Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


A Swindle, a Romance, and Beautifully Described Music

The Hellion's Waltz by Olivia Waite

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I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  The Hellion’s Waltz is the third book in Olivia Waite’s Feminine Pursuits series (the first book, The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics was published in 2019 and the second Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows last year). As I said in my review of The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows, one of the things I love most in good romance writing is when authors interact with larger themes. These […]

Be gay, do crime.

The Hellion's Waltz (Feminine Pursuits, #3) by Olivia Waite

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**30 Books in 30 Days** Book 4/30 Thanks to Netgalley and Avon Impulse for the advance copy. It hasn’t affected the content of my review. I’m mixed on this one! It does happen occasionally that I encounter a romance where the least interesting part is the romance. This is one of those times. And it’s not just because the romance part didn’t really grab me by the emotions; it’s also because the character work and the main plot were very good! But still. I came […]

“High crimes were probably better suited to a betrothal than a mere courting gift: you couldn’t just start burning things down in hopes the other person found it romantic. You’d want to be sure.” (CBR Bingo)

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows (Feminine Pursuits #2) by Olivia Waite

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Let’s get this part out of the way early – I was prepared to love this book and I only really like it. Here’s the thing: there’s too much story here and I feel like a heel for saying so. But, bear with me. One of the things I love most in really good romance writing is that the authors aren’t afraid to interact with larger themes. These books aren’t just sexytimes (we have erotica for that) they are not just character studies (although lord […]

“I am tired of twisting myself into painful shapes for mere scraps of respect or consideration. Tired of bending this way and that in search of approval that will only ever be half granted.”

The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics (Feminine Pursuits #1) by Olivia Waite

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Olivia Waite is an author I’ve been following on Twitter for a little while – she’s just the right kind of outspoken feminist romance author that I like to follow (they are a fun crowd, seriously, get into Romance Twitter it’s a good place to be even when things aren’t burning down). Her vocal and staunch support of #IStandWithCourtney and the ensuing fallout with the RWA meant that I bumped her novel that much further up my to read list because I will support the […]

A f/f Regency romance from a major publishing house. It’s a unicorn!

The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics (Feminine Pursuits, #1) by Olivia Waite

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For the most part I enjoyed this, despite a pretty significant misstep near the end. Firstly, I just want to say how happy I was when I heard this was being published. I have been looking for a historical romance f/f novel for a while now. I put out a call to my romance reading friends about six, seven months ago, and there were several novellas we turned up, but most published f/f is contemporary right now, and that’s not really my genre. And the […]



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