Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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I Bought into Amazon’s Author Exploitation Again

Under the Mistletoe: Cruel Winter with You by Ali Hazelwood

Under the Mistletoe: Merry Ever After by Tessa Bailey

Under the Mistletoe: All by My Elf by Olivia Dade

Under the Mistletoe: Merriment and Mayhem by Alexandria Bellefleur

Under the Mistletoe: Only Santas in the Building by Alexis Daria

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I mean, I assume it’s exploitive. It is Amazon. Having had some success with the Improbable Meet Cute collection for Valentines  Day, and, as someone who absolutely loves a Christmas novella, I paid for one (the Ali Hazelwood) and borrowed the other four of these Under the Mistletoe “get to know a romance author with a  free read” stories. I imagine Amazon is doing the same thing as telling someone to work for free for the exposure. I hope they were compensated in some way. […]

“She wanted to read stories that had been written with care, by a writer who’d wrestled with words, who might have sworn at the computer and procrastinated by cleaning the entire apartment and furiously dictated notes in the middle of the night”

Magically Generated by Jackie Lau

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Invariably, something that is bothering an author is going to make its way into the book they’re writing. That something for Jackie Lau in Magically Generated is GenAI. While I am largely on the side that Lau takes via her main character’s rants, I thought the note was hit too often and it wasn’t necessary because Lau already had enough character depth with Nora to have the reader empathize with her “done with the nonsense and not trusting anyone new or anything on the internet” vibe she is giving off strongly as this Christmas novella gets started (and throughout, really).    I love […]

Sentient object romances are a thing

Unhinged by Vera Valentine

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Unhinged by Vera Valentine was recommended by the LA book club crew at The Ripped Bodice. A member heard about it on TikTok (see this hilarious video from Grapie). They suggested it as a just-for-kicks buddy read. It’s on Kindle Unlimited and only about 70 pages.  Back in August, I was boarding a flight and decided to give it a go. Apologies to my plane row for dealing with my reactions to my phone. The novella’s premise is bonkers. An apartment door falls in love […]

Did Lisa Kleypas Need the Money? Did Her Publisher?

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An addendum to Lisa Kleypas’s Capitol Theatre series, I Will is a very bad Christmas novella that Ellepkay suggested had been lying in a drawer at the author’s house for years. Dated in many elements, I had at first suspected it was ghost written, but a long abandoned manuscript makes more sense. Shortly after I began reading, I found myself wondering how I would feel about the book and quality of the writing if it didn’t have the Queen of Romance’s name on it. Admittedly, […]



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