Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

This book is like a golden poppy growing from the manure of the last 12 months. Its existence makes me smile.

Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz

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I was surprised when I heard that Anthony Horowitz was releasing a sequel to Magpie Murders, one of the most delightful books I read in 2019. That mystery-within-a-mystery was clever, well-constructed, and utterly entertaining, but how could Horowitz plausibly make that format work again using the same characters? To my tremendous joy, Horowitz has constructed an equally triumphant (maybe even better?) sequel. At the start of Moonflower Murders, former publisher Susan Ryeland is living in Crete, trying to succeed in the boutique hotel business along […]

Urban Blues

Paper Gods by Goldie Taylor

Violent Spring by Gary Phillis

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I read two great gritty urban mystery reads this past week. Both uniquely told in their own way but both addressing the politics and social systems of Atlanta and Los Angeles respectively in a way that I found compelling… Paper God (TW and minor spoiler: Book has a trans character in which a threat of violence is implied and a tragic love story is involved. Nothing happens to them but it’s also not the most trans-positive story) I’ve read a lot about Atlanta this past […]

I have as many emotions inside me as there are genres in this book.

Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1) by Tamsyn Muir

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Please note that although there are no real spoilers in this review, intuitive readers/reviewers might be spoiled anyway because of the way I’m going to say some things. You have been vaguely warned! “Read Gideon the Ninth!” they said. “You’ll love it!” they said. Well, fuck you, I did! I did love it! And I’m so mad and so sad also! It’s been a long time since I let a book get to me like this, and frankly, I blame everyone. I blame the author […]

Reader, I murdered him. And him. And him. Him too. But they were all bad.

Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye

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(He) was felled by a strangely skillful blow-as if I had studied the act, when in fact I had simply decided that he should stop being alive. – Jane Steele Stop me if you have heard this one. A girl in mid-1800’s England is orphaned at a young age and sent to a cruel school for young women to learn to be a governess. She later becomes a governess for the ward of a rugged and brooding man, falls in love, flees when the love […]

“Bind your fate to mine”

Lore by Alexandra Bracken

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Official book description: Every seven years, the Agon begins. As punishment for a past rebellion, nine Greek gods are forced to walk the earth as mortals, hunted by the descendants of ancient bloodlines, all eager to kill a god and seize their divine power and immortality.   Long ago, Lore Perseous fled that brutal world in the wake of her family’s sadistic murder by a rival line, turning her back on the hunt’s promises of eternal glory. For years she’s pushed away any thought of […]

Atmospheric seaside mystery.

The Survivors by Jane Harper

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I received a free ARC of The Survivors from Macmillan in exchange for an honest review. Getting this review in just under the wire! US pub date is tomorrow, 2/2/21*. And y’all should check this out! If mysteries and crime books are your thing. This is my second Jane Harper book. Previously, I’ve read The Dry and also have her sequel to that book and her other standalone, The Lost Man on my TBR. Just judging by the two books of hers I’ve read now, […]



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