Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

Crime and the impoverished young woman

Miss Tonks Turns to Crime by Marion Chesney

by Leave a Comment

This was an odd little book.  It’s book number two in the Poor Relations series set in the Regency period, originally published under Marion Chesney, aka M.C. Beaton.  I didn’t read book one, and based on this, I feel I haven’t missed much.  The premise of the series is that several “poor relations” have banded together to run a hotel, which had done quite well but then there was a fire so  financial straits are desperate again.  They draw straws to see which one of […]

Charming the pants off a fabulous pair of thighs

The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting by K.J. Charles

by 1 Comment

This book is light hearted and frothy as a Regency can be in K.J. Charles’ hands.  She has stated that she wrote this to take a break from writing a different one and threw in a lot of the usual tropes.  And it was a lot of fun! Robin and Marianne Loxleigh of Nottinghamshire (hmmm…Locksley?) have arrived in London to find suitable marriage partners.  Short on cash, they aren’t much different than the women seeking to marry a lord, they are just more honest about […]

Rather the opposite of splendid

Dancing at Midnight by Julia Quinn

by Leave a Comment

Lady Arabella Blydon is staying with her newly married cousin in the country when she runs into the brooding and mysterious Lord John Blackwood, a former war hero who turns out to be friends with her cousin’s husband. She quickly ascertains that he is just as attracted to her as she is to him, and cannot understand why he refuses to give in and admit his feelings. Frustrated that he seems utterly besotted by her one second and determined to stay away from her the […]

Reading Austen Is Really Just a British Travel Guide

Persuasion by Jane Austen

by Leave a Comment

Any time I read Austen, I find myself much more interested in the settings than the actual story. This may be because I’m not a fan of romance, and at their core, most of Austen’s work revolve around character’s getting together. But her ability to place me so specifically in her settings is one of my favorite parts of the Austen novels. In Persuasion, we move from the English countryside to the shore town of Lyme, and lastly to Bath. Until reading this, I’d never heard […]

Mia Vincy is the gift that keeps giving

A Dangerous Kind of Lady by Mia Vincy

by Leave a Comment

While this is the third novel Mia Vincy has published, and the second book chronologically in her Stanhope Abbey series, all the books work well on their own. She writes excellent historical romances, though, so you should check out all of them. Arabella Larke has been promised to Guy Roth, the Marquess of Hardbury since they were both children. He’s been off exploring the world for years and years, and Arabella has been able to put off any other offers of marriage because she claimed to be […]

Worth it for the hilarious conversation about orchids alone

A Beastly Kind of Earl by Mia Vincy

by Leave a Comment

Some years ago (I want to say three?), two noblemen lied at a ball and claimed to have slept with Miss Thea Knight. She was humiliated and scandalised and both family and high society rejected her. She’s been living lonely in the country under an assumed name as a ladies’ companion. Now she’s pretending to be her younger sister at a house party, so said sister can run away to Gretna Green and marry her true love. She also plans to publish a pamphlet with […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo