Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Wealth is just security. Luxury is living care free.”

The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater

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4.5 stars CBR17 Bingo: Culture (A lot of people from a lot of different backgrounds, countries and cultures are forced together for a time during World War II) Official plot summary: January 1942. The Avallon Hotel & Spa has always offered elegant luxury in the wilds of West Virginia, its mountain sweetwater washing away all of high society’s troubles. Local girl-turned-general manager June Porter Hudson has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. The Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, have trained her […]

This book has been 16 years on my TBR list, and I don’t think I added it until a few years after it came out

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

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3.5 stars StoryGraph Easy Read Challenge: A book with flowers, plants or leaves on the cover Buzzword Title Challenge 25: Animals (Birds are animals, right?) Nowhere Book Bingo 2025: A YA book CBR17 Bingo: TBR (I bought this back in 2009, it’s been on my TBR for 16 years) Anidora-Kiladra, the Crown Princess of Kildenree is taught the language of animals by her aunt while she is still a girl, but she has to hide this from people around her. Unfortunately, she’s unconventional enough that […]

Made me want to re-read Six of Crows instead

To Steal from Thieves by M.K. Lobb

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Thank you to Netgalley and Little, Brown Books for this ARC. My opinions are my own. In an alternate version of Victorian London, magic exists and can be used to improve technology. It’s known as alchemology, and requires the magic-user to sacrifice some blood and life force to create the magical element known as primateria. It means that alchemologists tend to have shorter lifespans, which was certainly the case with Zaria Mendoza’s father. Now she’s an orphan struggling to complete her father’s outstanding commissions to […]

I should read more Susanna Kearsley

The King's Messenger by Susanna Kearsley

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StoryGraph Easy Reading Challenge 2025: All Alone – Read a stand-alone book Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for this ARC. My opinions are my own. It is 1613 and Prince Henry, James I’s eldest son and heir has tragically died. Rumours whisper that it might not have been by natural causes. Queen Anna is distraught, and King James is determined to punish the guilty. Andrew Logan is one of the king’s messengers and he’s tasked with going to Scotland to apprehend Sir David Moray, […]

“Sometimes it didn’t matter if you broke. You kept going. You weren’t given a choice.” (Bingo)

When a Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher

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4.5 stars CBR16 Bingo: Dun Dun (From pretty much the first chapter, where Cordelia is “made obedient” there is a creeping sense of dread all the way through this novel) Cordelia knows her mother isn’t like other mothers. Other mothers can’t take over your limbs and puppet you, or force you to stay still and motionless for hours or days on end. Other mothers permit doors that can be closed in the house and let their daughters have friends. Other mothers don’t have a magical […]

Charlotte Holmes is accused of murder

A Ruse of Shadows by Sherry Thomas

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3.5 stars Smart Bitches Summer Bingo: the latest or last book in a series CBR16 Bingo: fan fiction This is book 8 in the series, and really not a good place to begin. Start with A Study in Scarlet Women. Charlotte Holmes, more used to solving murder mysteries, now finds herself questioned by the police, the main suspect in the murder of Lord Bancroft Ashburton. Inspector Threadles is concerned for her, but needn’t have worried, Ms Holmes isn’t going to let something as tiresome as […]



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