Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Only the Lonely

Find Her by Lisa Gardner

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Seven years ago, young college student Florence ‘Flora’ Dane was kidnapped by a truck driver who keeps her as his personal toy for over four hundred days. Though she’s eventually found she struggles to find her place in society, to reform the bond with her family. In search of meaning, she sets out to find other missing women by going to bars, getting drunk, allowing men to pick her up and then turning into a fury when they try to hurt her. She’s clever, inventive, […]

Doomed to be a hero

An Artificial Night by Seanan McGuire

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Things get pretty dark in the third October Daye novel by Seanan McGuire, An Artificial Night. October aka Toby is a fae changeling living in San Francisco. She moonlights as a detective but officially serves as a knight to the Duke of Shadowed Hills, the nearby fae kingdom. The book opens with her best friend’s son being stolen away in the night and the daughter left in a mysterious coma. Toby feels a magical residue but is completely stumped. Before she can get a grip […]

Vocab bonus: this book taught me the fun word ‘graunched’

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

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Non-review babbling: Back in the Before Times, my husband and I made friends with a retired couple who were regulars at a breakfast place we loved. You know how geek calls to geek, so our passing hellos and smiles quickly grew into book recommendations and story swapping and lots and lots of coffee. They’re delightful, and I miss breakfasts out and socializing and finding new readers/friends. SIGH. Anyway, this was a book that would never have made it on my radar, but my breakfast buddy […]

I’m glad I don’t have kids because this book would have given me nightmares

The Whisper Man by Alex North

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Tom Kennedy and his young son, Jake, arrive home one day to find Tom’s wife dead at the bottom of the stairs. Tom is trying his best to be a good father, but he feels like it doesn’t come naturally to him, and he and Jake don’t have the connection Jake had with his mother. After months of Jake refusing to go up and down the stairs, Tom buys a new house in the nearby village of Featherbank.  But moving isn’t the easy solution they […]

Be careful what to wish for when trying to earn your Adventure badge in Scouts

The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm by Nancy Farmer

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This adventure story feels more on the Y end than the A end of YA, but with some thrills and dangers that might be scary for littler readers. The three children of General Matsika – brave Tendai, the oldest at 13, assertive sister Rita, and four-year-old Kuda – are not allowed to leave the family compound. They have everything they could ever need, including fancy futuristic school lessons and a live-in Praise Singer who acts as tutor and babysitter. Their father has spent his career […]

Love triangles, magic, and murder

Grave Visions by Kalayna Price

Grave Ransom by Kalayna Price

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It’s official. I’m totally hooked on Kalayna Price’s Alex Craft series. This was a given after I reviewed books 1-3. The follow-ups, Grave Visions, and Grave Ransom did not disappoint. Alex Craft is a grave witch. Her magic skill allows her to interact with the plane of the dead. She can see talk to ghosts and shades, which are manifestations of a dead person’s memory. Talking to the dead is quite handy if they’ve been murdered. Alex opens a private detective firm with her best friend […]



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