Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Why Would Anyone Prefer Yorkshire to Greece?

Bride's Lace by Violet Winspear

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Two years after Bliss’s family home is sold to Paris, she must petition him to save her brother from jail – and the only thing he’ll offer mercy for is her hand in marriage. I’m not entirely convinced that a family that would name their son Justin would name their daughter Bliss, but go off, Harlequin Presents. This has your usual Winspear trademark dark, rich, and apparently sinister hero paired with an innocent heroine rather down on her luck. There’s lots of drama between the […]

There’s no one on this goddamn planet I’d rather be a disaster with than you.

The Gentleman’s Guide to Getting Lucky (Montague Siblings 1.5) by Mackenzi Lee

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I would teach my body to regrow my heart each time I gave it to him, over and over and over again. Heart after heart after heart—every one of them his. ― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman’s Guide to Getting Lucky I had kissed my fair share of lads who had only used me as a counterpoint to their own virtue. My primary contribution to our circles back home had been making everyone else feel grounded and well-behaved in comparison. ― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman’s Guide […]

The island might be unspoiled but some of its residents really stink…

Summer Shadows by John Harris Dunning, Ricardo Cabral, Brad Simpson and Jim Campbell

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The cover of Summer Shadows by John Harris Dunning, Ricardo Cabral, Brad Simpson and Jim Campbell is a tad misleading. It makes things look like a teen thriller in the line of a slightly darker Christopher Pike, RL Stine, or Richie Tankersley Cusick and the like. In other words, something from the late 1980s or early 1990s when I was a teen and actually reading realistic paranormal.  Instead of a “teeny bopper thriller with supernatural” we get sex, drugs, and vampires. We get some downright […]

Romance Old and New

The Devil Drives by Jane Arbor

Sweep Me Up, Baron by Kate Archer

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The Devil Drives – 3.5 stars As a new bride wed to the man of her dreams, Una should be bursting with happiness. But it turns out that her husband had ulterior motives in wedding her – chiefly, to revenge himself on her for the death of his young cousin. Leave aside the rather convoluted premise, as Zante’s reasons for blaming Una and plan for revenge against her alike are pretty silly, in the manner of olden time Harlequins. But the writing is lovely, bringing […]

This one was hard, but ultimately a worthy read

No One Crosses the Wolf: A Memoir by Lisa Nikolidakis

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Wow, this book was a hard read. The author Lisa Nikolidakis grew up Greek with a capital G. She spent her life trying to please her father and keep her family together. She suffered physical and mental abuse, violence, threats of violence, and a constant sense of impending doom. She tells stories of the magnitude of abuse throughout the book. Some of it is small – a slight here or there, favoritism, mild neglect, etc. It travels all the way to abuse of herself and […]

June 2022 Leftovers

The Cage by Bonnie Kistler

Gangsterland by Tod Goldberg

Gone 'Til November by Wallace Stroby

Cover Story by Susan Rigetti

Survivor's Guilt by Robyn Gigl

The Old Man by Thomas Perry

Iron Annie by Luke Cassidy

The Drop by Michael Connelly

The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw

Barbed Wire Heart by Tess Sharpe

Amateur City by Katherine V. Forrest

Booth by Karen Joy Fowler

The Fury of Blacky Jaguar by Angel Luis Colón

He Kills Coppers by Jake Arnott

Lysistrata by Aristophanes

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I was dealing with work turmoil and on vacation for most of June so I didn’t get the chance to write as many in depth reviews as I’d have liked to. Which is a shame because some of these deserved a longer look; I just didn’t have the time or energy… The Cage **** I went back-and-forth on my review. I’ve been giving out a lot of 4-star reviews lately and considered docking the book for that reason since it’s very borderline. But the more I […]



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