Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Enemies to Lovers With Some Spice

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

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If you’re a fan of the enemies-to-lovers genre of romance, do I have the book for you! Lucy and Josh are executive assistants for the co-Editors in Chief of a publishing company, and they hate each other’s guts. Every day since the day they met has been a series of games of one-upmanship, whether it’s the Staring Game, the Copycat Game, or something else entirely. Lucy and Josh are oil and water, chalk and cheese – they have completely different ways of looking at the […]

(Most of) The Improbable Meet-Cute Collection

Rosie and the Dreamboat by Sally Thorne

Worst Wingman Ever by Abby Jiminez

Drop, Cover, and Hold On by Jasmine Guillory

The Exception to the Rule by Christina Lauren

With Any Luck by Ashley Poston

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“Improbable Meet Cute” is a great concept for a short story/not quite a novella collection! The “Amazon Original Stories” branding makes me nervous because it just screams “Do it for the publicity instead of the money because we said so!”,  so I made a point of paying for all five stories to support the authors. In reviewing them, I am tried to decide if they should be appreciated as a delightful, self-contained jewel or as something that leaves you wanting more like a  novella or even […]

The Hating Game, in three reviews

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

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Re-re-read (December 19, 2021): Yes, I did just re-re-read this one–for the second time this year–after watching the movie. This is definitely getting bumped up to five stars. What is it about this book that is so alluring? I’ve written about it before, but if you scroll through my reviews you can see that I didn’t actually “get” some of the set up Hating Games prior to the start of the romance bits. But now, after having read some lovely reviews of this book and […]

Likable and entertaining

Second First Impressions by Sally Thorne

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Second First Impressions (2021) is the third book I’ve read by Sally Thorne. I first heard of The Hating Game through Cannonball and unexpectedly loved it. Because of this, I was very excited when Thorne’s second book, 99 Percent Mine, came out. Unfortunately, it did not live up to my newly raised expectations. However, my memories of The Hating Game were strong enough that as soon as I heard Thorne had written a third book, I scrambled to find it at the library. I generally enjoyed Second First Impressions, but it wasn’t […]

“Brown-eyed sublime being. She of soft, deep cardigan pockets. Bubble-bath taker. Pool jumper. Cheese provider. Sunset glower. Heaven sent.”

Second First Impressions by Sally Thorne

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I can see how Second First Impressions, Sally Thorne’s third book, isn’t going to be a five-star book for many readers – heck it wasn’t for me until quite near the end. But this book hit me in the feelings and had just the right kind of relatively low stakes, emotions are the plot set up for me. I was delighted; I understand if you were not. In this outing Thorne is playing with opposites, both in her protagonists and in the thematic work she […]

This is getting a lukewarm reaction from a lot of people, but I absolutely loved it.

Second First Impressions by Sally Thorne

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Thank you, Sally Thorne, I needed this exact book. Our cast of characters: Ruthie, a twenty-five going on 125-year old, who has only ever worked at this one retirement village and plans to work there forever, because she loves it, and it’s comfortable and safe there among the old people and the endangered tortoises that wander the property. Among the residents are the Parloni sisters, Aggie and Renata, who hire themselves boys to run ridiculous errands (the inspiration for the book*) and basically take care […]



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