Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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The Justice Bits are the Best

Defy or Defend by Gail Carriger

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The Delightfully Deadly series is basically a companion and continuation to Gail Carriger’s Finishing School series which is a prequel to the Parasol Protectorate (also a series, or rather two). You don’t need to have read the Parasol Protectorate, but it would really help with the Delightfully Deadly series if you have some familiarity with the Finishing School series. All of them are set in a generally steampunk-esque Victorian England that includes some knowledge and existence of werewolves and vampires. Defy or Defend is part […]

Who doesn’t want an exploding wicker chicken?

Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger

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CBR11 BINGO: So It Begins This novel is a re-read for me. I am a huge fan of Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate and Custard Protocolseries. However, her shift to YA in the Finishing School series set prior to the shenanigans in the Parasol Protectorate books didn’t really do it for me. To appeal to a younger audience, Carriger dialled down her hallmark cheeky sexual innuendo and unfortunately some of her witty banter and sass went along with it. I recently read Carriger’s latest and supposedly last full length novel set in the […]

Werewolves in Love

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In some ways my CBR history is the history of my reading Gail Carriger books. The third book I ever reviewed for Cannonball was Carriger’s Soulless. Heck, it and the next three books in the Parasol Protectorate series make four of my first 10 reviews. Carriger showed back up in my reading in CBR6 as I started her Finishing School books (a prequel series) which spread out over Cannonballs 7 & 8. I am a big Carriger fan; I enjoy her online presence, and find […]

A real lady always carries a bladed fan

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I’m not usually into steampunk – I don’t really even understand what it is – but I read Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series based on a recommendation from the Fug Girls, and really enjoyed the world it was set in.  Namely, a Victorian England where supernatural creatures are fully integrated into society: all the cool kids have ghosts in their houses, werewolves constitute Her Majesty’s armed forces, and vampires set the tone for fashion and culture.  So when I first heard about the Finishing School […]

I want a bladed fan, now please.

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Sophronia and her friends have grown on me. Waistcoats & Weaponry, the third book in Carriger’s prequel Finishing School series, is much more in line with the early Alexia Tarabotti Parasol Protectorate books (Soulless, Changeless, Blameless, etc.) than the previous two books in this series. What we have in Waistcoats & Weaponry is a good old fashioned caper story. I was delighted. Waistcoats& Weaponry picks up several months after Curtsies & Conspiracies. Our girls are continuing with their lessons at Madam Geraldine’s and Sophronia and […]



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