Una Luna Sin Miel

Una Luna Sin Miel
Por Christina Lauren
VR Editoras, 2022. Romántica

Olive siempre tiene mala suerte. Su gemela, en cambio, es tan afortunada que ha conseguido organizar su boda ganando concursos en las redes. Sin embargo, cuando todos se intoxican con la comida de la fiesta, la luna de miel queda vacante. Solo Olive e Ethan, su némesis, están a salvo. Si quieren disfrutar de unas vacaciones en Hawái, el único precio que deberán pagar será fingir que se aman como recién casados. ¿Por cuánto tiempo podrá Olive sostener la mentira?

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Cosas Que Nunca Dejamos Atrás
Por Lucy Score
Chic Editorial, 2023. Romántica

Si hay algo que tiene claro, es que no es su tipo. Para nada. Knox prefiere vivir su vida tal y como se toma el café: solo. Pero todo cambia cuando llega a su pueblecito un terremoto llamado Naomi, una novia a la fuga en busca de su gemela, de la que lleva años sin saber nada. Lástima que su hermana le robe el coche y el dinero y la deje a cargo de una sobrina que no sabía que existía. Al ver cómo la vida de Naomi se va al traste, Knox decide hacer lo que mejor se le da: sacar a la gente de apuros. Después, volverá a su rutina solitaria ... O ese es el plan.

Asistente del Villano
Por Hannah Nicole Maehrer
Faeris, 2024. Romántica

Dado que Evie Sage es quien debe encargarse de mantener a su hermana y a su padre enfermo, su situación laboral no es meramente importante; es vital. Así que, cuando un percance con el Villano más infame de Rennedawn acaba en una oferta de empleo, no tiene más remedio que aceptar. Ningún trabajo es perfecto, claro, pero menos aún cuando te enamoras de tu terrorífico, temperamental e innegablemente atractivo jefe.

Justo cuando se está acostumbrando a ver cabezas cortadas colgando del techo y a la extraña sensación de pisar un globo ocular extraviado mientras anda, Evie empieza a sospechar que entre se esconde una enorme rata ... y no solo en sentido literal. Algo podrido está emergiendo en el reino de Rennedawn, y alguien quiere acabar con El Villano y con todo su perverso imperio. Ahora Evie no solo va a tener que evitar babear por su jefe, sino también que averiguar quién es exactamente la persona que lo está saboteando para que él pueda hacérselo pagar. Pero es que, claro, cuesta mucho encontrar un buen trabajo.

MEB

Labels: Español, MEB, Romántica

Never Saw Me Coming

Never Saw Me Coming

By Vera Kurian

Park Row Books, 2021. 389 pages. Mystery

It would be easy to underestimate Chloe Sevre. She's a freshman honor student, a legging-wearing hot girl next door, who also happens to be a psychopath. She spends her time on yogalates, frat parties and plotting to kill Will Bachman, a childhood friend who grievously wronged her. Chloe is one of seven students at her college who are part of an unusual clinical study of psychopaths. The study, led by a renowned psychologist, requires them to wear smart watches that track their moods and movements. When one of the students in the study is found murdered in the psychology building, a dangerous game of cat and mouse begins, and Chloe goes from hunter to prey. As she races to identify the killer and put her own plan for revenge into action, she'll be forced to decide if she can trust her fellow psychopaths -- and everybody knows you should never trust a psychopath.

Kurian has done the unthinkable and had me rooting for a psychopath which is truly a feat since Chloe, at times, is highly unlikeable. For a rather dark thriller, I was surprised by how much fun I had following Chloe’s hijinks in her plot to kill her childhood friend while also trying to avoid being killed herself. The book excelled at depicting the unlikely friendship among psychopathic students as they work together to figure out who is killing them. Their dynamic was both difficult to wrap my brain around and highly entertaining which goes to show Kurian’s skill in writing rich, dimensional characters. I also appreciate a mystery that I can’t solve and when I say I didn’t see the end coming, I truly mean it. If you enjoy the television show Dexter or love a thriller with a dark academia vibe, then Never Saw Me Coming is for you!

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Everyone is Watching

By Heather Gudenkauf

Park Row Books, 2024. 297 pages. Fiction

The Best Friend. The Confidant. The Senator. The Boyfriend. The Executive. Five contestants have been chosen to compete for ten million dollars on the game show One Lucky Winner. The catch? None of them knows what (or who) to expect and it will be live streamed all over the world. Completely secluded in an estate in Northern California, with strict instructions not to leave the property and zero contact with the outside world, the competitors start to feel a little too isolated. When long-kept secrets begin to rise to the surface, the contestants realize this is no longer just a reality show--someone is out for blood. And the game can't end until the world knows who the contestants really are.

They Never Learn

By Layne Fargo

Scout Press, 2020. 342 pages. Fiction

Scarlett Clark is an exceptional English professor, but she's even better at getting away with murder. Every year, Dr. Clark searches for the worst man at Gorman University and plots his well-deserved demise. Thanks to her meticulous planning, she's avoided drawing attention to herself, but as she's preparing for her biggest kill yet, the school starts probing into the growing body count on campus. Determined to keep her enemies close, Dr. Clark insinuates herself into the investigation. Everything's going according to her master plan until she loses control with her latest victim. Meanwhile, Gorman student Carly Schiller is just trying to survive her freshman year. Finally free of her emotionally abusive father, all Carly wants is to focus on her studies. Her new roommate has other ideas. Allison Hadley is cool and confident, and the two girls quickly form an intense friendship. So when Allison is assaulted at a party, Carly becomes obsessed with making the attacker pay and turning her fantasies about revenge into a reality.

BW

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year
Ally Carter
Avon, 2024. 293 pages. Mystery.

Meet Maggie Chase and Ethan Wyatt: She's the new Queen of the Cozy Mystery. He's Mr. Big-time Thriller Guy. She hates his guts. He thinks her name is Marcie (no matter how many times she's told him otherwise.) But when they both accept a cryptic invitation to attend a Christmas house party at the English estate of a reclusive fan, neither is expecting their host to be the most powerful author in the world: Eleanor Ashley, the Duchess of Death herself. That night, the weather turns, and the next morning Eleanor is gone. She vanished from a locked room, and Maggie has to wonder: Is Eleanor in danger? Or is it all some kind of test? Is Ethan the competition? Or is he the only person in that snowbound mansion she can trust? As the snow gets deeper and the stakes get higher, every clue will bring Maggie and Ethan closer to the truth--and each other. Because, this Christmas, these two rivals are going to have to become allies (and maybe more) if they have any hope of saving Eleanor. Assuming they don't kill each other first. 

I very much enjoyed this enemies to lovers mystery novel and would read it any time of the year. Maggie and Ethan have a chemistry and witty banter that I found charming. Overall, a feel good, festive locked room mystery that I would be comfortable recommending to my mother in law’s book group and a book group of my own. I found it interesting that author Ally Carter was inspired by the disappearance of Agatha Christie on Dec 3, 1926 and her reappearance 11 days later on Dec 14th. 

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The Merriest Misters
Timothy Janovsky
St. Martin’s Griffin, 2024. 305 pages. Romance.

Patrick Hargrave and Quinn Muller have been married for less than a year, but their passionate romance is cracking under the pressures of domestic life and a cumbersome mortgage. That's until Christmas Eve when Patrick wakes Quinn up with: "I think I've killed a man." Quinn realizes the "burglar" Patrick knocked out is none other than Mr. Claus himself. Instructed by a harried elf to don the red suit and take the reins of the reindeer-guided sleigh up on the roof, Quinn and Patrick work together to save Christmas. But as the sun rises on Christmas morning, the sleigh brings them back to the North Pole instead of New Jersey, and they're in for a massive shock. The couple must assume the roles of Santa Claus and the first ever Merriest Mister or Christmas will be canceled ... permanently. With Christmas-and their marriage-on the line, Patrick and Quinn agree to stay together for one year. But can running a toy shop together save their relationship, or will Patrick and Quinn be stuffing coal in each other's stockings come next Christmas? 

My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories
Stephanie Perkins, Editor
St. Martin’s Griffin, 2014. 321 pages. Short Stories.

If you love holiday stories, holiday movies, made-for-TV-holiday specials, holiday episodes of your favorite sitcoms and, especially, if you love holiday anthologies, you're going to fall in love with My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories by twelve bestselling young adult writers, edited by the international bestselling Stephanie Perkins. Whether you enjoy celebrating Christmas or Hanukkah, Winter Solstice or New Years, there's something here for everyone. So, curl up by the fireplace and get cozy. You have twelve reasons this season to stay indoors and fall in love. 

 JK

Navidad Duranguense

Navidad Duranguense
Por Diana Reyes
Capitol Latin, 2010. Música

Contenido: Blanca Navidad -- Campanas navideñas = Jingle bells -- Campana sobre campana -- Los peces en el rio -- Arre burriquito -- La marimorena -- El niño del tambor = The little drummer boy -- El burrito sabanero -- Feliz Navidad -- El año viejo -- El niño Jesus.

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Canciones Navideñas
Por Solecitos
Headliners Records, 2003. Música

Contenido: Navidad de los Selecitos -- Noche de paz -- Burrito de Belén -- Ven a mi casa esta Navidad -- Hoy es Navidad -- Rodolfo el reno -- Blanca Navidad -- Niño del tambor -- Campana sobre campana -- En esta Navidad -- Popurrí de Navidad. Jingle bells -- Feliz Navidad -- En el nombre del Cielo -- Humildes peregregrinos -- Peces en el rio -- Viejo.

Canciones Navideñas
Por Autor
Luminaria Music, 2005. Música

C

ontenido: Jesús en pesebre (Away in a manger) -- La noche santa (O holy night) -- El niño dios (What child is this?) -- Ave María Noche de luz (Silent night) -- En la Judea (On Judea's plain) -- Asombro dio a los magos (With wandering awe) -- Estrella de luz (Star bright) -- The prayer Campanas de Navidad (I heard the bells) -- Otro año ha pasado (New Year hymn) -- El arullo de María (Mary's lullaby) -- La primera Navidad (Christmas medley) -- Ave María Feliz Navidad

MEB

Labels: Español, MEB, Música

The Holiday Honeymoon Switch

The Holiday Honeymoon Switch

By Julia McKay

G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2024. 342 pages. Romance 

Holly Beech and Ivy Casey are bury-the-body besties. They’re so in sync, they even look alike. When Holly’s fiancé jilts her, leaving her in shock and with a nonrefundable honeymoon, Holly convinces Ivy to switch places. Ivy will go on the Hawaiian honeymoon her best friend can’t bear to take alone, while Holly escapes to Ivy’s rented Hudson Valley cabin to binge-watch holiday movies and heal. 

If you watch The Holiday every year and love a romance with strong female friendship, this is the perfect read for this time of year. McKay manages to balance both Holly and Ivy’s stories with attention to detail and good character development. The tale’s two locales evoke holiday escapes to satisfy the imagination of both a snowy and a tropical Christmastime. The audiobook also offers great narration by Brittany Pressley. 

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The Christmas Wedding Guest 

By Susan Mallery 

HQN, 2021. 426 pages. 

Guilted into being bridesmaids at their parents' vow renewal ceremony, sisters Reggie and Dena Sommerville, each working through tough personal issues, find love in the most unexpected of places -- their hometown. 

Happy Place

By Emily Henry 

Berkley, 2023. 388 pages. 

Despite breaking up months earlier, a picture-perfect couple still haven't told their friends about the split and attempt to pretend they are still together at an annual Maine getaway in this novel from the best-selling author of Book Lovers. 

AB 

The Small and the Mighty

 The Small and the Mighty: twelve unsung Americans who changed the course of history, from the founding to the civil rights movement

By Sharon McMahon

Penguin Random House, 2024. 307 pages. Nonfiction

 From America's favorite government teacher, a heartfelt, inspiring portrait of twelve ordinary Americans whose courage formed the character of our country. In The Small and the Mighty, Sharon McMahon proves that the most remarkable Americans are often ordinary people who didn't make it into the textbooks. Not the presidents, but the telephone operators. Not the aristocrats, but the schoolteachers. Through meticulous research, she discovers history's unsung characters and brings their rich, riveting stories to light for the first time. You'll meet a woman astride a white horse riding down Pennsylvania Ave, a young boy detained at a Japanese incarceration camp, a formerly enslaved woman on a mission to reunite with her daughter, a poet on a train, and a teacher who learns to work with her enemies. More than one thing is bombed, and multiple people surprisingly become rich. Some rich with money, and some wealthy with things that matter more.

Sharon McMahon’s The Small and the Mighty is a powerful and inspiring collection of stories that reminded me that even the most ordinary individuals can achieve extraordinary things.

What stood out to me most in this book was McMahon’s ability to tackle serious topics with a light touch. She keeps the mood engaging with her humor without diminishing the weight of the subjects she addresses. Her writing style is both relatable and uplifting, making it easy for readers to connect with the stories and the individuals she highlights.

This book is an uplifting read for anyone looking for a dose of inspiration and a reminder that greatness can come from the most unexpected places.

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On the Line: a story of class, solidarity, and two women's epic fight to build a union
By Daisy Pitkin
Algonquin Books, 2022. 272 pages. Nonfiction

The story of two dedicated women, a labor organizer and an immigrant laundry worker, coming together to spearhead an audacious campaign to unionize one of the most dangerous industries in one of the most anti-union states--Arizona--and offering a nuanced look at the modern-day labor movement and the future of workers' rights.

 

The Road is Good: how a mother's strength became a daughter's purpose

By Uzo Aduba

Viking, 2024. 320 pages. Nonfiction

A memoir of Black immigrant identity, the coming-of-age story of Nigerian American actress Uzo Aduba, one of the stars of the television series Orange is the New Black.