Author: Dini @ dinipandareads

I'm Dini (she/her), a thirty-something book lover based in Indonesia. I mostly read fantasy and romance, but I love to dabble in other genres. I tend to stay away from horror and ghosty things though because I'm The Ultimate Chicken™️. I'm always happy to meet other book lovers so feel free to chat with me!

The Liebster Award III

Dini @ dinipandareads43 Comments

I was nominated by Veronika @ Wordy and Whimsical for the Liebster Award just last month and this just might be the fastest I’ve ever done an award/tag because usually they’re bookmarked for months to a year *nervously glancing at the long list of tags/awards that I still need to do*! A big thank you for the tag, Veronika 💜

The Rules

  1. Acknowledge the blog that gave it to you and display the award
  2. Answer 11 questions that the blogger gives you
  3. Give 11 random facts about yourself
  4. Nominate 11 blogs and notify them of their nomination
  5. Give these blogs 11 questions to answer

Veronika’s Questions

If you could be put into any bookish universe, what would you choose?

Art: Mats Minnhagen

I finished reading about Nevermoor in the Trials of Morrigan Crow a few weeks ago now and wow, I’d love to be put into this bookish universe! It’s magical and weird, and it’s also a little scary. It’s almost our world but a little twisted because Saint Nick and the Snow Queen are real and have yearly battles, dragons are a thing, slightly intimidating talking giant cats magnificats also exist. It’s wild and I’d love to experience the technology and magic in this world!

Are there any genres you wouldn’t read?

I don’t think there are any genres I “wouldn’t” read per se but if I had to ditch a genre it would be horror. I do read it but it’s basically like once in a blue moon? I am the Ultimate Chicken™️ but also a masochist who likes to torture myself by reading things I know will scare me to high holy hell 🤣

What’s your favourite winter read?

Winter isn’t really a thing for me seeing as I live in the tropics but I wish it was! I can definitely picture myself reading comforting reads while cozied up under my doona during the winter. I’ve actually made a list before which you can check out here!

Did you enjoy any compulsory high school readings?

English/Humanities was one of my favourite, if not my favourite, classes throughout all my school years and I do remember enjoying quite a few of the compulsory readings! …Sadly, my memory is really failing me and I can’t for the life of me remember more than these three titles: Wuthering Heights, The Sun Also Rises, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

What’s your most disliked popular book?

Hmm… That’s a good question although I tend to like a lot of the popular books? 😂 I think one book that is very popular is One Hundred Years of Solitude and wow, I did not jam with that book at all! 🙃 I’ve never struggled so hard to get through a book before and I was so disappointed because I wanted to love this book so much! Maybe I’m just not smart enough for it? 🤷🏻‍♀️

What is your least favourite thing about blogging? (Or the most difficult thing?)

Probably my least favourite thing about blogging is how time consuming it can be sometimes! 🙈 I’m really bad with planning ahead so I usually blog during my work breaks or after work ends, but I always end up taking so much longer than anticipated to actually finish a post! This is probably due to the fact that I’m always so distractible and always seem to be doing a million things at once though…

What’s your favourite book series of all time?

This is always my least favourite question to answer because can I really only pick one? Impossible! So I’m just going to leave you with some covers of the first books in some of my favourite series. These aren’t the favouritest of the favourites but I’m sharing as they come to me lol



(images linked to Goodreads pages)

What book has made you truly angry?

This is a tough one and I’m not really sure how to answer it… But honestly the first book that came to mind was Hot Dog Girl. It has such an adorable cover (I’m such a cover judger) and such a fun sounding premise about summer, growing up and love. I’d heard some good things about it before I bought it so I was excited… Ugh, just thinking about it makes me angry all over again because I was so disappointed with the MC and how she handled EVERYTHING. I mean, I got so angry I couldn’t write a review for it 😂

What’s a bookish trope you wish you wouldn’t have to see anymore?

Love triangles. I know people say when done right it’s really good but just no. It’s not my jam and it won’t be my jam. My feels can’t handle all the angst that usually comes with these triangles and someone always ends up hurt in a love triangle and who needs that anyway?! So it can definitely go bye-bye and I wouldn’t be mad 😂

What’s your most underrated favoUrite novel?

The Shadow of the Wind. I’ve mentioned this book countless times already but it’s so true! More people need to know about this book and read it! It blew me away with its beautiful writing and enchantingly haunted story. It’s not what I’d typically read but a friend highly recommended it and I’m so glad that I listened because wow. This book deserves so much more recognition than it gets!

Which character would you like to swap lives with? And for how long?

Hmm… Another tough question! The first character that came to mind was actually Emika Chen from Warcross. I think I’d love to swap lives with her for a little while so that I can experience the insanity that is Warcross, but also to experience “our world” where that kind of technological development is possible. I think it would terrify me initially but I don’t know if I’d ever want to leave? (And yes, I’m totally ignoring the fact that some bat shit crazy went down in that book LOL)

11 Fun Facts About Me

  1. I lived in my “home” country (where my passport is from) for the first time when I was 25 years old.
  2. I have lived in seven countries – Bangladesh, Philippines, Australia, Vietnam, Cambodia, UK, Indonesia.
  3. I have a minor obsession with Alaska, New Orleans and Edinburgh.
  4. I share a birthday with Sam Smith (19 May) 😍
  5. I used to be part of the varsity swim and tennis teams in high school!
  6. My favourite musicals are RENT, Phantom of the Opera and Hamilton — but I’ve only seen Phantom of the Opera live (at least 3 times).
  7. I’m a major fan girl of Lin-Manuel Miranda 🥰
  8. We weren’t allowed to have a dog when I was growing up because when our doggo died when I was 9, I ended up crying every day for one month and my parents couldn’t handle it 😂
  9. I am not ashamed to admit that I do quite enjoy country music 🤣 Maybe the artists I like are more “pop” country but I love Sam Hunt, Maddie & Tae, Tim McGraw, Kacey Musgraves, and Lady Antebellum to name a few!
  10. I cannot survive a day without at least two cups of coffee but always before 3pm! I’ve cut down on my caffeine consumption by a lot (I used to drink at least 5 cups when I was at uni LOL)!
  11. I love to bake (especially pies and cookies) but my creations always come out looking just a tad wonky — I wish I had the skills to make my goods look… good? 😂
  1. What’s your favourite comfort genre?
  2. What are three of your most anticipated releases for the rest of 2020 (June-December)?
  3. What genre would you like to read more of?
  4. What’s a book you think everyone should read (or at least try reading)?
  5. What’s re-telling would you like to see more of? (i.e. Robin Hood? Beauty and the Beast?)
  6. If you were to receive an ARC in the mail tomorrow, what book would you like to receive?
  7. If you could live anywhere in the world (outside of where you live) for one/two years, where would you live?
  8. What is your “ultimate goal” for your blog (if you have one!)?
  9. If you could pick someone to write and perform a song about an important moment in your life, who would you choose?
  10. If you could make your own “found family” group, which characters would you include (let’s say up to five characters)?
  11. Spill the tea — what extremely hyped book do you think is entirely overrated?

I’M TAGGING:

A few lovelies here but if tags aren’t your thing then please don’t feel pressured to do this! It’s all good 🙂

Leslie @ Books Are the New Black
Mere @ Lore of the Books
Brittany @ Perfectly Tolerable
Kay @ Hammock of Books
Jen @ Nen & Jen
Susan @ Novel Lives
Leah @ Leah’s Books & Cooks
Mir @ Fangirl Pixie Blog
Ali @ Our Book Boyfriends
Andie @ Books, Coffee & Passion
Christine @ Life with All the Books

Behind the Blogger Tag!

Dini @ dinipandareads31 Comments

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve done some tags so I thought I’d get around to answering one that I was tagged in fairly recently by Leslie @ Books Are the New Black! Thanks for the tag, lovely 🥰 If you haven’t checked out her blog, I strongly suggest you head on over there because her content is great!

If it isn’t obvious from the title, this is a tag that lets you readers get to know me a little better! So if you’re not keen on doing that (which is totally okay), you should probably leave now 🤣 Without further ado… Let’s get to it!

The Rules

Why did you start blogging? & Why have you kept blogging?

Being very honest, the main reason I started blogging was because I wanted to get (e)ARCs and I thought having a blog was one of the only ways to do that. 😅 When I started I’d already had my bookstagram running for a few months, and I was really focused on that more than my blog, but that’s completely changed now since I’m rarely on there.

I’ve kept blogging because it was so much more rewarding than I anticipated. I used to have a personal blog that I kept for almost 10 years but I stopped because I didn’t feel inspired anymore. Being part of the book community, sharing my thoughts, and having people actually read and relate to them has been so rewarding, but most importantly it’s meeting so many like-minded people that has kept me motivated with blogging! (And I really hope that doesn’t change any time soon!)

What is your favorite type of blog post to write?

I really enjoy writing the weekly meme posts which is what a lot of my blog contains on top of the reviews I write. #5OnMyTBR, Top Ten Tuesday, #WWWWednesday, First Line Fridays and Top 5 Saturdays are so fun to do and even though I’m horrible at choosing/making decisions about favourites, I’ve come to really love making these lists! I think since I blog on top of a full-time job these meme posts are just what appeal to me most because I still have to think but not as hard compared to if I were to write more discussion posts 😂

What are your top three favorite blog posts you wrote?

It’s so hard to pick favourites — I’m rubbish at that! So I’ve just chosen three random posts that I really enjoyed making!

What are some of your favorite things to do to relax?

Well, reading obviously! But I also really love gaming (although that’s not always super relaxing when you’re in battle or on a quest haha). Another thing that really relaxes me is colouring — it’s just so soothing not having to think about anything except what colour I’ll choose next. I also love to throw on my favourite playlists while doing other things (like colouring) or sometimes simply doing nothing but lying back and listening to the song lyrics (while singing along off-key)!

What are three of your favorite things?

  1. My family & friends (who are basically my family!) 💞
  2. Animals (especially doggos, pandas, and elephants)
  3. Food (especially Japanese, Mexican and Chinese)! 🤤

What are your proudest blogging moments?

As of 20 May 2020!

One of the blogging goals that I set for 2020 was to reach 500 followers and I actually reached that goal yesterday! 😭 I’m pretty shook (understatement) because I didn’t even think getting 100 followers would even be in the realm of possibility for me and my little blog! I’m so thankful for this community, for all the people who follow me, for the new friends I’ve made… It’s beyond anything I ever expected when I started this and (sorry if I’m starting to sound like a broken record but) I’m so grateful for all of it! 🥰

What are your hobbies outside of blogging?

It’s a bit sad but I honestly don’t have many hobbies outside of blogging (and reading)! Um… I do love singing and I’m part of a small community choir here. I also really love to bake — pies and cookies are my absolute favourites to make 😍 If this counts as a hobby, I also love colouring 🤣 One time I got a bunch of colouring books from my friends and I was the happiest little panda 🐼 Sometimes it’s the simple things, right?!

Describe your personality in three words

I really dislike answering these kinds of questions because I always have a hard time coming up with answers! If I had to say… Loyal, Compassionate, and Stubborn (AF) 😆

What are your top three pet peeves?

I wouldn’t necessarily say these are my “top three” but… they’re pretty high up on the list!

  1. People holding very loud and personal conversations in public. Must you really? 🤦🏻‍♀️
  2. People who walk very very slowly in the middle of the walkway/sidewalk — and to make it even worse, those who don’t move even when you say “excuse me”! 🙄
  3. People who are rude to workers. That’s vague but when I say workers I also mean waiters, cleaners/helpers, etc. Okay, this one is definitely in my top three (maybe even top two!) because I can’t stand those who treat people like trash just because they feel they’re better than them. Reality check: you’re really not. This is the toxic environment that I’m leaving and I couldn’t be happier! 😤

What’s something your followers don’t know about you?

Hmm… Hard to choose because I feel like there’s a lot that my followers don’t know about me 😁 But I’m going with the most random thing I can think of (that a lot of people in my real life probably don’t even know about me): I used to teach hip hop dance and break dancing with a friend when I was in high school. When I was in boarding school in Australia, I started an after-school dance club with a friend that counted towards my extracurricular credits! It was heaps of fun 😊

And that’s it folks! I hope you enjoyed reading those little tidbits about me — not very interesting but hey, that’s me 🤷🏻‍♀️ This was a lot of fun to answer so thanks again for tagging me, Leslie!

I’m Tagging:

Again, no pressure if tags aren’t your thing 😊 Even if you’re not tagged and want to do this, go for gold! Don’t forget to link back so I can read your answers and learn more about you too! 🥰

Alex | Becky | Deanna | Dedra | Sammie | EVERYONE!

Review: The Great Devil War #2-4 by Kenneth B. Andersen

Dini @ dinipandareads9 Comments

Today I’m coming at you with one big review for the three books in The Great Devil War series that I read over the last week! I read the first book, The Devil’s Apprentice (read my review here), when I took part in the blog tour organised by Dave @ TheWriteReads. I thought it was a bizarre book but highly enjoyable and like nothing I’ve read before. This was followed by Andersen contacting me on Twitter a couple of months ago to ask if I’d like to be part of his ARC team and I said yes! So a big thank you to Kenneth Andersen for reaching out to me and for sending me the books to read. Of course it goes without saying that this did not influence my reading experience or review, which is, as always, honest and unbiased.

Now let’s get back to the review before I get even further off track! Despite a slightly slow start with book two, I’ve really enjoyed reading these books and I think book four is without a doubt my favourite in the series so far.

Goodreads: The Great Devil War series
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Average Panda Rating:

Book 2: ★★★½ | Book 3: ★★★★☆ | Book 4: ★★★★½
(images linked to the Goodreads pages)

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The Disney Parks Book Tag!

Dini @ dinipandareads26 Comments

Ah, Disney. Who doesn’t love Disney and the Disney parks? It’s been a freaking long ass time since I went to one of the parks but it’s definitely on my bucket list to go back and experience it as an ‘adult’! A few years ago I discovered some childhood photos taken at Disney (world or land I can’t be sure) and well, while you can’t say much about my fashion sense (coz clearly I didn’t have any and neither did my brother), you can definitely tell these were happy times!

But back to this tag… I was tagged to do the Disney Parks Book Tag by the wonderful Kay @ Hammock of Books and awesome Brittany @ Perfectly Tolerable — go check out both their blogs because they have great content and they’re lovely people to follow so you won’t regret it! Thanks for tags, lovelies and I’m sorry its taken so long for me to get around to doing this tag. First up, the rules!

The Rules

☆ Mention the creator and link back to original post [Alexandra @ Reading by Starlight]
☆ Thank the blogger who tagged you [done above!]
☆ Answer the 10 questions below using any genre
☆ Tag 5+ friends
☆ Feel free to copy the heading graphics

Oof, it took me a hot minute to recall a title set along the river but this heart-stopping thriller certainly ticks that box! I’m still amazed by Caine’s writing versatility 😍 Wolfhunter River is book three in the Stillhouse Lake series — which is crazy and absolutely thrilling!

You guys… I’m kind of shook because scouring the dark corners of mind (and Goodreads), I’ve realised that… I haven’t read (m)any ‘swashbuckling high seas adventures’… Wot wot?! Can it be true? It sadly is. Many of them adventures are still on TBR though! For now, I’m leaving you with A Gathering of Shadows because there’s certainly some swashbuckling in this favourite series of mine!

Ooh, just looking at this cover again already covers me in mad goosebumps and makes me wanna cry! But I have to give a shout out to Rules for Vanishing because even I, most Ultimate of Chickens™️, managed to read this and loved it! Ugh, this book was drowning in eerie vibes.

Surprisingly absolutely no one, the Illuminae Files absolutely takes the cake for this one! Ugh, I love this series so much 💞 Kristoff and Kaufman can take all of my monies!

Ugh, Where the Crawdads Sing was just beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! I loved Kya and the lyrical descriptions of the marsh lands and of nature swept me away to an enchanting but also dangerous world that I’d love to one day see IRL.

I feel like I also have to give an honorary shout out to The Natchez Burning Trilogy for this prompt. This trilogy is one of my all-time favourite thriller/court drama and is just *chefs kiss*!

A Curse So Dark and Lonely was of course the first book I thought of. There’s no Beauty & the Beast (retelling) without that eerie and beautiful enchanted castle!

The Trials of Morrigan Crow, book one of the Nevermoor series, was an utterly enchanting and whimsical read! There were fantastical adventures, magical and terrifying creatures, and otherworldly settings. This was an absolute treat to read! 💞

Okay, I’m cheating a little bit with The Mountains Sing. There is some trekking through mountains but that’s not what the whole book is about. It is an absolutely stunning, heartbreaking and hopeful read though and I would highly recommend this debut for those interested in own voices reads!

I haven’t read very many Spanish inspired fantasy books (I could also be totally wrong because my memory very often fails me) so Incendiary was a refreshingly set fantasy world with a cool magic system that I can’t wait to learn more about in the next book!

Another non-surprise here with Aurora Rising (this is totally a space opera, right?)! This book was a fabulously crazy, fast-paced space adventure that was full of all the things! Seriously, just read it.

I’m tagging:

Becky | Ali | Leah | Evelyn | Katie

No pressure to do this if tags aren’t your thing. Also, even if I haven’t tagged you here, feel free to go for gold if you want to do this one and link back to me so I can check out your answers too 😍

#WWWWednesday: 27 May

Dini @ dinipandareads8 Comments

Um, excuse me, how is it already the last Wednesday in May?! Can someone also please tell me where this month has gone? I feel like I’ve done nothing but I *know* I did the things… What are these vibes?!

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:

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

Since last Wednesday I’ve managed to read a little bit more than the previous week. Still not my best reading weeks these days but work has been driving me mental and the added stress of a big island move during this pandemic (admittedly the worst time to be moving anywhere) is making my ‘normal’ levels of anxiety sky-rocket. But I’ve been enjoying my escape into hell these last few days! What am I talking about? Don’t worry, I haven’t lost the plot completely (yet).

I’ve been reading The Great Devil War series by Kevin B. Andersen lately and I’m sure you can guess what it’s about based on the series name. I’m planning to share one review for the three books I read later tonight, as the fifth book releases tomorrow! 🥳

  • ★★★½
  • ★★★★☆
  • ★★★★½
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#TopTenTuesday: Opening Lines from Five-Star Reads!

Dini @ dinipandareads55 Comments

So, we’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: Opening Lines (Best, favorite, funny, unique, shocking, gripping, lines that grabbed you immediately, etc.)

Who doesn’t love a good opening line?! I certainly do and I usually share some first/opening lines every Friday for my “First Lines Friday” posts! Since this week’s prompt is open to interpretation I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do since it’s so hard for me to choose “favourites” — there are always so many, how do I choose?!

(Also, my memory is really not that great 😂)

So I decided to keep things simple, especially as I’m writing this during one of my quick work breaks lol, and look at the opening lines from my last ten ★★★★★ (5 star) reads! Yes, some of these might be more than just the first line, but opening lines plural, right? 😂

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#5OnMyTBR: Blue Covers

Dini @ dinipandareads19 Comments

Hello Mondays, welcome back to #5OnMyTBR, a meme created by the wonderful E @ The Local Bee Hunter’s Nook. This bookish meme gets us to dig even further into our TBRs by simply posting about five books on our TBR! You can learn more about it here or in the post announcing it. You can find the full list of prompts (past and future) at the end of this post!

This week’s prompt is: Blue Covers

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Goodreads Monday – Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw

Dini @ dinipandareads11 Comments

Welcome back to Goodreads Monday! This weekly meme was started by @Lauren’s Page Turners and it 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.

Wooh, it’s been a hot minute since I did one of these but I’m glad to be back with it!
This week’s featured book is Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw. This is a standalone (I think) Young Adult Fantasy that was released towards the end of last year and it currently has a 3.82 rating on Goodreads!

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The Plus One Pact Blog Tour Review

Dini @ dinipandareads9 Comments

I’m back with another blog tour and this time it’s for The Plus One Pact by Portia Macintosh. Thanks to Rachel @ Rachel’s Random Resources for organising this blog tour and to Boldwood Books and the author for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

Be sure to click on the banner below to check out the rest of the bloggers on tour!

Goodreads: The Plus One Pact
Publisher: Boldwood Books
Release Date: 21 May 2020
Genre: Women’s Fiction, Romance
Panda Rating:

What if your plus one could be the one…?
Cara has officially run out of men. Her most recent dates have gone from bad to worse, and when her dating app informs her there is no one left in her area to choose from, she is at a dead end. But with a summer of events ahead of her, she needs to find a solution, fast; someone to keep her company at the never-ending weddings, family gatherings and gender reveal parties that she can’t face going to alone.  So when she meets handsome, confident, Millsy on a night out she may be in luck. They could not be more different in personality, but he too has a summer of events ahead and is desperate to get his family off his back about finding a ‘nice girl’. What if they made a pact to help each other out and be a plus one for the summer? Just as friends of course…? 

A brand new romantic comedy from bestseller Portia MacIntosh, perfect for fans of Zara Stoneley, Sophie Ranald and Mhairi McFarlane.

Buy a copy: Amazon (US)

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Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp

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!

This Sunday I spent a good chunk of the day reading The Wrongful Death which is Book III in The Great Devil War series. Although there are some bits that I’m not enjoying so much, mostly an awkward pre-pubescent romance that seems a little forced. I honestly wish the ‘relationship’ between two characters was platonic as I think it’d be more believable. Still, I’m really enjoying Andersen’s imagination of hell. The more I read the series the more I wonder what inspired and continues to inspire Andersen to bring this hellish world to life. It’s so interesting but also obviously very dark (even the humour).

An unfortunate chain of events makes Philip responsible for the untimely death of the school bully Sam—the Devil’s original choice for an heir. Philip must return to Hell to find Sam and bring him back to life, so that fate can be restored. But trouble is stirring in Lucifer’s kingdom and not even Philip can imagine the strange and dark journey that awaits him. A journey that will take him through ancient underworlds and all the way to Paradise.

The Wrong Death is volume 3 of The Great Devil War series.

What are you currently reading?

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