Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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“A romance is a belief in the impossible: that anything ends happily.”

A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid

December 22, 2023 by narfna Leave a Comment

This was really good but I can’t give it a full five stars for one reason. More on that reason below. But first! I enjoyed this so much! I said this in a status update while reading, but it was such a relief to have a YA book tackle what this book is trying to tackle* and have it SUCCEED instead of falling down on its face. Ava Reid, like her or not, is really talented. There are of course going to be people that […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Romance, Speculative Fiction, Young Adult Tagged With: #fantasy, A Study in Drowning, Ava Reid, dark academia, fairies, gothic, narfna, YA, ya fantasy, Young Adult

narfna's CBR15 Review No:152 · Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Speculative Fiction, Young Adult · Tags: #fantasy, A Study in Drowning, Ava Reid, dark academia, fairies, gothic, narfna, YA, ya fantasy, Young Adult ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

For those of you wanted Babel to be even more intense.

Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang

November 20, 2023 by narfna Leave a Comment

I wanted to make sure to actually write a review for this one, because I want more people to be reading it. Everyone who read Babel last year should also read this. Like, ASAP. I’m sure this review is about to be trash because I tend to babble when I attempt to sum up how good this book is, or go on too long, but I’m going to try anyway, because it was such an immersive and satisfying reading experience. Our main character is Sciona, […]

Filed Under: Fantasy Tagged With: #fantasy, Blood Over Bright Haven, dark academia, indie fantasy, M.L. Wang, narfna, read harder challenge 2023, self published, Urban Fantasy

narfna's CBR15 Review No:131 · Genres: Fantasy · Tags: #fantasy, Blood Over Bright Haven, dark academia, indie fantasy, M.L. Wang, narfna, read harder challenge 2023, self published, Urban Fantasy ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Make this a TV show right now!

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

August 21, 2023 by carmelpie 3 Comments

Because I would watch the HELL out of it. CBR15Bingo: Sex square. From here she could taste the burning edges of his thoughts. He wasn’t just afraid of something—he was afraid of everything. He hated this house, and the memories in it. The memories themselves were knives, glinting in the light. They pricked her fingers, warning her away. The taste of him on her tongue, real and imagined was burnt sugar, wild adoration, tender rage. Poor thing, poor desperate thing. ― Olivie Blake, The Atlas […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction, Suspense Tagged With: cbr15bingo, dark academia, fantasy young adult, magicians, Olivie Blake

carmelpie's CBR15 Review No:32 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Suspense · Tags: cbr15bingo, dark academia, fantasy young adult, magicians, Olivie Blake ·
Rating:
· 3 Comments

Nah.

The Cloisters by Katy Hays

July 10, 2023 by narfna 3 Comments

What it comes down to is that I found this book extremely unpleasant. And also dull. And reading it made me feel like I would rather be banging my head against something very solid. This was made even more frustrating by glimmers of stuff I probably would have found very intriguing in another author’s hands, or in another type of story altogether. The Cloisters is about a woman whose name I have long forgotten who is heading to her first post-graduate job, supposedly at the […]

Filed Under: Mystery, Speculative Fiction Tagged With: dark academia, gothic, Katy Hays, mystery, narfna, speculative, Tarot, The Cloisters

narfna's CBR15 Review No:71 · Genres: Mystery, Speculative Fiction · Tags: dark academia, gothic, Katy Hays, mystery, narfna, speculative, Tarot, The Cloisters ·
Rating:
· 3 Comments

“When did we become such terrible people?””Maybe we’ve always been terrible.”

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

June 25, 2023 by carmelpie Leave a Comment

Other nights, when he thought I was already dreaming, he slid out of bed, took his coat and shoes, and disappeared into the dark outside. I never asked where he went, worried he wouldn’t ask me to follow. ― M.L. Rio, If We Were Villains “Do you blame Shakespeare for any of it?” The question is so unlikely, so nonsensical coming from such a sensible man, that I can’t suppress a smile. “I blame him for all of it.”― M.L. Rio, If We Were Villains […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Mystery Tagged With: #CBR15 passport, #murdermystery, CBR15Passport, dark academia, love triangles, M.L. Rio, Shakespeare, the nineties, theater kids

carmelpie's CBR15 Review No:14 · Genres: Fiction, Mystery · Tags: #CBR15 passport, #murdermystery, CBR15Passport, dark academia, love triangles, M.L. Rio, Shakespeare, the nineties, theater kids ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Bloody Magic Books and the Future Reread

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Torzs

June 17, 2023 by CoffeeShopReader 3 Comments

You know it’ a good read when you start thinking about re-reading a book as soon as you finish it for the first time. Ink Blood Sister Scribe is the first book like that for me in a pretty long while. In some ways the premise is familiar but it still works: Esther and Joanna are half sisters from a family who guards a collection of magic books, but they’ve been separated for years for reasons neither of them fully understands; they need to reunite […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction, Speculative Fiction Tagged With: Books, dark academia, Emma Torzs, Ink Blood Sister Scribe, magic, magic books, magical realism

CoffeeShopReader's CBR15 Review No:52 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Speculative Fiction · Tags: Books, dark academia, Emma Torzs, Ink Blood Sister Scribe, magic, magic books, magical realism ·
Rating:
· 3 Comments
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