Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Justice and the law aren’t the same thing.

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

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I have read nearly all of Deanna Raybourn’s books and this one is a definite departure from her usual historical fiction. However, she keeps her penchant for mystery solving shenaningans here, and her trademark sense of humor is intact. Just a wee bit snarkier. Four retiring lady assassins are invited by their former employer to literally sail into the next phase of their lives aboard a complimentary cruise. How are former assassins allowed to just retire and sail off into the sunset, you ask? Well, […]

“If I’m going down, I’m taking it with me. M.A.D., bitch. I’m up for Mutually Assured Destruction – if that’s what it takes.”

The Library of the Dead by TL Huchu

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Ropa, a teenage ghost-talker, is too intent on making a living to work for free. But when a ghost begs for her to seek out her missing son, she gets drawn into the magical underworld of Edinburgh and uncovers the grisly truth. Astonishingly, I have finally read a physical book! This is a series I’ve been eying for a while, and honestly I’m not sure why it took so long to get into it. Ropa is a snarky lead with a strong narrative voice; it […]

“They lead ‘still’ lives, waiting.”

Still Life by Louise Penny

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My husband and I started watching the Three Pines series on Amazon Prime, which was enjoyable; Chief Inspector Gamache, played by Alfred Molina, is a delight of eyebrows. The television series reminded me that I likely hadn’t read Ms. Penny’s earlier works though I have picked up the occasional book in an airport bookstore but have moved haphazardly through the series; thus, I decided to start at the first book. Sill Life draws Chief Inspector Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec to the delightfully bucolic […]

“It’s a role I play.” Max shrugged. “Just as you do.”

The Agency for Scandal (2023) by Laura Wood

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The Agency for Scandal (2023) is a children’s/YA late-Victorian set romantic romp with a dash of adventure and a feminist core. Isobel Stanhope has inherited her father’s talent for lock-picking but also his debts–which she must keep a secret from her delicate mamma and her younger brother, conveniently away at school. She is recruited to a mysterious agency called The Aviary, led by Miss Finch, a group of women dedicated to righting the wrongs that patriarchy inflicts on their sisters, and often using rather sneaky […]

Demons and wizards and magic – oh my!

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

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4.5 stars Bree Matthews applied to an early admissions residential program at the same college that her mother attended, only to discover that her mother strongly objected to her going there. They had a blistering argument, and Bree’s mother died in a car accident before they had a chance to settle things. Bree blames herself for her mother driving when angry. Her grief and guilt are overwhelming, so Bree hopes that being away from home is the best way forward. She has barely arrived at […]

“You know who you are, I know who you are, and our Lady does, too.”

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

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#CBR15 Passport Challenge: Different genres (paranormal fantasy) Being a queer teen can be difficult enough, even if you don’t come from a long line of magic users with very traditional gender roles. In Yadriel’s family, the brujos can summon the spirits of the dead and help them find peace in the afterlife. The brujas have tremendous healing powers. However, Yadriel’s family won’t let him go through the traditional rite for brujos, because of the gender he was born with. The only ones who seem to […]



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