Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp [291]

July 20, 2025 Dini @ dinipandareads9 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 spent your time reading in bed or wish you had time to read today.

I’ll be spending the rest of my Sunday night in bed reading The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri. This is a re-read buddy read and we’re close to finishing it! The writing is just as sharp, the story as action-packed, and the characters just as compelling (and equally frustrating) as I remember. Such fantastic world-building and so much emotion packed into this book!

Let’s Talk Bookish: Reading Beyond Books

July 18, 2025July 20, 2025 Dini @ dinipandareads12 Comments

Sorry my post is going up pretty late! With how hectic this week’s schedule has been I totally forgot it was Friday and so I forgot to schedule my post in advance… 🤦🏻‍♀️ I hope everything I say in this post makes sense and sorry for the brevity too—my brain is too tired to think at the moment, lol.

✨ Welcome back to another week of LTB! ✨

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and co-hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits and myself! In this discussion meme, participants get to talk about certain topics, share opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! Learn more about LTB, past topics and future topics HERE.

This week’s topic is:

Reading Beyond Books

Prompts: What do you read other than books? Do you like non-novel forms of literature, like poetry and plays? Do you read a lot of news articles, op-eds, or essays? Do novels make up most of your reading, or is it a mix of those other kinds of writing? Do you ever listen to podcasts in place of audiobooks?

The 2025 Mid-Year Check-In Tag

July 17, 2025July 13, 2025 Dini @ dinipandareads19 Comments

Happy Thursday, friends! It’s time to share one of my favourite annual tags: The Mid-Year Check-In! I’ve been doing this tag since I started this blog six years ago, and it’s a great way to reflect on half the year that’s already passed. I still can’t believe that we’ve already crossed into the final half of 2025 when it feels like this year has just begun. But maybe the rest of this year can speed by even faster now cos it’s been a bit of a hot mess train wreck, and I think it’s safe to say that we’re all ready for a different vibe next year. But I digress… Let’s get to this tag and see what I’ve read in 2025!

Check out my previous check-ins: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019

Note: I’ll do my best to not repeat too many books but I’ll tell you now, there are a couple that are repeated often. 🤭 I also wanted to stick to books that came out in 2025 but that would’ve been even more limiting as I don’t think I’ve read many new releases… So, this is what it is!

#WWWWednesday: 16 July 2025

July 16, 2025 Dini @ dinipandareads22 Comments

Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words, which means I’ll be answering these questions:

What did you read last?
What are you currently reading?
What will you read next?

#TopTenTuesday: Oh, the Honorifics!

July 15, 2025July 14, 2025 Dini @ dinipandareads44 Comments

We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week’s topic is: Books with Honorifics in the Title (“…an honorific is a form of address conveying esteem, courtesy or respect. These can be titles prefixing a person’s name, e.g.: Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms., Mx., Sir, Dame, Dr., Cllr, Lady, or Lord, or other titles or positions that can appear as a form of address without the person’s name, as in Mr. President, General, Captain, Father, Doctor, or Earl.” For more info, click here.) (Submitted by Joanne @ Portobello Book Blog)

Blog Tour Review: Elvira Vance and the Monster Mystery by Kacy Ritter

July 14, 2025July 13, 2025 Dini @ dinipandareads5 Comments

Hi friends, I’m back for another blog tour today! I’m excited to share my thoughts as part of the blog tour hosted by Toppling Stacks Tours for Elvira Vance and the Monster Mystery by Kacy Ritter.

Thanks to Storytide for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

^{Click the banner above or here to check out the other incredible bloggers on the blog tour!}

Elvira Vance and the Monster Mystery
Publisher: Storytide
Publication Date: 15 July 2025
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy Mystery
Rep: Biracial, Black

Rating:

^{(3.5 pandas)}

📖 SYNOPSIS

Half-siren Elvira Vance doesn’t trust outsiders. Especially not the human detective who’s been hired to investigate the disappearances of a chupacabra and the crown for the Marfa Monster Festival. While humans are convinced the monster skipped town with the crown, Elvira knows there’s more to the story. As the daughter of Vince Vance—founder of Vince Vance’s Vintage Trailer Park Inn for Monsters—Elvira cares too much about her home to let this mystery go unsolved.

With her two best friends, Elvira collects clues and investigates humans, banshees, vampires, and ghosts. But when more creatures start disappearing and antimonster attitudes rise, Elvira realizes that her friends could be in real danger.

Now time is running out, and Elvira must use her siren powers and sleuthing skills to solve this mystery—or lose everything she loves.

📚 BUY A COPY

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Racism, discrimination from police

TL;DR: Elvira Vance and the Monster Mystery is an adventure-filled Scooby-Doo and the Gang style middle-grade fantasy mystery that I think many young readers will enjoy. The hijinks that ensue may be over-the-top at times, but the story is action-packed as we follow Elvira and her group of friends as they try to the solve the mystery of who’s hurting monsters in the place she calls home. Tough topics that mirror our reality were addressed well by the author in an approachable and easy-to-digest way that wouldn’t be overwhelming for young readers. My only qualm is certain situations relating to the MC’s actions that I wish had been addressed differently, but otherwise, this was a fun romp of a read that’s not only perfect for the spooky season but also summer-time reading!

Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp [290]

July 13, 2025 Dini @ dinipandareads12 Comments

I’ll be spending the rest of my night in bed continuing to read A Master of Djinn by P. Djèli Clark. I’ve only read a novella by Clark years ago and I completely forgot how humorous his writing can be. At 30%, I’m enjoying this steampunk mystery set in an alternate Egypt (and world) where magic exists. At times all the world-building can get a bit overwhelming and the pace has been a bit up-and-down, but I’m curious to know what’ll happen next!

Let’s Talk Bookish: Hyped Books

July 11, 2025July 14, 2025 Dini @ dinipandareads16 Comments

✨ Welcome back to another week of LTB! ✨

This week’s topic is:

Book Hype

Suggested by: Melanie @ Melanie’s Book Blog
Prompts: Has the hype ever ruined a book for you? Has the hype ever made a book better for you? Do you like lesser-known reads, and finding a gem of a book that no one’s heard of? Or do you prefer to read the more popular, mainstream books? Where are the majority of the books you read, in terms of popularity?

#TopTenTuesday: Books I’d Like to Re-Read

July 8, 2025July 6, 2025 Dini @ dinipandareads67 Comments

We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week’s topic is: Books I’d Like to Re-read (Share either your favorite books that you enjoy re-reading or books that you’d like to read again!) (Submitted by Becky @ Becky’s Book Blog)

June 2025 Community Posts!

July 7, 2025July 6, 2025 Dini @ dinipandareads11 Comments

✨ Happy Monday, book lovers! ✨

Another month has come and gone so it’s time to share one of my favourite posts that I make at the end of every month: the community posts! This is a collection of some of the posts that I read from bloggers across the book community over the past month. I didn’t spend a lot of time on the blogosphere in June and so most of the posts mentioned this month are discussions and reviews. I hope you’ll take the time to visit some of these pages and show them the love they deserve! ✨📖 Happy reading, friends! 📖✨