Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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A lovely book with a beautiful cover

The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

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4.5 stars Because tradition dicatates it, each year on a certain day, the council of elders in the Protectorate take an infant and leave it in the woods as a sacrifice to the witch. Bad things will happen to the settlement if they don’t (although no one is really clear what dire consequences there will be, because there has never been a time when they didn’t place a child in the woods). Normally, the grieving family whose child has been selected meekly go along with […]

Part 2 of the trilogy is the worst, even in book 3

The Dragon Lords Bad Faith by Jon Hollis

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The Dragon Lords: Bad Faith is divided into 3 parts, and is itself part 3 of a trilogy. I rather enjoyed part 1 (Fools Gold), hated part 2 (False Idols), and part 3 was kind of meh. It wasn’t as bad as part 2 with no one to root for, and it added some good characterization and a few new characters, but it was also 200 pages too long. The second part of the book is ironically yet appropriately titled “Bad Decisions”, one of which […]

When in doubt, be polite

Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

Calling on Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

Talking to Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

Book of Enchantments by Patricia C. Wrede

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I highly recommend this series to adults and children alike.  It feels clean, somehow.  There is good and wickedness, but everything eventually works out.  I would not hesitate to give the main series to my nieces and nephews.  There is a focus on manners and politeness and practicality.  Everyone can learn lessons from this, and even if they are lessons you’ve learned before, it’s good to be reminded! Dealing with Dragons I read this right before I read Ogre Enchanted, which probably was not good […]

No Nonsense Fairy Tales

Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede

Searching for Dragons by Patricia Wrede

Calling on Dragons by Patricia Wrede

Talking to Dragons by Patricia Wrede

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(Spoilers throughout) Dealing with Dragons has been a favorite of mine since I was a kid, but this is the first time I’ve read the rest of the series. This series, known as the Enchanted Forest Chronicles, focus on a group of characters living in and around an enchanted forest (as you may have guessed). The first book, Dealing with Dragons, introduces Princess Cimorene. She’s a misfit as far as fairy tales are concerned: she’s too businesslike to care about romance, is more interested in […]

Coffee Shop’s Theory of the Trilogy

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I’m back! After finishing my committed 52 reviews, I ended up not reviewing for a while, because life etc. NB: Much of what follows is from the slightly more technical and in depth blog post concerning my attempts to explain the theory behind why part 2 of any trilogy is often the least fun or entertaining. As of now, the Dragon Lords series is a trilogy; I have no idea if the author will keep it that way or continue with further installments. I read […]

“Sisters, sisters There were never such devoted sisters”

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Another book that has potential and then just fizzled out for me was The Yin-Yang Sisters and the Dragon Frightful. It was another book that I thought pages had stuck together, I had missed something or if the unfinished copy had pages go out of order. I could tell that Nancy Tupper Ling had put in a lot of effort into her text, but sadly, it was lost on me. I just could not get into it. It was Andrea Offermann’s illustrations that made the […]



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