Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Technically Not A Mystery, But I’ll Allow It

Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen

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Perspective is everything. To many readers, this may very well be a mystery. Reading as a disaster bisexual, however, my take was very different. The mystery is no mystery to me as a queer person, and I’m willing to bet a silk pajama that every single queer person who reads the book can determine who the killer is almost immediately. Why? How? If you know, you just know. (I could be wrong, obviously. Queer folks aren’t a monolith. But I’ll still take the bet every […]

Disasters indeed!

The Disaster Gay Detective Agency by Lev A.C. Rosen

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I received an advance copy from the publisher via Netgalley for review purposes; this in no way influences my review. I’ve loved Lev AC Rosen’s books for a while now, and seeing he had a new contemporary mystery I knew I needed to get my hands on it. And this does not disappoint! It’s such a delightful, chaotic mess of a book, and I love the main characters so much. Brandon is a gay Jewish man living in New York and working for a hotel […]

Smell the Flowers

Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen

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Read as part of CBR15Bingo: dwelling. The story is titled Lavender House and is mostly set in the titular location.  I’m going to give this book four stars against my better judgment. It was not a four star read. Let me explain. For like 70-80% of these ratings, I take them seriously. I really do want people to know how I feel if they are considering whether or not to pick something up. Reading is awesome and we only have so much time in this life. This […]

A Fantastic YA Centering Queer History & Adventure

Lion’s Legacy by LC Rosen

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Gosh, gosh, gosh! This book, LC’s writing reminds me how reading a queer book by a queer author really does hit differently, in the best ways. Tennessee Russo is a teen who’s been going on adventures with his dad to find ancient artifacts for his dad’s tv show since his bar mitzvah, but at fifteen he starts to see the way his dad sells the artifacts as unethical, which results in a fight where his dad abandons him in Japan. Two years later, Ten has […]

Queer Historical Murder Mystery

Lavender House by Lev A.C. Rosen

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I don’t know how to feel about this book, but also it was utterly compelling and hard to put down. When Andy is caught with his pants down in a gay bar, he feels like his whole life is over – he’s lost his job with the San Francisco police department, lost his housing, and knew the cops who caught him intended to spread his truth so he’d never get a job again. But before he can follow through on ending things, Pearl offers him […]

Close but no cigar.

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This book made me sad because I wanted to love it and I couldn’t so more than like it.  The characters were solid and the dialogue wasn’t bad but everything else was lacking.  I mean, I enjoyed the plot, but I can’t really give Lev AC Rosen credit for that, since All Men of Genius is a retelling of Twelfth Night.  A Victorian era, steampunk retelling of Twelfth Night with a dash of The Importance of Being Earnest* thrown in, to be exact. Violet and […]



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