Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I was wholly unprepared for such tenderness and humor

For Real by Alexis Hall

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CBR15Bingo: Europe square CBR15Passport: Books from different countries (England) “A soft pulse of desire went through me, not for sex or pain or humiliation or some other release, but for this, this quiet closeness. Someone to hold in the dark.” ― Alexis Hall, For Real “What could I do with a boy who had brought me to my knees twice, yet still held my hand in the dark? What could I give in return for such kindness? Such faith? I would so gladly bear all […]

It Takes a Village. To save you from the Fae.

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

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Emily Wilde is a Cambridge Professor who specializes in Dryadology, the study of Faeries. This includes all kinds of Faeries, from cute little Brownies to the more fearsome “Hidden Ones” who are known to steal people away to the world of Faerie. She has been traveling the world, attempting to create the world’s first Encylopaedia of Faeries, and she only has one more place to visit, the frozen town of Hrafnsvik, in the country of Ljosland. Unfortunately, the town is incredibly insular and Emily has […]

Grumpy/Sunshine Double Header (and Bingo!)

His Grumpy Childhood Friend (Cider Bar Sisters #2) by Jackie Lau

Her Pretend Christmas Date (Cider Bar Sisters #2.5) by Jackie Lau

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I was simply delighted by this one. His Grumpy Childhood Friend hit a couple different trope happy places for me – second chance romance, friends to lovers – but it also did something I love more and more as I consume a good amount of Romance books: it released its third act tension without a break-up or fight.  The tension point of the story isn’t a misunderstanding or one of the pair freaking out and walking away, instead we get characters dealing with traumatic experiences […]

Worth and Expectations

Her Favorite Rebound (Cider Bar Sisters #4) by Jackie Lau

A Very Beery New Year (Cider Bar Sisters #3.5) by Jackie Lau

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Her Favorite Rebound Sierra Wu is thirty-four, divorced, does not want children and is a constant disappointment to her family. They are horrified that she quit her engineering job (that she hated) to run a small greeting card store (that she loves) four years ago. Sierra is used to living a pretty small life, so the last thing she expected was being swept off her feet by Colton Sanders, the billionaire (think Jeff Bezos type). They’ve been together for a year, and despite his reputation […]

Grumpy Sunshine Literary Summer

Beach Read by Emily Henry

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My wife reads around 100 books a year. At the end of each year, she picks five or 10 of those for me to read. They’re usually some of my favorites each year – it’s almost like she knows me.) One of her choices for me this year was Emily Henry’s Beach Read, which was a Book of the Month Club choice and would probably be a great movie with the right cast. It’s a “grumpy sunshine”-styled rom-com, although it doesn’t fit squarely in the […]



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