Author: Dini @ dinipandareads

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!

Book Review: Amari and the Great Game by B.B. Alston

Dini @ dinipandareads8 Comments

Amari and the Great Game (Supernatural Investigations #2)
Publisher: Farshore
Pub Date: 1 September 2022
Genre: Middle-Grade Fantasy

Panda Rating:

(4 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

Sequel to the New York Times bestseller Amari and the Night Brothers!

Artemis Fowl meets Men in Black in this magical second book in the New York Times bestselling Supernatural Investigations trilogy, soon to be a major movie starring Marsai Martin. Perfect for 8+ fans of Percy Jackson and Nevermoor.

After finding her brother and saving the entire supernatural world, Amari Peters is convinced her first full summer as a Junior Agent will be a breeze.

But between the fearsome new Head Minister’s strict anti-magician agenda, fierce Junior Agent rivalries, and her brother Quinton’s curse steadily worsening, Amari’s plate is full. So when the secretive League of Magicians offers her a chance to stand up for magiciankind as its new leader, she declines. She’s got enough to worry about!

But her refusal allows someone else to step forward, a magician with dangerous plans for the League. This challenge sparks the start of the Great Game, a competition to decide who will become the Night Brothers’ successor and determine the future of magiciankind.

The Great Game is both mysterious and deadly, but among the winner’s magical rewards is Quinton’s last hope… so how can Amari refuse?

⚠️ CONTENT WARNINGS

Racism, bigotry, bullying

TL;DR: Amari and the Great Game was just as action-packed, if not even more so, as the first book in this series but this time, there are a lot more players involved and everyone’s actions felt a lot more sinister than ever before. I loved those who rallied around Amari through all the hate she once again faces and her friendship with Elsie is still my absolute favourite! While I didn’t necessarily recognise who the ultimate villain would become by the end of this book, it does have me excited to see how Amari will deal with probably the most diabolical and powerful of baddies in the next one.

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#TopTenTuesday: It Was a Hit, It Was a Miss!

Dini @ dinipandareads23 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 That Defied My Expectations (books you thought you would didn’t like that you loved, books you thought you’d love but didn’t, books that were not the genres they seemed to be, or in any other way subverted your expectations!) (Submitted by Sia @ everybookadoorway.com)

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Did I Pass My Classes? The Magical Readathon: Orilium Autumn Equinox 2023

Dini @ dinipandareads6 Comments

Hello, hello, friends! ✨ The Magical Readathon: Orilium Autumn Equinox 2023 ✨ is. nowover which means another semester and another year have come and gone at Orilium. Can you believe it? I can’t. 😂 Now that classes are over, it’s time to wrap up what I read and see how Meeska fared this semester. Much like it was IRL, the Autumn Equinox was pretty low-key but that didn’t stop Meeska from just making it to the finish line, lol. We’re a mess! But on that note, let’s take a look at what got read this semester. As always, thanks to G for continuously making this one of the best and most magical readathons out there! 💜✨

If you’re confused and don’t know what I’m on about, you’re totally fine. Check out this video by our super lovely host and creator of this wonderful magical readathon, G @ Book Roast!

CHARACTER BACKGROUND

Guild Tier Status: Exhaulted (360 pts)

  • Name: Meeska Shonara
  • Guild: House of the Arcane
  • Calling: Illusionist Rogue
  • Background: Urban
  • Province: Kerador
  • Heritage: Earthling (Fire)
  • Conduit: Staff
  • Legacy: Pocket Dimension
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Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp [200]

Dini @ dinipandareads8 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 curled up reading in bed with or which book you wish you had time to read today!

Hideaway Heart by Melanie Harlow, Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews, You, With a View by Jessica Joyce, Escorted by Claire Kent

I’ve been trying to figure out what I want to read next and I’ve been kind of jumping around with a couple of books trying to see which one will stick the most. I’m not sure which one I’ll return to tonight but it could be any of these!

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Monthly Wrap-Up: August 2023

Dini @ dinipandareads18 Comments

🎶August slipped away into a moment in time…🎶

August felt like it got over in the blink of an eye! Work started to pick up again this month but I also took a long weekend break to get away to Bali to visit my aunt and cousin and to hang out with the whole family. My sister also sent me some things from Japan through a friend of hers and that little package made my day a few weeks back! Overall, it was a pretty decent month 🙂

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#FirstLinesFriday: 1 September 2023

Dini @ dinipandareads8 Comments

Happy Friday book lovers! We’re back with another First Lines Friday, a weekly feature for 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:

“I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm.
And I lost about a year of my life and much of the comfort and security I had not valued until it was gone.”

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Book Review: Role Playing by Cathy Yardley

Dini @ dinipandareads19 Comments

Role Playing
Publisher: Montlake
Pub Date: 1 July 2023
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Panda Rating:

(4.5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

Maggie is an unapologetically grumpy forty-eight-year-old hermit. But when her college-aged son makes her a deal―he’ll be more social if she does the same―she can’t refuse. She joins a new online gaming guild led by a friendly healer named Otter. So that nobody gets the wrong idea, she calls herself Bogwitch.

Otter is Aiden, a fifty-year-old optimist using the guild as an emotional outlet from his family drama caring for his aging mother while his brother plays house with Aiden’s ex-fiancée.

Bogwitch and Otter become fast virtual friends, but there’s a catch. Bogwitch thinks Otter is a college student. Otter assumes Bogwitch is an octogenarian.

When they finally meet face to face―after a rocky, shocking start―the unlikely pair of sunshine and stormy personalities grow tentatively closer. But Maggie’s previous relationships have left her bitter, and Aiden’s got a complicated past of his own.

Everything’s easier online. Can they make it work in real life?

⚠️ CONTENT WARNINGS

Homophobia, racism, bigotry, forced outing, toxic family, parental death

TL;DR: If you’re looking for a cosy, heartwarming and hopeful story about older characters finding their people and being accepted just as they are; for a story where people find joy and comfort in gaming and online connections; and for a story that’s equally entertaining but that’s not without it’s heavier moments, I would 100% recommend this book!

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#TopTenTuesday: Water Covers

Dini @ dinipandareads47 Comments

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

This week’s topic is actually: Water (This can be covers with water on them, books with bodies of water in them, titles with bodies of water in them, etc.)

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