Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this one!

The Foxglove King (The Nightshade Crown, #1) by Hannah Whitten

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This kind of surprise can be a double-edged sword, though, so take my recommendation with a grain of salt. When your expectations going into a book are “probably going to DNF this,” anything compelling will feel better than it probably actually is. With that said, however, I think there are genuinely some things to love about this series! Even with some of the uneven writing. (And apparently it is a HUGE improvement over the author’s first series, which I won’t be reading.) I would say […]

Romance Old and New

The Devil Drives by Jane Arbor

Sweep Me Up, Baron by Kate Archer

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The Devil Drives – 3.5 stars As a new bride wed to the man of her dreams, Una should be bursting with happiness. But it turns out that her husband had ulterior motives in wedding her – chiefly, to revenge himself on her for the death of his young cousin. Leave aside the rather convoluted premise, as Zante’s reasons for blaming Una and plan for revenge against her alike are pretty silly, in the manner of olden time Harlequins. But the writing is lovely, bringing […]

Luke endangered my Kindle.

An Unlikely Match for the Governess by Lauri Robinson

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When Luke’s brother threatens to seize custody of his nieces, he and their governess Aislinn decide to get married to provide a more secure home for them – which is only complicated by their attraction to each other. It is so incredibly frustrating when you are going along reading a perfectly good book populated by perfectly good characters acting out a perfectly good plot – and then one of the characters does something so incredibly stupid and, worse, out of character, that it completely tanks your […]

I’m pretty sure I will forget almost everything about this in less than a year.

It Happened One Fight by Maureen Lee Lenker

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I pre-ordered a signed and personalized copy of this book from The Ripped Bodice because I really like Maureen Lee Lenker after listening to her appear many times on one of my favorite podcasts, Screen Drafts. She always comes on and talks about classic movies, and she talks about them with such confidence, knowledge, and deep affection; I like her so much that I decided beforehand that I was going to love her romance novel just as much. Well. It Happened One Fight (the title […]

Two Manga Focusing on Fan Culture

If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die (Vol 1-2) by Auri Hirao

My Coworker Has a Secret! (Vol 1-2) by Mushiro

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The contrast between these series was interesting, because both deal with idol fandom culture and the impact it has on the fan. Both are also light romantic comedies, but I enjoyed My Coworker Has a Secret! much more. If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die follows Eripiyo, who is a huge fan of Maina. Maina is an idol in an underground idol group and is the least popular, with Eripiyo being her only real fan. The main reason is […]

Lady Green Snake and the Golden One

Her Radiant Curse by Elizabeth Lim

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Vanna and Channi are sisters, but they couldn’t be more different – while Vanna is blessed with a strange glowing beauty, Channi has been cursed with the face of a snake and poisonous blood. As Vanna’s seventeenth birthday approaches, Channi grows desperate to prevent her promised death at the hands of the demon witch Angma. I did not realize until about halfway through this book that it is a prequel to Lim’s Six Crimson Cranes duology, an East Asian-influenced retelling of the Six Swans that’s […]



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