Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Abduct

Sweet Savage Love by Rosemary Rogers

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July 18, 2021 Ginny Brandon, a senator’s daughter, is sent to nominally ride a wagon train to California, but is actually smuggling gold to Mexico to support the Emperor’s cause. She is relentlessly drawn to the wagon train guide, Steve Morgan. But unbeknownst to her, Steve is actually a spy intent on thwarting her father’s plans. What can I say about this book? It’s a wild ride, but one I never wanted to get off of. Ginny and Steve are a quintessential, swashbuckling romance hero […]

Your Confederate Sympathies May Vary

The Outlaw Hearts by Rebecca Brandewyne

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When schoolteacher Jenny Colter takes the train into the little Ozarks town of Tumbling Creek, she’s hoping to leave behind the violence which destroyed her family in post-Civil War Atlanta. But when she catches sight of the uncovered face of Luke Morgan when he’s robbing the train, he’s determined to keep her quiet by any means necessary… Rebecca Brandewyne is another of those writers of big off-the-wall 80s bodice rippers which I love, though her work doesn’t reach for the soaring heights of WTF-ery that […]

This is a book that I read.

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

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I remember watching Lonesome Dove with my grandparents as a child, although I remember absolutely nothing about the plot (I was probably not actually watching, but reading something while it was on in the background). What I remember most is how much my grandparents liked it. A couple years ago I decided maybe I’d try to read the book. I stopped and started at least 3 times, struggling to have any interest in the lives of a couple retired Texas Rangers. It wasn’t until this year, when […]

Something Skittering Just Out Of Frame

Dead Country by Max Gladstone

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Max Gladstone’s Craft Sequence series is one of my favorite examples of fantasy world building. Gladstone took the core idea of ‘what if soul-stuff could be traded?’ and built a magical system—known as The Craft—out of it. He then expanded further and asked ‘So what if a world’s sole currency is well, the soul? What would this mean for the financial system? What kind of corporate world would develop around this? Imagine a metropolis or two arising out of this system? How would they operate?’ […]

Best Western

Sing Her Down by Ivy Pochoda

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Read as part of CBR16Bingo: rage. The rage of women, ex-cons, survivors is centered in this book. The opening chapter contains a monologue on female rage. You ever have an author that you think you should like more? You just try and try with them but they can’t put it together for you? That was Ivy Pochoda until These Women, which I read a couple months ago and will absolutely be in my Best of 2024, with a great shot to place in the top 5. […]

Like the Oregon Trail Game with a Bodice Ripping Mod

Emerald Fire by Julia Grice

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Fleeing her plantation home to escape her lecherous cousin, Emerald ends up joining a wagon train headed to California as a mother’s helper. She’s drawn to their guide Mace, but has a long way to go before she can reach her happy ending. More a pioneer adventure than a true romance, we follow Emerald on her way west as the train tangles with illness and injury, hostile Native Americans and a pair of bank robbers. We encounter all kinds of curious characters both on and […]



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