Blog Tour Review + Giveaway: A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe

October 17, 2020October 18, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads4 Comments

Hello, friends! Today is my stop on the TBR & Beyond Tours for A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe. Thanks to the TBR & Beyond team for having me on tour and to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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

Goodreads: A Golden Fury
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Publication Date: 13 October 2020
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy, Historical Fiction
Panda Rating:

Thea Hope longs to be an alchemist out of the shadow of her famous mother. The two of them are close to creating the legendary Philosopher’s Stone—whose properties include immortality and can turn any metal into gold—but just when the promise of the Stone’s riches is in their grasp, Thea’s mother destroys the Stone in a sudden fit of violent madness.

While combing through her mother’s notes, Thea learns that there’s a curse on the Stone that causes anyone who tries to make it to lose their sanity. With the threat of the French Revolution looming, Thea is sent to Oxford for her safety, to live with the father who doesn’t know she exists.

But in Oxford, there are alchemists after the Stone who don’t believe Thea’s warning about the curse—instead, they’ll stop at nothing to steal Thea’s knowledge of how to create the Stone. But Thea can only run for so long, and soon she will have to choose: create the Stone and sacrifice her sanity, or let the people she loves die.

Buy: Amazon (US) |Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indigo

Blog Tour Review + Giveaway: The Magic Ingredient by Lindy Miller

October 16, 2020October 16, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads8 Comments

I’m back with another blog tour today with Xpresso Tours for The Magic Ingredient by Lindy Miller. Thanks to Xpresso Tours for organising this blog tour and to the author for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Be sure to click on the banner below to check out the other bloggers on tour!
Also, don’t forget to enter the GIVEWAY (INT) at the end of my post!

Goodreads: The Magic Ingredient
Release Date: 13 October 2020
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Panda Rating:

The end of summer is approaching, but even at the height of Bar Harbor’s tourist season, Eve Silver is having a hard time keeping enough dough in the bank to sustain the family bakery. Her only hope of paying past due bills is to win the catering bid for the town’s upcoming Harvest Happening festival. Otherwise, it’ll be lights out for Mount Desserts by Christmas.

Widower Jeff Perry is moving with his twelve-year-old daughter, Candy, from Manhattan to Maine with one goal: starting over. When sparks fly between Jeff and Eve as the town readies for the annual harvest festival, Candy wishes she had a love potion to help her dad fall in love again. Will Eve be able to save Mount Desserts—and open her heart to Jeff—by the most bewitching night of the year?

It’ll take a lot of love, a little bit of luck … and just a pinch of magic.

BUY NOW: Amazon (US)

Blog Tour Review + Giveaway: The Puppetmaster’s Apprentice by Lisa DeSelm

October 15, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads14 Comments

Hello, friends! I’m so excited to take part in my first blog tour with Caffeine Book Tours today! 😍 It’s my stop on the tour for The Puppetmaster’s Apprentice by Lisa DeSelm and I couldn’t be happier to share my thoughts on this delightfully dark fantasy retelling. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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

Goodreads: The Puppetmaster’s Apprentice
Publisher: Page Street Publishing
Publication Date: 13 October 2020
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Panda Rating:

“Listen well. Soon, the blue moon, the rarest of all moons will be on the rise. At its waxing offer up one of your creations and by moonlight they will be given breath. Choose wisely who to awaken.”

With her puppet-maker father imprisoned and the land of Tavia on the brink of war, Pirouette does not have a choice other than to follow the ruler’s whims. But when he discovers her secret – that she was once a puppet brought to life by the magic of the blue moon—he demands that Pirouette create an assassin out of wood and then make it come alive.

Fighting against forbidden magic and racing against the rise of the next blue moon, Pirouette cannot help but wonder, if she is making a masterpiece…or a monster. And if she is making a monster, what does that make her?

BUY NOW: Amazon (US) |Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | IndieBound

Blog Tour Review: Winter, White and Wicked by Shannon Dittemore

October 14, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads8 Comments

Hello, friends! Today is my stop on the TBR & Beyond Tours for Winter, White and Wicked by Shannon Dittemore. Thanks to the TBR & Beyond team for having me on tour and to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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

Goodreads: Winter, White and Wicked
Publisher: ABRAMS Kids
Publication Date: 13 October 2020
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Panda Rating:

Mad Max: Fury Road meets Frozen in this striking YA fantasy about a rig driver’s journey to save her friend

Twice-orphaned Sylvi has chipped out a niche for herself on Layce, an island cursed by eternal winter. Alone in her truck, she takes comfort in two things: the solitude of the roads and the favor of Winter, an icy spirit who has protected her since she was a child.

Sylvi likes the road, where no one asks who her parents were or what she thinks of the rebels in the north. But when her best friend, Lenore, runs off with the rebels, Sylvi must make a haul too late in the season for a smuggler she wouldn’t normally work with, the infamous Mars Dresden. Alongside his team—Hyla, a giant warrior woman and Kyn, a boy with skin like stone—Sylvi will do whatever it takes to save her friend.

But when the time comes, she’ll have to choose: safety, anonymity, and the favor of Winter—or the future of the island that she calls home.

Buy: Amazon (US) |Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indigo

Blog Tour Review: Sisters of the Moon by Alexandrea Weis

October 13, 2020October 12, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads7 Comments

I’m back with another blog tour today with Xpresso Tours for Sisters of the Moon by Alexandrea Weis. Thanks to Xpresso Tours for organising this blog tour and to the author for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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

Goodreads: Sisters of the Moon
Publisher: Vesuvian Books
Release Date: 22 September 2020
Genre: Horror, Paranormal Fantasy
Panda Rating:

A monstrous fate will turn a girl into a legend.

On an island in Lake Obersee, where The Sisters of St. Gertrude abide, a destitute Moor named Durra arrives. Sold for taxes, she and her two companions tend to the nuns and their collection of cats. At night, she combs the library for details on the order, the remote island, and the beasts howling outside her window.

But when a prank reveals the sisters’ gruesome secret, Durra is forced to accept a new fate. Bestowed an unearthly power, she must choose between life as a nun or living among the monsters beyond the convent walls.

Her path is about to change the tide in the ultimate war. The war between good and evil.

BUY NOW: Amazon (US)

Blog Tour Review: Children by Bjørn Larssen

October 9, 2020October 8, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads16 Comments

I’m back with another blog tour with The Storytellers on Tour for Children by Bjørn Larssen. Thanks to SoT for organising this tour and thanks to the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

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

Goodreads: Children (The Ten Worlds #1)
Publication Date: 03 October 2020
Genre: Fantasy Retelling, Mythology
Panda Rating:

Magni never wanted to be like his father, a murderous, absent, cheating alcoholic: Thor – the feared and beloved God of thunder. When Thor destroys everything and everyone his son knows and loves, Magni vows to stop the violence. His dream is to bring peace and prosperity to the Nine Worlds, then settle down with the man he loves. But is it possible to remain good in a place this bad? How do you escape cruelty in a universe built on it, or the shadow of your father when everyone calls you by his name?

Maya knows she’s a failure and a disappointment to her foster-parents. How could a child raised by Freya and Freyr – Goddess of love and God of sex – have no interest in the greatest of pleasures? Obviously, it couldn’t be the torture they subjected her to, or treating her as a tool that might someday be useful. Maya, her rage at their games more powerful than she knows, wants freedom to pursue her own destiny. But how do you forge your own life away from your God-parents when you’re nothing more than human?

A retelling of the Norse myths unlike any other, Children will answer all the questions you never knew you had about the heathen Nine Worlds… before leading you into the Tenth

BUY NOW: Amazon (UK)

Blog Tour Review: May Day by Josie Jaffrey

September 19, 2020September 19, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads12 Comments

Hi friends! I’m so excited to be back for another @WriteReads blog tour for May Day by Josie Jaffrey. Special thanks to the author for the copy in exchange for an honest review!

Be sure to check out all the other bloggers participating in this tour here.

Goodreads: May Day (Seekers #1)
Publisher: Silver Sun Books
Published: 09 July 2020
Genre: Paranormal Mystery
Panda Rating:

If the murderer you’re tracking is a vampire, then you want a vampire detective. Just maybe not this one.

It’s not that Jack Valentine is bad at her job. The youngest member of Oxford’s Seekers has an impressive track record, but she also has an impressive grudge against the local baron, Killian Drake.
When a human turns up dead on May Morning, she’s determined to pin the murder on Drake. The problem is that none of the evidence points to him. Instead, it leads Jack into a web of conspiracy involving the most powerful people in the country, people to whom Jack has no access. But she knows someone who does.
To get to the truth, Jack will have to partner up with her worst enemy. As long as she can keep her cool, Drake will point her to the ringleaders, she’ll find the murderer and no one else will have to die.
Body bags on standby.

May Day is the first book in Josie Jaffrey’s Seekers series, an urban fantasy series set in Oxford, England.

BUY NOW: Amazon (UK) | Amazon (US)

Blog Tour Review: Hollow Road by Dan Fitzgerald

September 17, 2020September 17, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads6 Comments

🎉 Happy Book Birthday to Hollow Road! 🎉

I’m back with another blog tour with The Storytellers on Tour for Hollow Road (Maer Cycle #1) by Dan Fitzgerald. Thanks to the Timy & Justine for organising this tour and thanks to the author for the copy in exchange for an honest review!

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

Goodreads: Hollow Road (Maer Cycle #1)
Publication Date: 17 September 2020
Genre: Fantasy
Panda Rating:

Legends describe the Maer as savage man-beasts haunting the mountains, their bodies and faces covered with hair. Creatures of unimaginable strength, cunning, and cruelty. Bedtime stories to keep children indoors at night. Soldiers’ tales to frighten new recruits.

It is said the Maer once ruled the Silver Hills, but they have long since passed into oblivion.

This is the story of their return.

Carl, Sinnie and Finn, three companions since childhood, are tasked with bringing a friend’s body home for burial. Along the way, they find there is more to the stories than they ever imagined, and the mountains hold threats even darker than the Maer. What they discover on their journey will change the way they see the world forever.

Travel down Hollow Road to find out which legends are true, and which have been twisted.

Buy: Amazon

Blog Tour Review: The Beast and the Bethany by Jack Meggitt-Phillips

September 17, 2020September 16, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads9 Comments

Hi friends! I’m so excited to be back for another @WriteReads blog tour for The Beast and The Bethany by Jack Meggitt-Phillips. Special thanks to Netgalley and Egmont Publishing for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Be sure to check out all the other bloggers participating in this tour here.

Goodreads: The Beast and the Bethany
Publisher: Egmont Publishing
Published: 01 October 2020
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
Panda Rating:

The most exciting new children’s book of 2020 and a modern classic in the making. The Beast and the Bethany has all the classic macabre humour of Roald Dahl with the warmth and charm of Despicable Me, finished off with a gleeful bite of Little Shop of Horrors! This book should be on every little monster’s birthday and Christmas list.

Ebenezer Tweezer is a youthful 511-year-old. He keeps a beast in the attic of his mansion, who he feeds all manner of things (including performing monkeys, his pet cat and the occasional cactus) and in return the beast vomits out presents for Ebenezer, as well as potions which keep him young and beautiful. But the beast grows ever greedier, and soon only a nice, juicy child will do. So when Ebenezer encounters orphan Bethany, it seems like (everlasting) life will go on as normal. But Bethany is not your average orphan . . .

BUY NOW: Amazon

ARC Review: The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

September 3, 2020November 12, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads17 Comments

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The House in the Cerulean Sea
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication date: 17 March 2020
Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy
Panda Rating:

A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret.

Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.

When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he’s given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days.

But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.

An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.