Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

“I am given no voice in decisions or plans!” but she wants one

Elusive by Genevieve Cogman

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Bingo 14: Citizen Elusive is part 2 of a trilogy that re-imagines some things about the French Revolution. It’s definitely fiction, but given the historical context of citizens trying to take back power from the elite which is a theme in the novel in more ways than one, I argue this counts. A major part of the fiction is the addition of the (former?) maid Eleanor to the Scarlet Pimpernel and his crew, and the addition of vampires (Marie Antoinette might still be around in […]

When the coconuts are the most interesting part of the vampire story

A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal

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Bingo 10: Migrant More than one important character in A Tempest of Tea appears to have migrated due to war/colonization/etc. to the main location of White Roaring, Ettenia. The effects of colonial violence is a actually a theme in the story, so here it is in the corner top square. I figured that a story featuring a street-wise crook (that’s Artie) and her crew, vampires, and political tensions might get a little dark, but yikes, both to the violence and the suggestions for the sequel. […]

Shepherds Watch over Their Flocks. And Angels Watch over Shepherds

The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison

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I’m a bit boggled—how did I miss one of Katherine Addison’s books? Addison is the author of the magnificent The Goblin Emperor and the follow up trilogy, The Cemeteries of Amalo*. Usually her books are an automatic pre-order for me. But somehow, I missed that she had also written an alt-universe take on Sherlock Holmes as well.  The book comes with the following tagline: “This is not the story you think it is. These are not the characters you think they are. This is not […]

The island might be unspoiled but some of its residents really stink…

Summer Shadows by John Harris Dunning, Ricardo Cabral, Brad Simpson and Jim Campbell

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The cover of Summer Shadows by John Harris Dunning, Ricardo Cabral, Brad Simpson and Jim Campbell is a tad misleading. It makes things look like a teen thriller in the line of a slightly darker Christopher Pike, RL Stine, or Richie Tankersley Cusick and the like. In other words, something from the late 1980s or early 1990s when I was a teen and actually reading realistic paranormal.  Instead of a “teeny bopper thriller with supernatural” we get sex, drugs, and vampires. We get some downright […]

“In my place will grow a feral rose, soft red petals hiding sharp white teeth”

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab

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Bingo Square: B – Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil V.E. Schwab has created another enjoyable stand alone novel with Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil.  It’s about hunger, love, and rage.  Starting in 1532 Spain and concluding in 2019 Boston, Massachusetts.  Three women, across time become inextricably linked and, in Schwab’s words, this is their “toxic, lesbian vampire story”. Bury my bones in the midnight soil,   plant them shallow and water them deep,   and in my place will grow a feral rose,   soft red […]

“After they were both done, the pile of knives and guns on the coffee table looked like they’d cleaned out an armory. “I think we have a problem, Dmitri.”

Archangel's Blade: A Guild Hunter Novel #4 by Nalini Singh

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I suppose I have to admit that I’m starting to be fine with certain Romance novels (as long as they’re either lesbian Regency-Era, gay Napoleonic Wars-Era, or supernaturally bent), as this series is kind of enjoyable in a light, breezy, and “not taxing my brain to read” kind of way. The big third-act “gasp-worthy” reveal was…pretty obvious from maybe twenty pages in; you could tell it was just going to be that kind of book. It was also so nice (meant only slightly sarcastically) that […]



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