Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Okay, you’re almost all villains. No ‘if’.

If We Were Villains by M L Rio

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Oliver is in his fourth and final year of his program at Dellecher Conservatory for the Fine Arts. He and his classmates have been studying Shakespeare together since day one at Dellecher, and they are all at their breaking point from the intense program and pressure of their coursework. There’s Richard, larger than life  antagonist whose intensity is thrilling to watch on stage but terrifying to live next to. There’s Meredith, the sexy vixen  that everyone wants to be or be with. Filippa, a woman […]

This one didn’t even blurb The Secret History but I was all in

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

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I mean, I frequently want novels I like to last longer, but in particular I wanted this novel to last longer at the outset, when I wasn’t even super invested in the various characters! The payoff would have been…immense. As it were, there are very, very strong The Secret History vibes in this book except that the twist/answer is not given away at the start but revealed, slowly, over time. There’s been a murder, this much we know for certain. Oliver served time for the crime, but […]

When Theatre Kids Get Involved In Their Own Shakespearean Tragedy

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

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So this novel was chosen on a whim, as it was sitting ready and waiting in the Audiobooks Available Now section of the library’s app. And upon reading the synopsis it felt like it had a similar energy to The Secret History by Donna Tartt, a book I definitely liked! If We Were Villains begins by introducing us to Oliver Marks, a man who is just being released from prison for an unspecified crime for which he served a 10-year sentence. The original detective from […]



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