Reseña: Unicorn of Many Hats (Heavenly Nostrils #7)

 +Digital arc gently provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review+

Unicorn of Many Hats (Heavenly Nostrils #7)

by 

Dana Simpson

 176 pages

Expected publication: March 20th 2018 by Andrews McMeel Publishing

ISBN:1449489664 (ISBN13: 9781449489663)

Edition Language:English

Series:Heavenly Nostrils

BLURB: In this installment, Phoebe decides to start the school year off right by offering a peace treaty to frenemy Dakota, Marigold Heavenly Nostrils becomes the unlikeliest of babysitters, and Phoebe is totally surprised to find out that her Secret Santa isn't Dakota or Max!

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My bookshelves: comic-strip, graphic-novel, fantasia-urbana, for-kids, children-protagonist, unicorn,  netgalley

Another delivery of the adventures of Phoebe and her best friend Marigold Heavenly Nostrils, where the delivery goes back to the system of comic strips instead of one storyline like the previus issue.

The summer, frienship, fangirling, internet, school, and Unicorns!

The grace of these vignettes apart from the drawings -really cute- , are good part of the dialogues. The author dedicates a good part of the stories to the impact of technology nowadays like the internet , something that goes from parents to children. I love that Phoebe's parents are addicted to electronic games and inclined towards art in the case of mom.

Reseña: Minotaur in Stone

Minotaur in Stone 

by 

Marjorie M. Liu

 55 pages

Published February 11th 2015 by Marjorie M. Liu

ASIN:B00TJ1KSYE

Edition Language:English

BLURB: A labyrinth of a library. Watchful eyes in the dark. And a woman with nowhere – and nobody – to call home. In MINOTAUR IN STONE, Marjorie M. Liu transports her heroine into the arms of the tragically cursed Minotaur. After millennia of being trapped by an ancient king, the Minotaur has given up hope of escaping the dark labyrinth that imprisons him. When he feels a connection with the woman he watches every night, however, and she returns his feelings after being summoned to his home, he realizes that she may be the champion he needs, and she realizes that she may be falling in love with the man beneath the monster.

My rating: 3,3 stars

My bookshelves: novelette-short, adult-mature, fantasy-paranormal, myth-and-legends

Adult fantasy. A modern take in the Minotaur myth. A young woman living in the fringe , secluded in a library, is conduced in dreams into a dark labyrinth with a not possible man. Both are lost in dark, lonely and with nothing to lose.

[...] to live as an uninvited guest, quiet as a book—and as a book, a dull creature on the surface, but full of the raging wild dark inside the words of my heart.

The start is better than the ending, as far as the way in which the author interweaves the words.

Creo que buena parte de esta idea del laberinto se ve después en su serie Hunter Kiss - The Iron Hunt, que por cierto la recomiendo.

Reseña: An Apple for the Creature (Antologia)

An Apple for the Creature 

by

Charlaine Harris  (Editor), Toni L.P. Kelner (Editor),

Ilona Andrews, Jonathan Maberry, Donald Harstad, Marjorie M. Liu, Rhys Bowen, Amber Benson, Faith Hunter, Steve Hockensmith, Nancy Holder, Thomas E. Sniegoski, M.R. Carey

  

336 pages

Published 2012 by Ace 

ISBN:0425256804 (ISBN13: 9780425256800)

Edition Language: English

 

BLURB: What could be scarier than the first day of school? How about a crash course in the paranormal from Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner, editors of Home Improvement: Undead Edition? Your worst school nightmares—taking that math test you never studied for, finding yourself naked in school assembly, not knowing which door to enter—will pale in comparison to these thirteen original stories that take academic anxiety to whole new realms.

In #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris’s story, "Playing Possum," Sookie Stackhouse brings enough birthday cupcakes for her nephew's entire class but finds she's one short when the angry ex-boyfriend of the school secretary shows up.

When her guardian, Kate Daniels, sends her undercover to a school for exceptional children, teenaged Julie learns an all-new definition of "exceptional," in New York Times bestselling author Ilona Andrews's "Magic Tests." For those who like fangs with their forensics, New York Times bestselling author Nancy Holder offers "VSI," in which FBI agent Claire is tested as never before in a school for Vampire Scene Investigation. And in New York Times bestselling author Thomas Sniegoski's "The Bad Hour," Remy Chandler and his dog Marlowe find evil unleashed in an obedience school.

You'll need more than an apple to stave off the creatures in these and nine other stories. Remember your first lesson: resistance is fruitless!

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My shelves: fantasia-urbana, ghosts, horror, magia, psychic-powers, shapeshifters, short-story, vampiros, werewolf-hombrelobo-lycans, witches-wizards 

Antologia de relatos cortos de lo sobrenatural y la educación en diversas formas que van desde Ilona Andrews a Charlaine Harris y Faith Hunter, pasando por Marjorie M. Liu (cuya historia buscaba al leer esto), la historia excepcional de Mike Carey y varios otros autores desconocidos para mi. Recibe el nombre por la historia corta de Faith Hunter.

Reseña: Bruno Brazil - Integral 1

Bruno Brazil. Integral 1 

by  

Greg  

William Vance

Fabian Rodriguez (Traductor)

216 pages

Published 2013 by Ponent mon

ISBN:1908007478 (ISBN13: 9781908007476)

Edition Language:Spanish

 

BLURB: Bajo la blanca cabellera de Bruno Brazil se esconde un agente del servicio de inteligencia americano. En sus inicios trabaja solo, al igual que James Bond. Pero sus misiones se vuelven cada vez más complejas y peligrosas y termina formando equipo con un elenco de tipos duros, el «Comando Caimán», compuesto por Gaucho Morales, Whip Rafale, Texas Bronco, Billy Brazil, Big Boy y el Nómada. 

Entre 1967 y finales de la década de los 70, Michel Greg, bajo el seudónimo de Louis Albert, y William Vance conciben y dibujan sus trepidantes aventuras con una calidad gráfica excepcional e innovadora. Aquí están reunidas, por primera vez, en un integral en tres volúmenes. Clásicos de la aventura convertidos en obra de culto.

My rating: 5 stars

Bruno Brazil personaje creado allá por 1968, viene inspirado por el James Bond versión Sean Connery, el agente de gobierno que no se inmuta ante nada y lucha contra malvadas organizaciones y conspiraciones, con un estilo que tira a realista. La diferencia es el material nivel PG-13 pues aparte de aparecer mujeres hermosas (que luchan pie a pie contra hombres) no hay signos de blatante intercambio sexual. ¿De dónde viene ese apellido? quisiera que alguien me lo aclarara.

La misiones son las que aparecen en cualquier pelicula de acción donde el jefe apunta un objetivo y el agente se encarga del resto. Sin embargo, a partir de la segunda entrega Brazil reune a una pandilla de singulares personajes en su "Comando Caimán" que parecen como salidos de la entonces famosa película "Los Doce del Patíbulo" con un toque de humor a lo que serían más tarde "Los Magnificos" (The A-Team), pues siempre parecen que actuan solos , algo asi como en las peliculas de Bruce Willis en Die Hard: mucha acción, explosiones , carreras de autos y disparos por montones.

Reseña: New Hand

 +Digital arc gently provided by editors and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review+

New Hand 

by 

L.A. Witt

  

399 pages

Published by Riptide Publishing  December 18th 2017

ISBN13:9781626496941

Edition Language:English

Series:Bluewater Bay #23

Blurb: Months after his husband’s death, Garrett Blaine desperately needs a fresh start. He sells his house in Seattle, leaves his accounting job, and starts bartending in Bluewater Bay. There he meets a man who wakes up his nearly forgotten libido. Jesse Connelly’s friend with benefits bolted after Jesse disclosed his HIV status. Stood up and stinging, Jesse tries to drown his sorrows . . . and finds an unexpected connection with a lonely bartender.

My rating: 3.5

Garrett is a 42 years old grieving widow who lost his husband and decide to change to a new scenario, town and job, faraway from memories. Jesse is a 26 years old HIV-positive who understand that life not always send the best in your direction but better keep hoping for it.

In case you are wondering, it is not an angst-fest. I clarify it, because I characterize myself by fleeing from that. That is not my idea of what to look for in a reading for entertainment. However always have baffled me when in the media people try to calm down others from crying or in despair or after that when they try to tell people how to feel under some dire circunstances. People are not rational under the best of times, so it seems ridiculous to try to put them into nice wrappings when they are at their worst.

On the other hand, there is a lot of reflection about mourning. And, for the ignorant like me, what it is to live today with a disease like AIDS, or rather being seropositive. Which, considering the tremendous increase in AIDS in my country is not without concern.

All this spiced up with a thematic town - which is here compared to Forks - that revolves around books of werewolves and related subjects, and the production of a series based on them; and where our protagonist works in a comic shop, with all that that implies.

Reseña: Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats 

by 

T.S. Eliot

 Illustrated Edition, 56 pages

Published August 30th 1982 by Harcourt Brace & Company (first published 1939)

ISBN:0151686564

Edition Language:English

 

 T. S. Eliot's playful cat poems have delighted readers and cat lovers around the world ever since they were first published in 1939. They were originally composed for his godchildren, with Eliot posing as Old Possum himself, and later inspired the legendary musical Cats.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Reto 10: Libro con un gato en la portada.

En verso juguetón , irónico, fantasioso, paródico e ingenioso T.S. Eliot traza una descripción de felinos disque domésticos. Dicen que tal vez se referia a ciertos personajes de su tiempo, tal vez a nosotros mismos, y hasta que hacia referencias a las creaciones de Kipling y Conan Doyle. Y , sin duda, que le debe ahora el ser mucho más conocido al musical de Lloyd Weber.

Pero, sea como sea, arranca reconocimiento a cualquier conocedor de gatos -amante o no de estos - y una sonrisa.

Reseña: Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys: The Big Lie

+Digital arc gently provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review+

Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys: The Big Lie 

by  

Anthony Del Col 

Werther Dell'edera (Art)

  

162 pages

Published November 28th 2017 by Dynamite Entertainment 

ISBN:1524104175 (ISBN13: 9781524104177)

Edition Language:English

Volume collects issues 1-6

A Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mystery unlike any other you've ever read! When the teenage brothers Frank and Joe Hardy are accused of the murder of their father - a detective in the small resort town of Bayport - they must team up with Nancy Drew to prove their innocence (and find the real guilty party in the process) in a twisting noir tale, complete with double-crosses, deceit, and dames. Writer Anthony Del Col (Assassin's Creed, Kill Shakespeare) and artist Werther Dell'Edera (Batman: Detective Comics, House of Mystery) bring the iconic teen detectives into the modern age, and redefine noir for a new generation of readers!

 

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

my shelves: mystery-murder, graphic-novel, netgalley, book-to-graphic-novel, siblings, contemporary-fiction

Despite the introduction of this comic as 'noir' and sort of gritty, I fail to see those changes, but how should I know, afterall, I'm not really a what you could call a real fan of the series, because I've never even see a book of the Hardy Brothers (kind of all american boys it seems) or Nancy Drew. Only watched some old movies of Nancy -that would explain why I'm not part of the 'Nancy was so cool' of the old crowd.- , and old episodes of the HB series, and okay I used to have a bit of crush over Sean Cassidy. 

[
Must be the dimples xd (hide spoiler)]

No so much now.

Reseña: Blade Singer

Blade Singer 

 by  

Aaron de Orive

Martha Wells

 202 pages 

Published June 13th 2014 by Cloak & Dagger Studios 

 Manuel "Manny" Boreaux, a troubled adolescent from Texas, is magically transported into the body of a goblin pickpocket in an alternate world inhabited by faerie creatures. Manny must quickly adapt to the danger all around him and try to find a way to get back home, a feat complicated by the pickpocket's association with a notorious gang of thieves. But when Manny uncovers a plot to assassinate a young king, he must enlist the aid of an elf cavalier and a cat burglar to thwart a Sidhe witch's scheme to ignite a civil war between humans and the Fae.

My rating: 3.5 

 bookshelves: teen-protagonist, adventure, fantasy, sword-and-fantasy, fae-or-fey-or-faery, elfos, seelie-unseelie-court, ya-juvenil

Manny Boreaux is a seventh grade student whose parents died in a car accident six months ago. He lives with his aunt, but finds himself in denial and resentment, making bad decisions. His going to a bookstore chasing memories, leads him magically to an adventure where he is in a parallel world full of magic, guards using rapier, fay beings, and where suddenly he is a thief that is becoming a goblin.

I picked this book for curiosity because is co-authored with Martha Wells (Raksura books).

This is like the Musketeers with faery races .

An entertaining page-turned, but feels more like a novella than a novel. Despite being a stand-alone novel, a second installment is clearly pending.

Reseña: The White Lily (Vampire Blood #3)

 +Digital arc gently provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review+

The White Lily (Vampire Blood #3)

by 

Juliette Cross

 326 pages

Published October 23rd 2017 by Entangled Publishing, Amara

ISBN13:9781640631984

Edition Language:English

Series Vampire Blood #3

 

 FROM THE BLURB: To the north of the Varis empire, a mysterious faction spreads propaganda against the vampire monarchy. Friedrich Volya, the Duke of Winter Hill, seeks to discover who they are before his uncle finds them first. King Dominik will punish the traitors with brutal force.

Local schoolteacher, the raven-haired Brennalyn, is on her own mission—to spy on the duke and discover what she can for the Black Lily. She longs to help the commonwealth and bring justice to the many orphans left behind from the ravages of the blood madness, like the children she lovingly keeps in her care. What she doesn’t plan for is the heart-pounding attraction she feels for the duke, enemy to the Black Lily. But when Brennalyn’s secret puts her life and the life of her children in danger, Friedrich steps in as her protector, she finds out there’s more to the duke than she thought.

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is some kind of romance fantasy where exist a Vampire Monarchy, you know, with your average oh-so-handsome evil vampires with pleasure bites and 'elixir' to thrall into obedience and pain. Only the Varis royalty vampires can make more vampires from their blood, and of course if you are born from them (?!). Going into the third book of the series, a discension had started between the peasants and some members of the nobility that abjure of the cruelty and bad practices b/c they are not protecting their sheep humans. And yeah the King is really mad with some chick called Black Lily who is the symbol for the rebellion.

But in the North there is also a dissident spreading bad propaganda with pamphlets - the White Lily (roll eyes), and the Duke Friedrich wants to find the fool before the King does it.

Well that's the idea.

Reseña: Finette cendron

Finette Cendron

by

Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy

 20 pages

Published 2015 by Editions la Bibliothèque Digitale (first published 1697)

ASIN:B00YJV1PUK

Edition Language:French

Ce livre numérique présente «Finette cendron», de Marie Catherine d'Aulnoy, édité en texte intégral. Une table des matières dynamique permet d'accéder directement aux différentes sections.

Table des matières
- Présentation
- Finette Cendron

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Esta es la 'otra' versión de la Cenicienta contada por la Baronesa d'Aulnoy (a diferencia de la más conocida contada por Perrault), donde la pequeña Finette es una princesa abandonada en el bosque por sus padres junto a sus hermanas, tiene una hada madrina golosa a la que no hace mucho caso, termina confiando en las bellotas, unque después su ingenio la libra de un buen lio, si bien no de sus hermanas malvadas.
.