Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
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Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

“Writing gives you the power to shape your own world when the real one hurts too much”

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

May 14, 2026 by Malin Leave a Comment

Dark Corner Selection: March 2026 In a different version of 16th-century Spain, young Luzia Cortado works grudgingly as a scullery maid for the miserable and petty Doña Valentina. Luzia can use what she calls “small magics” to make her life easier. She can mend seams, multiply the groceries, unburn bread or reassemble broken things. She performs these little spells, learned from generations of her Jewish ancestors, by singing quietly. Luzia is a convert; she dutifully goes to Mass and hides any traces of her Jewish […]

Filed Under: Audiobooks, Fantasy, History, Mystery Tagged With: 16th Century Spain, alternate history, audiobook, cbr18, feminism, historical fantasy, Lauren Fortgang, Leigh Bardugo, LGBTQIA, magic, Malin, religious persecution, the Dark Corner, The Familiar, The Inquisition

Malin's CBR18 Review No:28 · Genres: Audiobooks, Fantasy, History, Mystery · Tags: 16th Century Spain, alternate history, audiobook, cbr18, feminism, historical fantasy, Lauren Fortgang, Leigh Bardugo, LGBTQIA, magic, Malin, religious persecution, the Dark Corner, The Familiar, The Inquisition ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Heading into the Grishaverse

Six of Crows (Six of Crows #1) by Leigh Bardugo

March 24, 2026 by kfishgirl 2 Comments

As someone who fully enjoyed Leigh Bardugo’s Alex Stern series (and still does), I decided to branch out into other books of hers. I think I literally just went to Goodreads and looked for another Leigh Bardugo series. I was just looking through some people’s reviews of this book on Goodreads, and one specific reviewer that I follow illustrated my feelings about this book. She had trouble getting into it initially, which I also did. I borrowed the ebook from the library, and it went […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Science Fiction Tagged With: Crows, Leigh Bardugo

kfishgirl's CBR18 Review No:13 · Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction · Tags: Crows, Leigh Bardugo ·
Rating:
· 2 Comments

Back to Yale, back to Yale, to prove to dad that I won’t fail (sung in Billy Madison “back to school” tune)

Ninth House (Alex Stern #1) by Leigh Bardugo

Hell Bent (Alex Stern #2) by Leigh Bardugo

January 30, 2026 by kfishgirl Leave a Comment

I don’t know you guys are going to believe this, but I made up that title. It’s not a real song. I was just thinking of “Back to Yale”, since this book is set at Yale, and my brain did the rest! As my boss said today, “your words aren’t wordsing”, so we’ll see how this goes! I read Ninth House almost exactly three years ago. I think I even reviewed it here for whatever CBR we were on in January 2023. I really liked […]

Filed Under: Audiobooks, Fiction, Horror, Suspense Tagged With: ghosts, Leigh Bardugo, Lethe, murder, Underworld

kfishgirl's CBR18 Review No:5 · Genres: Audiobooks, Fiction, Horror, Suspense · Tags: ghosts, Leigh Bardugo, Lethe, murder, Underworld ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

I Love to Love a Book

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

December 22, 2025 by esmemoria Leave a Comment

There are a lot of Booktok videos where a person just holds up a book and says it’s fantastic, without providing any details to lure one into reading it. They love it so much they are at a loss for details. That is how I feel writing this review, but I have overcome my dazzle to set down the details of this marvelous book. Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo is the final book in the Six of Crows duology, the first book of which I […]

Filed Under: Fantasy Tagged With: Leigh Bardugo

esmemoria's CBR17 Review No:66 · Genres: Fantasy · Tags: Leigh Bardugo ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Super Fun Fantasy

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

December 1, 2025 by esmemoria Leave a Comment

Fantasy is a genre I’ve rarely explored. Thanks to CBR, I grew more curious about it, so several years ago I went on a little spree and bought a pile of them. That’s how I came across Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows. Six of Crows reminded me of one of the only other fantasy books I’ve read, The Lies of Locke Lamora, in that it is a tale of a heist with a brilliant, complicated leader of a rough and tumble gang. Kaz is the […]

Filed Under: Fantasy Tagged With: Leigh Bardugo

esmemoria's CBR17 Review No:63 · Genres: Fantasy · Tags: Leigh Bardugo ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments
The Familiar

Black Cover and Maybe Some Black Hearts or not so Black

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

October 20, 2025 by CoffeeShopReader 3 Comments

Bingo 19: Black Leigh Bardugo’s The Familiar has a cover almost entirely in the proper color. Mostly, this is a story about people who want things they think they either cannot or should not have. Luiza is part Jewish (dangerous during the Inquisition) and has some minor household magic; her milagritos are things like she can make the bread unburnt. She wants to be something more than the scullery maid; she wants better, more money, more comfort, just more. There’s also her boss Valentina who […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Featured, History, Speculative Fiction Tagged With: cbr17bingo, historical fiction, Inquisition, Leigh Bardugo, magic, Romance, Speculative Fiction, The Familiar

CoffeeShopReader's CBR17 Review No:52 · Genres: Fantasy, Featured, History, Speculative Fiction · Tags: cbr17bingo, historical fiction, Inquisition, Leigh Bardugo, magic, Romance, Speculative Fiction, The Familiar ·
Rating:
· 3 Comments
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