[BOOK REVIEW] The Pleasure of Your Kiss by Teresa Medeiros

Title:  The Pleasure of Your Kiss

Author: Teresa Medeiros

Genre: Historical Romance

Year Published: 2011

Number of Pages: 506 pages

Date Read: 8/23/2012

Series: Burke Brothers #1 

Publisher: Pocket Star

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 16+ (Sex Scenes)

After hearing that Teresa Medeiros has a new romance novel being released, being the big romance novel fan that I am, I just had to pick up this book!  Well, Teresa Medeiros’ newest book “The Pleasure of Your Kiss” really took me on a wild and sensual ride that I had never been on when reading other romance novels and has now gotten me looking forward to other new romance novels from Teresa Medeiros!

Clarinda Cardew was on her way to England to marry the rich and powerful duke Maximillian Burke, but then she and her friend Penelope Montmorency (Poppy) are ambushed by pirates and she ends up in the arms of a rich and powerful sultan of Morocco called Zin al-Farouk (Farouk) who happens to own a luminous harem!  At the same time, legendary adventurer Ashton Burke is summoned by his brother Maximillian Burke to go and retrieve Clarinda from the sultan’s clutches.  Unfortunately, Ashton Burke used to have a blossoming romance with Clarinda Cardew years ago until he broke her heart by leaving her for unknown reasons and when he actually goes on the quest to retrieve Clarinda from the sultan, he will soon realize that his romance with Clarinda will soon blossomed again in a shocking way that could change their world forever!

Again, after I had heard that Teresa Medeiros was making another romance novel, my inner fan-girl soul was kicked up into high gear and I just had to get this book!  Well, after reading this book, I was impressed that Teresa Medeiros’ writing is better than ever as this romance novel was clearly more unusual than the usual romance novels I usually pick up!  For one thing, this romance novel takes place in a harem, which I did find a bit unusual to put into a romance novel since the story would usually focus on the two romantic interests in the story.  However, I felt that having the story take place in a harem added a nice touch to the story and provided so much uniqueness from the standard romance novel.  I just loved almost all of the characters involved in this novel as Teresa Medeiros made each character truly stand out from each other.  Clarinda Cardew was a truly inspiring heroine as she is shown to be a strong willed woman who refuses to let anyone run her life.  Also, just hearing about how she was struggling in trying to move on with her life when Ashton Burke left her years ago was a truly heartbreaking aspect of her character that made me really feel sorry for her and I usually wished her the best during this story.  Ashton Burke was a truly unique type of hero as he is known as an adventurer and I loved the way that he can outsmart any enemy he comes across and gets what he wants.  I also loved his devil-may-care attitude that he has become so famous for and it was interesting in seeing how he wanted to rekindled the love that he and Clarinda had lost when he left her years ago.  But the relationship I was more invested in was between Farouk and Poppy since Ashton and Clarinda were spending the majority of the book trying to rekindle their relationship.  Farouk and Poppy’s relationship with each other was more interesting because it was set up more like the two of them gaining interest in each other rather than regain their lost love and it was interesting in seeing how Poppy is able to break down Farouk’s serious nature by offering him sweets most of the time.

For anyone who does not like sex scenes, there are a couple of explicit sex scenes in this book, so it would be best to skim over these scenes.  Also, just a brief nitpick, but I wanted to see more romance scenes between Clarinda and Ashton since the majority of the book is spent on Ashton trying to rescue Clarinda from the sultan.  Now, I did not mind too much about the part where Ashton is trying to rescue Clarinda, but I wanted to hear more “sexy” talk between the two characters so I could actually melt away in ecstasy whenever I hear these two characters flirting with each other.

Overall, even though I wanted more romance between Clarinda and Ashton, “The Pleasure of Your Kiss” is a truly unique and brilliant book that romance novels fans will eat up for many years to come!

[BOOK REVIEW] Look-Alikes by Henrik Drescher

Title:  Look-Alikes

Author:  Henrik Drescher


Genre: Fantasy / Humor / Surreal / Toys

Year Published: 1985

Year Read: 2008

Publisher:  Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Books

Source:  Purchased

Content Rating:  Ages 5+ (Some Bizarre Imagery)

Buy or Add on:  Amazon  //  Goodreads 
 

 Alright, you have read “Alice in Wonderland” and “Coraline” before and both stories involve a character going to a strange world that is different from their own world. Well, if you had read any of Henrik Drescher’s books, then you already think that his illustrations are out of this world! “Look-alikes” is a children’s book by Henrik Drescher that literally takes two characters out into another world as Rudy and his pet monkey Buster go into a world called “Look-alikes!” “Look-alikes” is a great book that children will read over and over again!

Wow, what a strange and unusual book I have just read and I thought that "Simon's Book" was surreal! That is just what I love about Henrik Drescher’s work and I just really love this little gem of a book! Henrik Drescher done an excellent job at both writing and illustrating this book about imaginative adventures and I loved the way that this book was written in a simplistic yet creative manner since the writing mainly contained exclamations from Rudy and Buster such as “Help!” and “Yikes!” and I loved how the story started off as a normal narrative when we are introduced to the Pearson family and how the writing becomes somewhat disconnected when Rudy and Buster’s look-alikes come into their crazy world. Henrik Drescher also did an excellent job at illustrating this book, which I am just so into his surreal illustrations, and I loved the way that Buster and Rudy both have similar red and white striped glasses even though Rudy is a human boy and Buster is a brown monkey and it just made them look like a pair of friends that are inseparable. But my most favorite part of the illustrations were the images of the strange creatures that Rudy and Buster’s look-alike encounter when they enter the strange world within the clubhouse and some of the creatures that stayed with me for a long time when I read this book was one creature that has two faces and has fountain pens for feet and another creature that was half goldfish and half ostrich when Rudy and Buster’s look-alikes were trending through the water. I also loved the way that Henrik Drescher made Rudy and Buster’s actual world so calm and beautiful looking while in the world of the look-alikes, the world is chaotic and wild.

The only problem with this book is that the plot might be a bit confusing to younger children there is not really a particular plot to the story as it is mainly about two toys’ adventures in a secret clubhouse. Also, younger children might not understand about the whole story within a story scenario that this story has as there is an outside story which features Rudy and Buster enjoying their family time in the real world and an inside story where Rudy and Buster’s look-alike toys enter another world and have wild adventures there. Parents might want to explain to their children that the book was trying to promote the benefits of imagination within children and how it is wonderful to be creative with your imaginations.

Overall, “Look-alikes” is a truly memorable book for children who love surreal worlds and surreal characters and just love using their imaginations to create the worlds they want to be in! I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since the plot might be a bit confusing for smaller children and some of the images might either scare or interest your child, depending on what your child enjoys reading.

[BOOK REVIEW] Runaway Opposites by Richard Wilbur

Title:  Runaway Opposites

Author:  Richard Wilbur

Artist:  Henrik Drescher


Genre: Poetry / Surreal / Humor


Year Published: 1995


Year Read: 2008

Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P

Source:  Purchased

Content Rating:  Ages 6+  (Some Bizarre and Scary Imagery)

Buy or Add on:  Amazon  //  Goodreads

When I was browsing through the library for more books by Henrik Drescher, I stumbled upon this extremely unique little book! “Runaway Opposites” is an odd children's book with poems by Richard Wilbur along with illustrations by Henrik Drescher and this book basically have poems that detail various opposite words presented in a wacky way. “Runaway Opposites” is truly a unique book that every child should read!

Alright, here is a little information about illustrator Henrik Drescher’s involvement with previous books about poetry.

This is not the first book about poems that Henrik Drescher illustrated as he first collaborated with Jack Prelutsky with the book "Poems of A. Nonny Mouse" which also featured poems about wacky characters.

Alright now that I have explained a bit about the illustrator, I would like to talk about what I loved about this book! Richard Wilbur’s writing is a wacky as Henrik Drescher’s illustrations and together they perfectly complement the wackiness of this book of poems! I loved the way that Richard Wilbur allows you to think outside the box whenever you are trying to figure out which words are being compared as opposites to each other, such as in this poem:

“What is the opposite of nuts?
It’s soup! Let’s have no ifs or buts.
In any suitable repast
The soup comes first, the nuts come last.
Or that is what sane folks advise;
You’re nuts if you think otherwise.”

So in this poem, the opposite of nuts can either be soup or sane, which proves how crazy the poems really are and how far you have to think outside the box to figure out what words Richard Wilbur is trying to compare together. Henrik Drescher’s illustrations are even crazier in this book than in any other book he has created! The illustrations are filled with bizarre creatures that override the pages such as images of humans with bird beaks and creatures that have many limbs attached to their bodies. I also loved the way that Henrik Drescher pasted cut out photos of realistic looking faces on his illustrations and then he draws wacky expressions on the realistic photos such as drawing a beak on a realistic photo of a human and this tactic truly makes the illustrations seem to jump out at you.

Parents should know that this book might be a bit difficult for younger children to get through. What I mean is that, as was said in another review I have read about this book, the text looks like something that you would read out of “RANSOM” notes, meaning that it looks likes pieces of letters were cut out of magazines and pasted together to create words to tell the poetry. Yeah, it sounds pretty creative, but when you actually try to read it, the words seem jumbled and you cannot read out what the sentence is trying to say. Another problem that parents might have with this book is the images. Now, I am a huge fan of surreal art and I did think that these images are extremely creative, but I will admit that there were some images in this book that did scared me out a bit. Here is a list of some of the images that scared me out a little bit:

In the poem about the opposite of doctor, there is an image of a green man who has tentacles sprouting from his face and each tentacle has some kind of green ooze leaking out of them (some of the green ooze also lands on the green man’s tongue!)

In the poem about the opposite of a weeping tree, there is an image of a large wild beast that is multicolored and when it is laughing, it has sharp teeth and its mouth looks like it is nearly cleaved in two.

Overall, “Runaway Opposites” is definitely an odd poetic book that every child should definitely check out! I would recommend this book to children ages six and up due to the text being difficult for smaller children to read and because some of the images might scare smaller children.

[BOOK REVIEW] Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller

Title:  Batman:  The Dark Knight Returns

Author:  Frank Miller

Artists:  Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley


Genre: Action / Adventure / Superheroes


Year Published: 1986


Year Read: 2012


Series: Batman


Publisher: DC Comics

Source:  Purchased

Content Rating:  Ages 12+ (Violence, Mature Themes and Themes of War)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository
 

It is 1960s “Batman” vs. 1980s “Batman!” Guess which one will win!

Introduction:

For many years, I have actually grown up with the darker version of Batman when I was little, thanks to the animated TV series that came out of the 90s.  But a few years back, I have realized that there was a 1960s TV series where Batman seems a bit campy, but I had enjoyed it for what it was.  Now, I had heard of a particular “Batman” story that was the one that really changed Batman’s character over the years and that story happened to be “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns” written by Frank Miller along with artwork by Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley.  This is easily one of the most influential stories I have ever read from the “Batman” comics!

What is this story about?

Basically, this story is broken up into four different books detailing Batman’s adventures in Gotham City:

Book 1: The Dark Knight Returns: When Batman (who is now much older) retires, he then realizes that after all of the years he had retired, there is still crime rampaging in Gotham City. So, Batman decides to come out of retirement and save Gotham City, surprising the citizens of Gotham City.

Book 2: The Dark Knight Triumphant: When the mutant gang threatens Gotham City, it is up to Batman to stop the leader of the mutant gang, putting an end to their terror.

Book 3: Hunt the Dark Knight: When the citizens of Gotham City saw Batman as more of a threat then as a hero, they send out the new Commissioner, Commissioner Yindel, and she decides to go out of her way to arrest Batman.

Book 4: The Dark Knight Falls: When the Soviets start attacking Corto Maltese and Superman takes the job to stop them, this leads to a huge showdown between Superman and Batman to decide about their ideologies about protecting the world.

What I loved about this story:

Frank Miller’s writing: Frank Miller has once again proven that he is definitely a force to be reckoned with whenever he was writing for Batman!  After reading his work in “Batman: Year One,” I just had to read more of his work on “Batman” and behold, this story was beyond anything fantastic I have read about Batman!  I loved the way that Frank Miller portrayed Batman in this story as Batman seems darker and grittier than ever before and this really helped revolutionized the dark character that Batman would soon become in the future “Batman” stories.  At first glance, there does seem to be so many events going on in this book (Batman’s return, Batman fighting the Mutant Gang, Batman’s battle with Superman) so, it was a bit hard to keep up with all of the events going on in this book (I was even confused at the beginning when I found out that Batman was much older than he was early on, only to realize this story takes place several years in the future).  But the best thing about all of these events taking place in this book was that we were able to get so many amazing stories centered on Batman and his struggles in coming back out of retirement to fight the bad guys.  I also loved the dark and gritty feel of this book as the Batman in this book is not afraid of hurting enemies to get what he wants and even recruits a young girl named Carrie Kelley, who is dressed up like Robin, to be his sidekick.  Now there is one thing that I wanted to get out of my chest and it is this:

I DO NOT LIKE POLITICAL TIE INS IN THE STORIES I WANT TO READ!

I am getting this off my chest because of the Cold War themed story in “The Dark Knight Falls” and most of the time, I do not like reading about any kind of political wars in these stories because it is either the “us against them” mentality in these stories or sometimes they tend to interrupt the flow of the story.  However, this is the one case that I did accept the political themed story in “The Dark Knight Falls” because it was using the Cold War theme to bring out a message about how Superman and Batman have different views on how to handle the situation in saving people’s lives as Batman seems to be anti-government while Superman seems to support the government and I loved the way that their views on the government was brought out through their actions and ultimately their showdown with each other.  I also loved the way that Frank Miller presented some news media segments in this story as we are able to gain a great insight on how the people of Gotham view Batman and how he is affecting the American society as a whole as it brought great depth to the story.

Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley’s artwork: Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley’s artwork is very well done in this story as the artwork has a dark and gritty feel to them.  I loved the images of Batman being large and muscular and how he usually looks threatening to all the criminals.  The colorings may seem a bit washed out and some of the artwork was a bit sloppy, but the artwork has that 80s feel that I really enjoyed and so, I really enjoyed the dark artwork being portrayed in this story.

What made me feel uncomfortable about this story:

Some of the problems that some “Batman” fans might have with this story are that it is a bit too lengthy.  There are a total of four volumes contained into one book and since so much is happening in this book, it might be a bit too much for some fans to take in.  Also, this is probably one of the darkest “Batman” books I have ever read since Batman is shown to actually torture some of his enemies and there is some gore in this story as characters are punched and several scenes of characters being cut up.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns” is a fantastic take on everyone’s favorite dark knight vigilante and with its many running themes about taking the law into your own hands, it will remain a classic in many “Batman” fans’ eyes! 

[BOOK REVIEW] Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale

Title:  Rapunzel's Revenge

Authors:  Shannon Hale and Dean Hale

Artist: Nathan Hale

Genre: Fantasy / Adventure / Western



Year Published: 2008



Year Read: 2010



Series: Rapunzel's Revenge #1

Publisher:  Bloomsbury USA Childrens

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 6+ (Some Fighting Scenes)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

“Rapunzel’s Revenge” is an awesome retelling of the classic Brothers Grimm tale “Rapunzel” by Shannon and Dean Hale along with illustrations by Nathan Hale (no relation). “Rapunzel’s Revenge” is a brilliant tale of adventure and romance that both children and adults will enjoy for centuries!

Shannon and Dean Hale has done a great job with writing their first graphic novel together and they make the story both exciting and dramatic at the same time. Shannon and Dean Hale had brilliantly retold the story in a western spoof of the classic Brothers Grimm tale as Rapunzel seems to be more of a western heroine than the typical damsel in distress than she was in the original Brothers Grimm story. Nathan Hale’s illustrations are realistic and rough looking as Rapunzel and Jack look like they have rough looking faces but are still attractive to look at. Nathan Hale’s illustrations of the buildings in the town are brilliantly creative as they look like something that comes out western shows like “The Rifleman” as they look a bit old fashioned but beautiful at the same time.

“Rapunzel’s Revenge” is one of the greatest fairy tale retellings of all time as it is full of action and adventure that both adults and children will enjoy immensely. I would recommend this book to children ages six and up since smaller children might not understand about the fairy tale parody theme of this story.

[BOOK REVIEW] Abiyoyo by Pete Seeger

Title:  Abiyoyo

Author:  Pete Seeger

Artist:  Michael Hays


Genre: Folksong / Africa / Monsters

Year Published: 1986


Year Read: 2010


Series: Abiyoyo #1

Publisher:  Aladdin Paperbacks

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 5+  (Some Scary Scenes)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

 

I actually first heard about this book when I watched an episode on “Reading Rainbow” that discussed the power of music. “Abiyoyo” is a South African lullaby and folk story by songwriter Pete Seeger along with illustrations by Michael Hays and it is about how a young boy and his father try to outsmart the monster Abiyoyo when the monster tries to threaten their village. “Abiyoyo” is a brilliant folktale that many children who love folk songs will definitely enjoy for many years!

Pete Seeger, master songwriter, has written a brilliant and creative adaptation of this classic South African folktale as he writes the story in a dramatic yet hilarious way as he makes Abiyoyo both menacing and hilarious at the same time as Abiyoyo is one of the few villains that I have seen where he easily dances to a song dedicated to him which makes him more like a great buffoon than an actual villain. Michael Hays’ illustrations are beautiful and extremely creative and beautiful at the same time, especially of the image of Abiyoyo himself as he looks like a bluish-white glass figurine with green looking overalls and a goofy grin on his face. The images that truly stood out the most in this book were the images of the villagers themselves as they range from all different cultures from around the world such as India, China, Africa and many more and the outfits that the villagers wear to represent their countries make the illustrations look extremely colorful.

Parents should know that Abiyoyo might scare smaller children since he eats people and even threatens the village. Parents should reassure their children that Abiyoyo is just a myth that many people told and that he does not really exist.

“Abiyoyo” is a brilliant adaptation of the classic folktale that many children who love reading books about monsters and love singing to folk songs will easily enjoy for many years. I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since smaller children might be frightened by the image of Abiyoyo.

[BOOK REVIEW] Wolverine by Chris Claremont

Title:  Wolverine

Author:  Chris Claremont

Artists:  Frank Miller and Paul Smith


Genre: Superheroes / Action / Adventure


Year Published: 1982


Year Read: 2012


Series: Wolverine


Publisher: Marvel Comics

Source:  Purchased

Content Rating:  Ages 11+ (Violence)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository

KILL BILL!

Or at least that is what I think of when I read this story since both main characters (Wolverine and the Bride) had to go to Japan to fight off their rivals.

Brief Introduction:

When I was looking through the comic book boards and I wanted to know what the best “Wolverine” story was, many fans declared that “Wolverine” which was written by Chris Claremont along with artwork by Frank Miller was considered the best “Wolverine” story out there.  So, I went out and got this graphic novel and I have to agree with the fans that this was indeed one of the best “Wolverine” stories out there!  This also features the first four issues in Wolverine's new solo series during the 1980s which I was so impressed at seeing for the first time! Never have I have seen so much drama, romance and action contained into one graphic novel and because of that, “Wolverine” has remained to be one of my all time favorite “X-Men” stories about Wolverine!

What is the story?

Wolverine heads off to Japan to find the love of his life, Mariko Yashida, who is the daughter of Lord Shingen who is the Lord of the Clan Yashida, but discovers that his lover has married someone else, which breaks his heart.  Along the way, Wolverine meets up with a mysterious assassin named Yukio who seems to know about Lord Shingen’s plans to take over all of the major crime gangs in Japan.  Wolverine must put a stop to Lord Shingen’s evil plans to rule as the ultimate crime lord of Japan before it is too late!

What I loved about this comic:

The premise and Chris Claremont’s writing:  I will admit that when I heard about this graphic novel, I did not know what to expect from another book about Wolverine and I actually thought that we would get another “Wolverine” book that is all about the fighting and Wolverine acting tough.  However, in this graphic novel, what we got was an extremely thought-provoking and heartwarming tale about Wolverine’s romance with Mariko and his inner struggles with dealing with his “animal” side.  I loved the way that Chris Claremont has shown us a more sensitive side to Wolverine as he struggles to get the love of his life back while dealing with the customs of her family, which the importance of honor and pride plays a huge role in his story.  I also loved the intense kung-fu atmosphere of this story as it gave this story a more creative approach to Wolverine’s time in Japan and made the story exciting to read through.  Chris Claremont has done an excellent job at writing this story from Wolverine’s point of view on the situation as we are able to see how Wolverine reacts to the situations he gets involved in Japan whether he is confessing his love for Mariko or fighting ninjas out to get him.  It was also interesting seeing how Wolverine viewed himself and Chris Claremont does a brilliant job at portraying Wolverine’s insecurity about being seen as an animal as he usually uses violence to solve his problems. I really enjoyed the tone shift that Chris Claremont had provided when he introduced the other X-Men (Colossus, Storm, Cyclops, Kitty Pryde and Nightcrawler) in the second story that was apart of "Uncanny X-Men" as Wolverine’s solo series was dark, while the "Uncanny X-Men" storyline was a bit light toned.

Frank Miller and Paul Smith’s artwork:  When I heard that Frank Miller was doing the artwork for this graphic novel, I was actually blown away by this information because before I read this graphic novel, I was reading “Batman: Year One” which was a graphic novel that Frank Miller wrote himself and I was surprised that Frank Miller has actually done some artwork during his time at the comic book industry.  Frank Miller’s artwork was fantastic as they greatly captured the fight scenes in this story.  I loved the colorings that were done whenever the characters were in shadows as there are dark colorings shadowed on the characters’ faces which really gives off a foreboding feel to the situation.  I also loved Frank Miller’s artwork on the fight scenes, especially the scenes where Wolverine is fighting a group of ninjas and the scene where Wolverine is punching the ninjas is effectively done.  In the “Uncanny X-Men” issues of this graphic novel, Paul Smith did a brilliant job at detailing the fight scenes and the characters’ facial expressions and I loved the way that the colorings are much brighter in these issues than in Frank Miller’s artwork in the “Wolverine” issues.

What made me feel uncomfortable about this book:

The only problem that some readers might find with this graphic novel is that there is some violence in the fight scenes.  The violence usually has Wolverine cutting into another character and you can see some blood squirt out of the wounds.  Now, the violence is actually pretty low-key here as sometimes the blood is not as realistically shown as it usually is in current comics, but the scenes of Wolverine cutting into people might upset some readers.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, “Wolverine” is definitely one of the best stories dealing with Wolverine and anyone who is a fan of Wolverine or the X-Men in particular; I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND this graphic novel to any comic book fan!