I'm Dini (she/her) and I'm a thirty-something book lover based in Indonesia. I mostly read romance and SFF though I love to dabble in other genres but tend to stay away from horror and ghosty things because I'm The Ultimate Chicken™️. I'm always happy to meet other book lovers so feel free to chat with me!
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’m spending my Sunday in bed with The Only One Left by Riley Sager. I started this yesterday and as I always find with Sager’s books, even though you’re quickly hooked and feel the need to know what happened, his stories aren’t necessarily fast-paced. I just got to the twist and I saw it right before the reveal and I’m having fun!
Hello, friends! I hope everyone is having a good weekend. 🌻 After close to two weeks of unbearably hot and muggy weather, it finally rained heavily this afternoon and it’s the perfect moment to sit down and curl up with a good read. 🌧️ So I thought it’d be the perfect time to post my favourite part of each monthly wrap-up and I share some reads from around our wonderful book blogging community. Happy reading! 📖
Happy Friday book lovers! We’re back with another First Lines Friday, a weekly featurefor book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?Here are the rules:
Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
Finally… reveal the book!
First lines:
“The first time I killed a man with a pie, it was an accident. But only the first.”
Special thanks to Entangled: Teen for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Last of the Talons (Talon #1) Publisher: Entangled: Teen Publication Date: 27 September 2022 Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Panda Rating: (3.5 pandas)
📖SYNOPSIS
After the destruction of her entire Talon gang, eighteen-year-old Shin Lina—the Reaper of Sunpo—is forced to become a living, breathing weapon for the kingdom’s most-feared crime lord. All that keeps her from turning on her ruthless master is the life of her beloved little sister hanging in the balance. But the order to steal a priceless tapestry from a Dokkaebi temple incites not only the wrath of a legendary immortal, but the beginning of an unwinnable game…
Suddenly Lina finds herself in the dreamlike realm of the Dokkaebi, her fate in the hands of its cruel and captivating emperor. But she can win her life—if she kills him first.
Now a terrible game of life and death has begun, and even Lina’s swift, precise blade is no match for the magnetic Haneul Rui. Lina will have to use every weapon in her arsenal if she wants to outplay this cunning king and save her sister…all before the final grain of sand leaks out of the hourglass.
Because one way or another, she’ll take Rui’s heart.
Even if it means giving up her own.
⚠️CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS
Violence, blood, traumatic deaths of loved ones
TL;DR: Despite my first attempt at reading this being unsuccessful, I’m glad to say that the second time’s the charm and I found myself enjoying this more than I expected to. Kim offers a lot in this upper YA fantasy debut—plenty of stabby action, deaths, found family moments, rebellion, deception, and a forbidden enemies-to-lovers romance. That said, much of the characters, relationships and world-building was kept on a surface level and at over 400 pages long, I think we could’ve got a lot more development! Overall though, this wasn’t a bad debut and I’m curious to see how Kim evolves as an author throughout the series and what happens next with Lina and her thirst for vengeance!
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:
This week’s topic is May Flowers — Pick your own title for this one to reflect the direction you choose to go with this prompt (books with flowers on the cover, flower names in the title, characters whose names are flower names, stories involving flowers/gardeners)
April was… a month, I guess? I honestly have no idea what to say about this month other than it has been a rough mental health month but my soul was fed by the new double album TS released mid-month. To say I’m mildly obsessed with all 31 songs would be… Accurate, if not an understatement, lol. 😝 In other news, there really isn’t much and I don’t want to get into the anxiety, increased sleepless nights and work stress so… I’ll leave it there! I just hope that May will be a better month. I’m also going to start job hunting in May and we all know how tough that always is.
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’m spending my Sunday in bed with The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. I can’t believe I’m finally reading this book and yeah, it’s proving to have high potential to emotionally devastate me. I can feel it… 😮💨 I’m reading it with Chris & Julie and I’ve been spamming them with thoughts, theories and emotions, haha (sorry y’all)!
Happy Friday book lovers! We’re back with another First Lines Friday, a weekly featurefor book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?Here are the rules:
Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
Finally… reveal the book!
First lines:
“There are at least three dead bodies in there. Tess Harrow stood in front of the log cabin, mentally calculating where each of the corpses would be found.”
All legends are born of truths. And just as much lies. These are mine. Judge me for what you will. But you will hear my story first.
I buried the village of Ampur under a mountain of ice and snow. Then I killed their god. I’ve stolen old magics and been cursed for it. I started a war with those that walked before mankind and lost the princess I loved, and wanted to save. I’ve called lightning and bound fire. I am legend. And I am a monster.
My name is Ari.
And this is the story of how I let loose the first evil.
⚠️CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS
Murder, child abuse, child labour, drug use & addiction, self-harm, blood, injuries and many deaths… As well as probably many other triggers that I have not mentioned.
TL;DR:The First Binding is truly an epic high fantasy. It’s a story that I have mixed feelings about because while I loved the vastness and richness of it, I think that was also what made it a struggle to read at times. Despite feeling like I had to “work” to get into it, there were many moments when I was captivated and felt fully immersed in the lush world-building. I became very invested in Ari’s story and I was intrigued by many of the characters we’re introduced to. This is a coming-of-age tale mixed with murder, mystery and an abundance of well-developed stories within the story, and I highly enjoyed the narrative framing. Overall, while it’s not a new favourite, I’m keen to continue with the series and I hope we get more answers to some burning questions soon!
dinipandareads 