Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


The Limits of a Good Metaphor

King of Immortal Tithe by Ben Alderson

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Listen: it’s fundamentally really tricky to pull off a romance when the premise for their connection is that this is the ONLY person who can physically touch you and not die. Our basics here are fairly simple: our ingenue protagonist is abducted in a kind of marriage trade to a fae prince whose touch drains people’s life force, causing instant death. Except it doesn’t work on our hero. Possibly because he’s already dying. And that creates an instant connection. But that premise only goes so far, right? […]

There is Such a Thing as Having TOO MUCH of a Type!

Lord of Eternal Night by Ben Alderson

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Okay, so, full disclosure: I’m trying to burn through my Kindle Unlimited backlog list, because I’m cancelling my subscription next month, because I hate a price hike. (The new fees system also charges readers more to pay authors less, which is corporate greed at its finest. But, theoretically, this review isn’t supposed to be my Rant About the Evils of Capitalism, but I digress). Lord of Eternal Night is your typical monster-y romance: ingenue protagonist gets sacrificed to the monster, finds out they’re not so monsterous after all, […]

The Question of Soulmates

Wolfsong by T.J. Klune

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The thing about Wolfsong is that it’s a keen example of the best thing about paranormal romance as a genre: it’s a way to explore a deep corner of human nature by coming at it sideways, through a fantasy concept that magnifies the details. This one, in particular, is about what it might mean to have a soulmate. People give this book some flak for the age gap – and I see that, and it didn’t need to be quite this wide, but I can […]

Sharp-Dressed Cats, Angels, Murder, Noir that Stands Apart

Even Though I Knew the End by CL Polk

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I feel like I came to Even Though I Knew the End by CL Polk late even though it’s still a relatively new release. I also started it, had to pause because I had to read for work on deadline, and then picked up where I left off… but only after my required reading made it abundantly clear that, by comparison, this book is amazing. That said, it moved slower for me than others and perhaps that affected my overall rating for it. This is a novella that […]

An Emotional, Vital Story

Only This Beautiful Moment by Abdi Nazemian

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I don’t know that I know how to talk about this book except that GOSH it’s amazing and good and powerful and I am so glad it exists and I can’t wait for more people to have the chance to read it! At its core, Only This Beautiful Moment is a story of family and community, of fighting for your beliefs and also learning who you are and want to be. Told across three generations, Moud, Saeed, and Bobby are each discovering their history and […]

“…with understanding, all things were possible.”

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

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Riddle me this: what do you create when you combine a violin prodigy, “the Queen of Hell”, and an alien doughnut maker? If you are Ryka Aoki, you create a wild, delicious, devastating, hilarious brew. Does it hold together in a tight narrative? Light from Uncommon Stars does not. Does it thrill your senses and grow your heart? It absolutely does. We are first introduced to Katrina Nguyen, a teenage trans girl, as she is running away from a brutal home, carrying her beloved violin. […]



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