person, even though she is not the main character. Angela, the sister of the actual main character, tries to help, but mostly just nags and criticizes. And Vicki/Victoria is a completely […]

Ignore This Siren’s Song

The Siren by Katherine St. John

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In “The Siren,” the handsome, famous, wealthy, charismatic, sexy Cole Powers is shooting a film on a small Caribbean island. The writer-director is Cole’s estranged son, Jackson. And the movie also stars Cole’s ex-wife, the actress Stella Rivers. Along for the ride is producer Taylor Wasserman (also estranged from her father), influencer Madison Kasabian, and Stella’s assistant, the very realistically named Felicity Fox. And half of them want to kill one of the others. I chose this book because although I usually prefer sci-fi and […]



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