Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Come for the cats, stay for … also the cats

Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett

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Like many other Cannonballers, I was familiar with Heather Fawcett because of the Emily Wilde novels, so when I saw her next novel was going to involve a magical cat shelter, I was in, even though I hadn’t enjoyed the third Emily Wilde novel as much. Overall, I had a really fun time with this but it really was primarily due to the cats and the cat shelter, and I actually would have enjoyed even more cats, and day to day life at the shelter. […]

Magic Murder Mystery Show

A Midnight Puzzle by Gigi Pandian

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A Midnight Puzzle is mostly a cozy mystery with the main investigator being a disgraced professional magician who came home to work at the family construction company which specializes in things like hidden doors/staircases and other sort of magic themed set ups. As with most mystery series, this one has both the first murder (and a related disappearance), as well as a longer running one which is always in the background. Tempest, her family, and friends are all fun characters with their own quirks who […]

Politics are Politics

Never Satisfied by Taylor Robin

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I had not heard of the web comic Never Satisfied by Taylor Robin until I saw it in an book form  I never felt the need to read. That was until I found a physical book. Robin’s book had been published in February 2023, therefore it only felt fitting that I read it a year later. This book is a traditional webcomic style of art and story. There feels to be some bumps and some missing information. Hopefully this can be filled-in by later issues […]

Book related murder in the presence of book club in book themed place and bookish knowledge

The Raven Thief by Gigi Pandian

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I like the characters and premise, but the pacing seemed to drag in places in The Raven Thief. There’s a lot of contemplation and conversation in between occasional bits of action. The main murder is of the “it had to be someone in this room” variety but everyone had an alibi (or do they?) and there’s four impossibilities that Tempest and her sidekick Sanjay (Kumiko calls him this at one point, and he’s slightly offended) need to figure out. Both of them are/were magic performer […]

A Slow Burn Magic Story

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

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I’m not usually interested in historical fiction, but after reading Piranesi, I wanted to try more of Susanna Clarke’s work. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is set in England during the Napoleonic wars in the early 1800s. There used to be magic in England, but magic hasn’t been seen in centuries. Instead, the people who call themselves magicians are theoretical magicians – they study magic but don’t practice it. However, in the quest to discover why magic is no longer practiced in England, one of […]

If you insist on me not dying horribly, I suppose I have to indulge you.

The Magpie Lord by K.J. Charles

A Case of Possession by K.J. Charles

Flight of Magpies by K.J. Charles

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You’re a fool, and I’m another. Between us, we barely make a village idiot. ― K.J. Charles, A Case of Possession I see. Things must be bad if you’re voluntarily telling me the truth. ― K.J. Charles, Flight of Magpies “Are you in this conversation, or just skulking?” “Mostly skulking.” Stephen had a particular knack for making himself unobtrusive. He was mildly impressed that he’d been noticed. “But I have a licence to skulk.” ― K.J. Charles, Flight of Magpies CBR15Bingo: Queer Lives square and […]



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