Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

What if the hot crazy guy was right? And now you’re stuck in a Winnebago with him?

You, Me & the Conspiracy by Emma Barry

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Sometimes I imagine the book I’m about to review as a cocktail. For Emma Barry’s You, Me & the Conspiracy there’s clearly a foundational pour of her own experience in academia, some Howard Zinn challenging historical naratives for flavor, and a hearty splash of National Treasure swashbuckling for sparkle. Her love of American history is in there. And then there are shots of “what if the hot guy who was shunned for conspiracy theories was right?” and “what happens when I’m stuck in a Winnebago […]

Lost Boy or Femme Fatale – Choose your novel

Funny Guy by Emma Barry

Bold Moves by Emma Barry

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One thing that I appreciate about Emma Barry is that she writes romance novels that feel very real and down to Earth. Yes, both these novels involve characters who have reached career heights most of us never will but the characters and situations feel very real. Sometimes, you want quirky and funny, sometimes you want something that feels like reality with adult characters. Funny Guy is set in New York and a childhood best friends to lovers story. Sam is a comedian who landed the […]

Chess was almost like getting to know a lover. It felt that intimate and, at times, that brutal.

Bold Moves by Emma Barry

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  I have loved Emma Barry’s writing since I first read the Fly Me to the Moon series she wrote with Genevieve Turner starting back in 2015. I just vibe with her writing. All of her characters are complex, fabulously messy and complicated, but her female characters have tended to be a little more emotionally mature than their love interest. With Bold Moves she has given us Scarlett, who is unapologetically and strategically difficult. I love Scarlett so much. So. Much! And so does Jaime, […]

“No one told me the trail would be vertical.” “Maggie, there are sheep hanging out all around us. Sheep don’t do vertical.” “Sheep are very nimble. They’re basically puffy goats.”

Bad Reputation by Emma Barry

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I enjoyed Bad Reputation so much. Zagging away from her prickly characters in Funny Guy, Emma Barry gives us two sweetheart characters and puts them in a situation where they must pine respectfully for a big chunk of the book. The yearning is delicious. When they are done with the yearning, they make consent sexy. When the book begins, Maggie’s beloved career as a high school drama teacher is over and she is tired of being the face of the fight against censorship. When she […]

Youtube and chickens

Chick Magnet by Emma Barry

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Amazon sucked me into buying Chick Magnet (2023) by Emma Barry. It’s rare that I buy a book (I am a very faithful library user)–but I can’t remember the last time I bought a random romance online. I’m not sure what prompted me, but it must have been cheap and looked fun and new. Nicole Jones, also known as “Chick Nic” is a Youtube influencer and star who focuses her Youtube channel on breeding chickens. Nic has hastily moved across the country to the small town where […]

Hot vet and social media star find love in a small town

Chick Magnet by Emma Barry

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#CBR15 Passport Challenge – Different genres (contemporary romance) Readers of my blog know that all my reviews are written on my personal blog and then crossposted here on the Cannonball Read, which celebrates its fifteenth anniversary this year(!) The recent comment diversion celebrating this, challenging us to write fifteen-word reviews seemed like the opposite of everything my review style represents. I frequently have review titles longer than fifteen words.  Nevertheless, I decided to use the comment diversion to try to help myself through my review […]



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