Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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More Murder, Less Family Drama Please

The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins

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Decades after the heiress Ruby McTavish was kidnapped as a toddler and dubiously recovered a year later, her adopted son Camden and his wife Jules return to her ancestral home in a bid to claim her long-neglected inheritance. This book draws inspiration from several cases in the early 20th century in which a kidnapped or vanished child was thought to be returned, only for it to be later discovered that it was instead some unrelated child who for whatever reason was trying to be forced […]

A Handful of Lanterns Are Probably Enough

The House of a Thousand Lanterns by Victoria Holt

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Jane Leslie never dreamt when she first heard of the House of a Thousand Lanterns that she might one day live there, or that it might end up being the death of her. This is another somewhat lackluster Victoria Holt gothic romance rescued by the quality of her writing and the strong main character. I did enjoy also going out to colonial Hong Kong, though you must take the attitudes of most of the characters with a grain of salt in regards to the custom […]

“Reader, I married him. Because it should be me or no one.”

Murder Road by Simone St. James

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When newlyweds April and Eddie pick up a mortally wounded hitchhiker on a deserted road, the last thing they expect is to be suspected of the crime. But to prove their innocence they will have to solve a decades-old mystery. The book’s blurb leans a bit heavier on the mystery-thriller aspect than the horror-paranormal, so I’m glad that other readers’ reviews emphasized the latter, or else I might have been disappointed expecting a straightforward cold case mystery. There’s an eerie feeling which hangs over the […]

“If I were to live here in Cardiff, by the sea, I think that another self would emerge in me. My soul.”

Cardiff, By the Sea by Joyce Carol Oates

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Joyce Carol Oates presents four uneasy novellas of suspense, all of which are centered around a woman in peril, often from the male forces in her life. Cardiff, by the Sea – 3.5 stars Clare, an academic who was adopted as a toddler, returns to her unknown past when she unexpectedly inherits a house from her birth grandmother, but what she learns about her birth family leaves her unmoored. I loved the prose in this novella (as I did in all of them), as well […]

Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me a Match

The Matchmaker by Aisha Saeed

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Nura is a third-generation matchmaker for high society, and business is thriving, even if she’s working herself ragged for it. But when a series of bizarre incidents starts plaguing her clients, Nura begins to realize that someone may have it out for her. Though arranged marriage is becoming less common among desi immigrants in the United States, there is definitely a thriving market for it. Nura’s methods are far more intensive than the folders with photos and personal and professional details that my dad sometimes […]

“To call them the weaker sex is to utter a hideous mockery. They are the stronger sex, the nosier, the more persevering, the most self-assertive sex.”

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

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The lovely second Lady Audley is most fortunate, having been elevated in the world from governess to peeress by her marriage to the rich and doting Sir Audley. But, as Sir Audley’s nephew Robert will soon learn, she has a dangerous secret which she will go to any lengths to conceal. Lady Audley’s Secret belongs to the genre of  Victorian ‘sensation novels’ be, which ar a precursor to the more openly violent pulp novels which were popular in the 20th century. Previously I’ve read a […]



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