Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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“Love was seeing the truth of a person. Love was keeping faith that the best version you saw was the truest.”

Better in Black: Ten Stories of Shadowhunter Romance by Cassandra Clare

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Basically what it says on the tin: ten short stories set in the Shadowhunter Universe, each centered on one couple (or throuple, in one case.) They are as follows: The Good Storm (Will Herondale/Tessa Grey, set during their honeymoon.): So trite, so overblown. Cassie, if you can’t write sex scenes that don’t read like they’re from a bodice-ripper, don’t have them at all. Also, maybe keep track of the ages of your characters; why did you write a fifteen year old sounding more like a […]

But We Dream Different Dreams

The Last Boleyn by Karen Harper

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Though it is Anne Boleyn who became the second queen of Henry VIII, her sister Mary had her own entanglements with royalty which in many ways paved the way for the rise of the Boleyns. Philippa Gregory retreads this same ground some two decades later, but my understanding is that The Last Boleyn is a more restrained retelling of this already dramatic story. I thought that Harper did an excellent job of fleshing out all the many historical figures which people this book, including members of both […]

“I have received many love notes about my wit. Though they are often disguised as strongly worded letters which request I hold my tongue.”

A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales

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When a rich, eligible young man comes to town, Beatrice Steele, a Regency-era miss with an unseemly interest in crime, is determined that her younger sister Louisa will be his bride. But when he is poisoned in front of the whole ball, she must solve his murder instead with the assistance of the prickly detective Drake. This book is a humorous pastiche of Jane Austen and Agatha Christie with plenty of intrigue and funny characters, but its inspiration is while in some ways its greatest […]

Why Would Anyone Prefer Yorkshire to Greece?

Bride's Lace by Violet Winspear

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Two years after Bliss’s family home is sold to Paris, she must petition him to save her brother from jail – and the only thing he’ll offer mercy for is her hand in marriage. I’m not entirely convinced that a family that would name their son Justin would name their daughter Bliss, but go off, Harlequin Presents. This has your usual Winspear trademark dark, rich, and apparently sinister hero paired with an innocent heroine rather down on her luck. There’s lots of drama between the […]

Blood and Sand and Diamonds

The Burning Shore by Wilbur Smith

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When Centaine de Thiry is left destitute and pregnant after the death of her fiancé Michael Courtney during an aerial battle in World War One, she decides to make her way to Africa, where they had planned to live together after the war. This is the first book in this subsection of Wilbur Smith’s most long-running series, which follows the exploits of the Courtney family in South Africa. Like all the other books, it includes lots of adventure, drama, and some spectacular descriptions of the […]

Not That Kind of Oven

Skye O'Malley by Bertrice Small

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Beautiful Skye O’Malley falls in love with Niall Burke on the eve of her marriage to another man, but even someone as adventurous as she cannot imagine the twists and turns her life will take on her way back to him. Sometimes you just want to lay back, turn off your brain, and enjoy a rollicking adventure full of romance, drama, and a surprising amount of politics. Bertrice Small’s work fits the bill perfectly, and in the life of Skye O’Malley, her best known heroine, […]



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