Month: October 2019

#Blogtober: Reading Challenge Update

Dini @ dinipandareads10 Comments

I’ve been seeing everyone joining in on #blogtober and I was feeling a little FOMO even though it was my fault/choice to not be more organized and join in from the start. If you haven’t heard, Blogtober is a month of blogging every single day, and thanks to Anniek and Haf, we’ve been gifted with a list of autumn/halloween related prompts for every day this month! Even though I’ve already missed out on the first 10 days, I thought I’d finally join in for today’s prompt on my Reading Challenge Update!

I don’t normally participate in reading challenges throughout the year because I’m generally just weak when it comes to sticking to any sort of TBR as a mood reader. I also feel like I’m not organized enough to continuously check in on my progress against the set out prompts as the month or year goes on. If there’s one reading challenge that I always set for myself at the beginning of every year it’s the Goodreads Reading Challenge. I set my first reading challenge in 2017 when I started to use Goodreads more frequently. Since then, I’ve set myself a goal that has steadily increased as the years have passed.

2017 Goodreads Reading Challenge
2018 Goodreads Reading Challenge

At the start of 2019, I set my reading goal to 75 books (I think, my memory fails!). I really surprised myself when I managed to achieve that reading goal quite early on in the year, after which I decided to bump my goal up to 90 books. I’ve always managed to “beat” my reading goals by reading way more than I thought I would, but this year really takes the cake especially since we’ve still got a few months to go and I’ve already far exceeded my own expectations for how much I’d read and could read in one year!

2019 Goodreads Reading Challenge

This year has been an absolute whirlwind of ALL THE BOOKS and although I’ve always loved to dive into books and relied on them to keep me company at night, I’ve never been as into books as I have this year. I know that my reading 160 of 90 books by this point in the year is in large part due to my involvement in the book community through my book blog and bookstagram, not to mention the e-ARCs through NetGalley; although as international blogger the list of ARCs I read still pale in comparison to the new releases/backlist books I read. I know that there’s a little bit of ‘negativity’ around the Goodreads Challenge because it sets up some negative vibes when people take things too seriously and see it as a show-off competition, but I’m not bothered by how much other people read. I set my goal for me, and not to compete with anyone else, and while the rest of my life is a hot HOT mess, I can at least say that I’m proud of what I’ve managed to accomplish when it comes to books. And that makes me happy 🙂

Wowow friends, that got way deep way quick. Sorry! 🤣 Thanks for tuning in and listening to me blather on!

Do you set a reading goal for yourself every year? How is your reading challenge coming along? Leave me a comment below and let’s chat!

My Life as Marlee by Victoria Anders – #eARC #BookReview

Dini @ dinipandareads16 Comments

Goodreads: My Life as Marlee
Publish date: 18 September 2019
Publisher: Alt 19 Publications
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary, Young Adult Romance
Panda Rating:

I’m officially a sixteen-year-old insane hermit, thanks to my best friend moving away.
Until I meet Noah.

Noah is my oxygen. He’s those fleeting, deep breaths keeping my world from going black, from drowning into the darkness of my past. He’s the one who helps me find my passion for swimming again, even though it’s a direct reflection of my nightmare. As my mom moves closer to the deep end, barely treading water, Noah’s the only thing holding me afloat. My fear is that her illness will drain her and I’ll have nowhere to go but across the country. Back to the darkness. Back to my father.

Not even Noah can extinguish my demons.

When my life gets sucked in by the riptides, I have to ask myself, is my father truly evil or just broken? Is Noah’s oxygen enough to save me as the muddy waters swallow me whole?

My name is Marlee, and this is my life.

This book started off very well for me but the further I got, the more I was confused about where the author was taking the story. Then at the turn of events in the last 10% of the book, I was left completely baffled (not in a good way) at the direction the book took. I think I understand what the author was trying to do but IMO it didn’t add anything to the story other than unnecessary drama.

*Warning: Minor spoilers ahead*

Marlee is a typical high schooler who is trying to find her place now that her best friend has relocated and she’s left to deal with the last two years of school alone. I like how she decided to remove herself from a toxic group situation, even if it meant being alone/friendless. From the start you can tell that Marlee has been through a lot and that there’s some serious emotional and mental baggage in her past, but I liked how she kept trying to see the positive and the lessons life was throwing her way in each moment. Although most of it was cheesy for me now, I can imagine my younger teen self being totally onboard with all of the positive affirmation she kept on her wall. There were times when I really liked Marlee and how she was quite level-headed for a teenager, but then there were moments where she’d have these really nasty and incredibly selfish thoughts that just threw me off completely. Moments like these showed just how inconsistent her character was and I get it, she’s a teenager, but to be going on about how much her mum means to her and how much she missed her best friend, her actions in the story didn’t really reflect it very well.

SPOILER

This was especially the case when Marlee got home from Thanksgiving and her mother was feeling worse than usual. She hadn’t seen Noah in a few weeks, and was running towards him when her mother collapses and her first thoughts were something along the lines of: “why did she have to be so weak and collapse right now? if it weren’t for her, i’d already be in Noah’s arms, but instead he’s going to her.” I mean… Your mother has cancer dude. Are you serious rn?

END SPOILER

I’m also on the fence about this romance. It really comes off as insta-lovey because they become a couple 2-3 days after officially meeting. Their chemistry is pretty obvious from the start, but I also felt the ‘can’t-eat-can’t-sleep-can’t-breathe-without-you’ love happened FAST. I started off really enjoying the descriptions of having a high school crush, swimming in lust and all those raging hormones of teenage-hood. It sent me laughing down memory lane remembering my own very cringeworthy, boy-crazy moments. So I can understand getting caught up in emotions and everything, but I felt this crossed over to the unhealthy kind of love where they’re so codependent on each other. Maybe I’m too cynical or old (lol) but I don’t believe the kind of love that Noah and Marlee had was really healthy — especially when everything and everyone else falls to the side (like your very sick very dying mother). Marlee does face a moment where she realizes she has no idea who she is without Noah but other than trying for one activity without him, it really doesn’t go anywhere and that was disappointing too.

Noah was genuinely a very good guy though a little too perfect for my tastes and as a result, got slightly boring for me. He didn’t get much of a personality other than the shining, electrifying, life saving light to Marlee’s dark. Which as a teen I’d probably be all over but now not so much. I loved most of their friends, like Stella, who at times seemed much more likable than Marlee! I would’ve definitely liked to see more of them in it.

The really bizzare and out of the blue ending was what really brought the rating down for me. I don’t understand why it the author had to do it. I actually had to double take when I got to this part of the story because I couldn’t believe that the author brought it in this direction. It was just weird and so unnecessary. There’s a lot more I could get into about how the situation with her father was handled (amongst other things including the situation with her brother!), and how Marlee continued to hide the truth, but I’m not gonna go there because it’s just gonna end up being a rant.

In the end, even though this started off well, the inside content just wasn’t as appealing to me as the outside cover. The story was almost nauseatingly perfect at times–everything was so easily resolved and of course, it was predictable, which isn’t always bad if the execution is good. But in this case, it just wasn’t there for me.

Thanks to Book Sirens and the author for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book is now available.
Have you read My Life as Marlee? Let’s chat in the comments!

#WWWWednesday: 09 October

Dini @ dinipandareads22 Comments

It’s time for another WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words, which means I’ll be answering these questions:

  1. What did you read last?
  2. What are you currently reading?
  3. What will you read next?

What did you read last?

I managed to finish four books since last Wednesday! I finally finished The Bookish Life of Nina Hill yesterday and even though I didn’t fall head over heels for the cast of very quirky characters, I still thought this was an adorable read! Nina was such a great bookish character and the whole story in general was very quirky and charming! Fairlady, Vol. 1 was a fantasy graphic novel that I enjoyed for the world building but I was disappointed that the stories were so disconnected. My Life As Marlee was an ARC I got from Book Sirens and which I’m so proud of finishing before the deadline (this is sad really lol)! While the book started off well for me, I didn’t end up enjoying the rest of the story as much as I thought I would. Maybe I’m just too old and cynical for these types of YA romances? The Wall of Winnipeg and Me was by far my favorite out of all of these and I’m so glad I picked up another Zapata book after being somewhat let down by the first of hers that I read. I’m a fan of the slow burn romance and this was one heckuva slow burn but never have I been so damn satisfied by it! All the reviews for these books are coming as soon as I finish getting my thoughts down and organizing them coherently 😅

What are you currently reading?

I’ve been reading House of Salt and Sorrows since last week and it’s taking me so long only because my last week was hella busy and I didn’t have as much time to read it at night, but it’s mostly because I’m too scared to read it alone at night in my flat. I’ve been trying to read it at work during my lunch breaks but people keep chatting to me 🙃and I’m trying to be a little less anti-social at work LOL that said, I’m almost done and I really don’t want to wait until tomorrow to continue reading it but will I be able to conquer the chicken in me? Not sure. It’s creepier than I thought it’d be!!! I’m also reading Dear Aaron by Mariana Zapata, which I started late last night as my melatonin was kicking in and will continue to read tonight, I think. I’ve been really bingeing on romances lately, it seems to be the mood I’ve settled in for now!

What will you read next?

I’m still trying to give priority to several eARCs that are well overdue! Even though I’m *obviously* not doing as well as I’d hoped in tackling them, there’s still time to improve! I’m hoping to read TH1RT3EN next because I’ve seen a ton of people posting about it and I think it’d be great to stick to my goal of reading more creepy books this month. I’ve heard great things! Shadow Frost is also a bit of a priority since it was just published 01 October! 🤦🏻‍♀️

What are you currently reading? How’s your week going?
Leave me a comment and let’s chat 🙂

#TopTenTuesday: Falling in Love with Book Characters

Dini @ dinipandareads45 Comments

It’s that time of the week again, friends! We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: character traits I love to see in book characters/things that make me love a book character (submitted by Hannah @ Books Life and Other Oddities). and the minute I read the prompt, my mind drew a straight blank. Had I actually read any books with numbers in the title? Thankfully I have my awesome buddy that’s known as Goodreads to help me figure this out! I found a few titles but I’m not sure if there are enough to amount to ten, so let’s see how it goes!

Book Lover/Reader. This one doesn’t really need explaining right? I’m a sucker for someone who loves all thing bookish on the page, as much as I love finding them in real life too!

Not afraid to show their nerd. This might sound similar to the bookish trait, but it goes beyond just books. I love when a character isn’t afraid to nerd out about something they’re really passionate about, especially when I least expect it of a character!

Sassy/Sarcastic/Humorous. Give me all the sass, sarcasm and humor. Any character who can make me laugh already has me halfway to rooting for them — whether they’re main characters, side characters or even on the rare occasion, the villain!

Cinnamon rolls. When I think of characters who are cinnamon rolls, I always immediately think of Tanner from Autoboyography first. He’s such a pure sweetheart of a character who deserves so much and I love characters who make me want to scoop them up, hug them forever and keep them in my pocket wherever I go!

Grumpy/gruff exterior but a softy at heart. For the most part I’m thinking about the male leads of my favorite romances for this trait. I’m a total sucker for that grumpy bear of a lead whose walls slowly come down the more we get to know them, and who end up being total softies. Swoon! 😍

Sticks to their guns. I love a character who will basically stick to their convictions. Practice what they preach. Whatever you wanna call it. Wishy-washy characters give me a headache and drive me absolutely insane!

Acknowledging past mistakes and proving their maturity. I often read about characters who have ‘changed/grown up’ but their actions never speak to that growth. Give me a character who actively acknowledges what a spoiled, immature idiot they’ve been when they were younger, and who actually shows that they’ve matured through their actions!

Loyalty. Maybe it’s a little cliche but it’s such an important trait to me in real life and adds an incredible amount to the respect and attraction I feel for a person, so it obviously makes sense that I’d find this attractive in a fictional character too.

Kind. Plain, simple, kindness. I feel like being kind is underrated in a lot of books but give me a character who shows genuine kindness to others and I’ll be a definite fan.

What are some traits that make you love a character?
If you’ve done a TTT for today, please leave your links in the comments so I can mosey over to your blog and check it out! 🙂

Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker, Wendy Xu – #ARC #GraphicNovel #Review

Dini @ dinipandareads8 Comments

Goodreads: Mooncakes
Publish date: 15 October 2019
Genre: Graphic Novel, Young Adult, LGBTQIA+, Fantasy
Rating:

Nova Huang knows more about magic than your average teen witch. She works at her grandmothers’ bookshop, where she helps them loan out spell books and investigate any supernatural occurrences in their New England town. One fateful night, she follows reports of a white wolf into the woods, and she comes across the unexpected: her childhood crush, Tam Lang, battling a horse demon in the woods.

As a werewolf, Tam has been wandering from place to place for years, unable to call any town home. Pursued by dark forces eager to claim the magic of wolves and out of options, Tam turns to Nova for help. Their latent feelings are rekindled against the backdrop of witchcraft, untested magic, occult rituals, and family ties both new and old in this enchanting tale of self-discovery.

How cute can a graphic novel be?! I’ve seen Mooncakes making the rounds on a few blogs and it sounded so cute I just had to pick it up asap. It’s a very quick and enjoyable read that is full of representation and diversity. We have queer grandmas, a queer young witch that wears hearing-aids, and a nonbinary young werewolf. We also have lots of magic, books and cute little forest creatures! Not to mention a demon and a cult… This fantasy graphic novel really has it all! The artwork was rich and full of vibrant autumn colors that leant a cozy but also a darker mood to the story. The art style reminded me of the late 90s-early 00s comics that I’d always read.

Tam and Nova are lovely main characters and the relationship that blossomed between them was sweet. The grandmas were also great and extremely supportive–I loved the little grandma jokes and banter! I do wish that we got more backstory to the characters. Nova and Tam got together pretty early on and while they were ‘picking up where they left off’ as the reader, I found their chemistry lacking at that point and I would’ve liked to know more about their history together as kids and how their friendship grew, and had the potential for romance. I still enjoyed their relationship and how they learned to grow together and as individuals. Everyone was heartwarmingly supportive in this comic!

Another issue I had was that it initially felt like we were jumping into the middle of a story that was already almost finished because there was very little backstory and world building. I wanted to know more about the place and the history! I also found it a little unbelievable that they could get away with carting a demon in a floating magical cage and there were still zero people around? Where were the townspeople that they’d occasionally mention? Unless they actually live in seclusion but that wasn’t the impression I got!

Overall, a quick, witchy and heartwarming read. I can’t wait to see the finished product and the bonus material that will be included. I would definitely recommend it to those who love cute, magical, and queer comics!

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. Have you read Mooncakes or is it on your TBR?
This is out in October 2019 so be on the look out!

Down the TBR Hole – 03

Dini @ dinipandareads20 Comments

We’re back with another episode of Down the TBR Hole! Last week I mentioned how I went up to 1,022 books and after removing a few, and then adding some more, this week I’m at a solid 1,020. Still a lot but at least it’s not more than last week, right?! 😂I didn’t do so well with removing books last week, but let’s see how we do with this week’s 10! I’m trying out a new format that I saw someone else do on their blog, which will make the whole process much quicker.

Down the TBR Hole is a weekly book meme created by the wonderful Lia @ Lost in a Story that attempts to organize our ridiculously long Goodreads TBR list by choosing either to keep or eliminate the books we’ve saved on there. Here’s how it works:

  • Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
  • Order on ascending date added.
  • Take the first 5 (or 10 (or even more!) if you’re feeling adventurous) books. Of course, if you do this weekly, you start where you left off the last time.
  • Read the synopses of the books
  • Decide: keep it or should it go

Verdict: Keep

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah. Seeing as how I only read my first Kristin Hannah books this year, I’m surprised to find that I added this one to my list in 2012! Both her books are candidates for my favorites of the year, so I’m quite excited to see if I feel the same about her others!

Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah. Wow, another Hannah I added in 2012! I’m keeping this on for the same reason as the above. The premise of this sounds eerily similar to Where the Forest Meets the Stars which I read (and loved!) earlier this year…

Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa. All I needed to read was this, and I knew I’d have to keep this because I love The Kite Runner: “A heart-wrenching, powerfully written novel that could do for Palestine what The Kite Runner did for Afghanistan.”

Verdict: Bye-Bye-Bye

Me & Emma by Elizabeth Flock. I’m actually really intrigued by the so-called ‘big twist’ that’s mentioned in the synopsis, but if I’m honest, I don’t know if I’ll ever pick this up…!

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway. This is a classic but I’m just not interested anymore?

Verdict: Keep

Loving by Henry Green. I think I added this book around the time that I was watching (and loving!) Downton Abbey because reading the synopsis gives me major downstairs-of-the-house DA vibes. I’m a little intimidated but I’m keen to try it.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. This has been on my bookshelf for so long and I know there is so much controversy around it but I think I definitely will read this book. I’m very curious to see what it’s like and what I’ll think of it. I’m terrified!

1984 by George Orwell. I’m honestly not even sure why I haven’t read this yet. I think I’m just worried I won’t like it even though I do usually enjoy the genre. I will read it though! *determined face*

Verdict: Bye-Bye-Bye

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe. It’s a classic but I’m just not that interested in it…

Heartsick (Archie Sheridan & Gretchen Lowell #1) by Chelsea Cain. It sounds interesting, especially since it’s got a female serial killer but I don’t think I’ll be reading it anytime soon…?

bluepanda

Damn, people… I’m really sucking at removing books from my TBR! I’m keeping 6/10 books from this week’s round and I’m really hoping that I’ll read the ones that I’ve decided to keep 😂

Have you read any of these books? How easy is it to cull your TBR list? Leave me a comment and let’s chat!

Goodreads Monday – 07 October

Dini @ dinipandareads12 Comments

It’s the first Monday of September and we’re back with another Goodreads Monday, a weekly meme started by @Lauren’s Page Turners. This meme invites you to pick a book from your TBR and explain why you want to read it. Easy enough, right? Feel free to join in if you want to! I’ll be using a random number generator to pick my books from my insanely long GR Want-to-read list.

This week’s book is Enchantée (Enchantée #1) by Gita Trelease. I added this to my list in January 2019. I remember seeing the cover for the first time and thinking WOW, must have! This book has a rating of 3.74 stars with almost 4k ratings and 1,183 reviews.

Paris in 1789 is a labyrinth of twisted streets, filled with beggars, thieves, revolutionaries—and magicians…

When smallpox kills her parents, Camille Durbonne must find a way to provide for her frail, naive sister while managing her volatile brother. Relying on petty magic—la magie ordinaire—Camille painstakingly transforms scraps of metal into money to buy the food and medicine they need. But when the coins won’t hold their shape and her brother disappears with the family’s savings, Camille must pursue a richer, more dangerous mark: the glittering court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

With dark magic forbidden by her mother, Camille transforms herself into the ‘Baroness de la Fontaine’ and is swept up into life at the Palace of Versailles, where aristocrats both fear and hunger for la magie. There, she gambles at cards, desperate to have enough to keep herself and her sister safe. Yet the longer she stays at court, the more difficult it becomes to reconcile her resentment of the nobles with the enchantments of Versailles. And when she returns to Paris, Camille meets a handsome young balloonist—who dares her to hope that love and liberty may both be possible.

But la magie has its costs. And when Camille loses control of her secrets, the game she’s playing turns deadly. Then revolution erupts, and she must choose—love or loyalty, democracy or aristocracy, freedom or magic—before Paris burns…

Why do I want to read it?

I’ve already mentioned it but honestly, this was 80% a cover buy for me 😂I have no shame! Not surprising that I didn’t know it was a series beforehand haha But I love historical fiction and I don’t often read ones that are also a mix of fantasy, so this combination already has me even more intrigued! The whole thing sounds like a proper magical adventure, with a little bit of mystery and I’m always on board for those kinds of stories. I’ve heard some pretty mixed reviews about it though and I have a feeling that it’s either love or hate, but I’m still looking forward to reading it.

Have you read Enchantée? Is it on your TBR too?
Leave me a comment and let’s chat!

Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp [25]

Dini @ dinipandareads11 Comments

We’re back with another Sundays in Bed With… meme! This meme dares to ask you what book has been in your bed this morning and is hosted by Midnight Book Girl. Come share what book you’ve been you’ve spent time curled up reading in bed with, or which book you wish you had time to read today!

I stayed up well into Sunday morning (the sun was out and the neighborhood coming to life) in order to finish reading The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata and then managed to catch a few hours of zzz’s before finishing getting up to finish The Bookish Life of Nina Hill.

Vanessa Mazur knows she’s doing the right thing. She shouldn’t feel bad for quitting. Being an assistant/housekeeper/fairy godmother to the top defensive end in the National Football Organization was always supposed to be temporary. She has plans and none of them include washing extra-large underwear longer than necessary.

But when Aiden Graves shows up at her door wanting her to come back, she’s beyond shocked. For two years, the man known as The Wall of Winnipeg couldn’t find it in him to tell her good morning or congratulate her on her birthday. Now? He’s asking for the unthinkable.
What do you say to the man who is used to getting everything he wants?

Meet Nina Hill: A young woman supremely confident in her own…shell. The only child of a single mother, Nina has her life just as she wants it: a job in a bookstore, a kick-butt trivia team, a world-class planner and a cat named Phil. If she sometimes suspects there might be more to life than reading, she just shrugs and picks up a new book.

When the father Nina never knew existed suddenly dies, leaving behind innumerable sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews, Nina is horrified. They all live close by! They’re all–or mostly all–excited to meet her! She’ll have to Speak. To. Strangers. It’s a disaster! And as if that wasn’t enough, Tom, her trivia nemesis, has turned out to be cute, funny, and deeply interested in getting to know her. Doesn’t he realize what a terrible idea that is?

Nina considers her options.
1. Completely change her name and appearance. (Too drastic, plus she likes her hair.)
2. Flee to a deserted island. (Hard pass, see: coffee).
3. Hide in a corner of her apartment and rock back and forth. (Already doing it.)

It’s time for Nina to come out of her comfortable shell, but she isn’t convinced real life could ever live up to fiction. It’s going to take a brand new family, a persistent suitor, and the combined effects of ice cream and trivia to make her turn her own fresh page.

What are you currently reading?

This last week was ridiculously busy. Mum was over and left Saturday morning at the butt crack of dawn and I drove her to the airport and then I came home and fell asleep for way too long. Oops? After that I went out to the cinema for the first time in ages and watched Abominable with my bestie. It was ADORABLE! I had no clue what it was about other than it looked cute and exactly what I needed! I loved that it was set in Asia (China) because it’s still so rare to see diverse mainstream movies, especially cartoons. DreamWorks definitely delivered all the cuteness and laughs that I was looking for and I left the theater feeling giggly and buoyant!

This week was (unsurprisingly) super busy with lots of family things because mum was around. We also had some old family friends visiting, which meant more late nights with dinners and socializing after work. It left me completely drained of energy at the end of every night, so I think I really needed a weekend doing as little as possible. I just realized that October is going to be a really busy month with next week being the only one I have to myself until the end of the month. I have some besties coming to visit me for a little over a week and I’m planning to take a few days off from work to spend time with them. After that the office is having the second round of annual meetings and then the month will be over. I’m finding it ridiculous how quickly time is flying!

Reading & Blogging Recap

It was a pretty meh week on the reading and blogging front. Most nights I would normally spend reading was spent out socializing and when we got home, it was spent chatting with mum. It’s moments like these that I miss living closer to my parents (even though only live a short flight over). As it usually is with mothers and daughters, it got a bit rocky sometimes (especially with mum staying over with me in my tiny flat), but it was nice having her around even if it meant I was reading less. The only books I managed to finish this week are the ones I mentioned above. I’m still going on with House of Salt and Sorrows but I haven’t read anymore since Friday night because it’s a lot spookier than I expected and now I’m alone at home and not sure if I can tuck my chicken away and continue reading at night? I’ll bring the book to work and see if I can finish it over my lunch breaks in the coming week!

Despite how hectic the week was I’m impressed that I still managed to post every day, even if it was only one post per day, this week though! Here’s a quick recap of what I posted, in case you missed it:

Top 5 Saturday: Books with the Scariest Covers!
Friday Favorites: Favorite Characters That Other People Hate!
First Lines Friday: 04 October
Summer Bucket List Book Tag!
September Monthly Wrap Up!
WWWWednesday: 02 October
Review: Two Weeks Notice by Whitney G
#TopTenTuesday: Books with Numbers in the Title!
Down the TBR Hole – 02
Goodreads Monday: 30 September

I’m leaving you with one of my favorite (if not my favorite) tracks from TS’s latest album, Lover. I’m still obsessed with this album and it’s kept me company in the background as I read all day today!

How has your week been? Hope everyone has/had a great weekend!
Let me know how you’re doing in the comments and let’s chat, friends 🙂

Top 5 Saturday: Books with the Scariest Covers!

Dini @ dinipandareads23 Comments

It’s time for another Top 5 Saturday, a weekly meme created by Mandy @ Devouring Books and this week’s topic is: books with the scariest covers. If you don’t know me by now I’m letting you in on a not-so-big-secret: I’m a BIG chicken. Like, all the ghosty-spooky things are really not my jam! So it should come as no surprise that I have few to no books with scary covers on my shelf. I actually just acquired one today and since figuring out what’s on the cover, I’ve been sufficiently freaked out 😂Just to be clear, I had to look up some scary covers for this one and I think it’s safe to say that I’ll be sleeping with the lights on tonight 🙃Also, I totes realize that what’s scary for me probably won’t be that scary for others; I’m really that much of a wuss! LOL (and of course a dog starts barking loudly and abruptly while I’m writing this post, shattering the complete silence of the evening. How am I getting to sleep tonight?!)

Rules for Vanishing by Katie Alice Marshall
I honestly didn’t figure out what was on this cover until I saw it about six times. When it clicked I just went: OMFG and closed the tab. Of course when I saw it at the bookstore today I went ahead and picked it up anyway — my excuse is that I’m challenging myself to read outside of my comfort zone this month? I’m really just a masochist who loves to torture herself by getting even less sleep than usual!

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
I haven’t read this book but I’ve seen the movie and all I can remember from it are the dogs that die and that absolutely broke my heart 😭This cover is sufficiently creepy though! Especially with that red background!?

Unwind (Unwind Dystology #1) by Neal Shusterman
The whole silhouette of the hand pressed up against a barrier is one of those ‘iconic’ creepy pictures that never fails to have goosebumps breaking out over my skin. It’s just CREEPY AF.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Graham-Greene and Jane Austen
I remember how shook I was the first time I saw this cover. I almost dropped the book in shock and immediately looked away. I came back to it after mustering some guts and found myself oddly repelled and fascinated by the zombie half of such an iconic image 😂

Night of the Living Dummy (Goosebumps #7) by R.L. Stine
Look, I know this is kids book, but can you tell me you don’t get at least a little bit freaked out when looking at that cover? I mean… DUMMIES. CREEPY DUMMIES. I honestly can’t believe I ever checked this book out of the library as a kid (let alone the countless other Goosebumps tales I devoured). Pretty sure that I already hated dolls/dummies by the time I picked this one up LOL

Alright, that’s it folks. I’m now off to read something HAPPY AND FLUFFY to get these images out of my head! We’re totally fine. What are some of the scariest covers you can think of? Are you a lover of things that go bump? Maybe come let me know in the comments and let’s chat? 😂

Friday Favorites: Favorite Characters that Other People Hate!

Dini @ dinipandareads9 Comments

This week’s answer is gonna be hella short because my Friday at work has been a helluva Friday and I’m not gonna be making it home until much later tonight due to some family stuff (all is fine, just have people visiting). I’ve been so exhausted over the last few days and I think I finally had it today when I basically started crying (literally) over I thought I had lost a design file I’d been working on all day when my application crashed? It was a little embarrassing 😅So I’m sorry in advance for the mediocre-ness of my post today!

It’s time for another Friday Favorites hosted by Kibby @ Something of the Book! This weekly meme is where you get to share a list of all your favourites based on the list of prompts on Kibby’s page. Sounds fun, right? This week’s prompt is: favorite characters that other people hate! Wow, I’m blanking really hard on this one. I cannot for the life of me recall one character that I love and other people hate because most of the time I’m in agreement with the people who hate these same characters? And I’m over here hating on the characters that other people love so… 🤷🏻‍♀️I’m going to really try to pick my brain here but I’ll probably only end up with one or two characters. Bear with me! LOL

The first two characters that come to mind after some digging in my brain are Marianne and Connell from Normal People by Sally Rooney. This book isn’t for everyone and I totally get why. Marianne and Connell are so bad at communicating that it sometimes made me want to throw my book at the wall out of frustration with how much they seriously sucked at it. That said, oh man, I totally loved both of their characters and felt so much for them in this story. What they thought, felt and experienced was so relatable to me and made me love their characters all the more. They’re completely imperfect and sometimes there are just no happy endings, but that’s life.

Another character that comes to mind is Penny Lee from Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi. I’ve heard many people say how they found her character annoying and immature, and it lost the book points because they couldn’t get into it because of her. Honestly? I agreed at the start but Penny very quickly grew on me because there was so much more behind her attitude and her actions that really made me feel for her. She’s a complex character, especially because of her upbringing and particularly her mother, and she suffers from a lot of insecurities and anxiety which I can absolutely relate to. I loved Penny by the end of the book!

What character do you love that others hate?
Please come tell me in the comments below and let’s chat!