Book Review: The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling

November 14, 2022November 16, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads12 Comments

The Ex Hex (Ex Hex #1)
Publisher: Headline Eternal
Pub Date: 28 September 2021
Genre: Paranormal Romance

Panda Rating:

_{(4 pandas)}

📖 SYNOPSIS

The Ex Hex is a spellbinding rom-com with a twist, think Practical Magic in the Gilmore Girls Stars Hollow…

New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins, writing as Erin Sterling, casts a spell with a spine-tingling romance full of wishes, witches, and hexes gone wrong.

‘You broke my heart, Rhys Penhallow. And we curse you. You and your whole stupid, hot line.’

Vivienne Jones handled the biggest break-up of her life the way that any witch would: vodka, bubble baths, and a curse on her ex.

That was nine years ago. Now Rhys Penhallow, descendant of the town’s founders, breaker of hearts and still irritatingly gorgeous, is back. Rhys has returned to the quaint town of Graves Glen to recharge the ley lines and make an appearance at the annual fall festival. But when his every move results in calamity, Vivi realises that hexing her ex might not have been so harmless after all…

As the curse starts to affect the magic of the town, resulting in murderous wind-up toys, an outraged ghost, and a surprisingly talkative cat, Vivi and Rhys must put their personal feelings aside and work together to break the curse and save not just the town, but also Rhys’s life.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Parental death (recounted)

Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp [164]

November 13, 2022December 4, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads31 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!

I’ve spent all of my Sunday in bed reading Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan. I’ve literally only started this morning and have been patchily reading it between bouts of sleep but I’m enjoying it so far. The writing is beautiful and so descriptive so I’m excited to keep reading and to see what all the hype is about.

📖 SYNOPSIS

A captivating debut fantasy inspired by the legend of Chang’e, the Chinese moon goddess, in which a young woman’s quest to free her mother pits her against the most powerful immortal in the realm.

Growing up on the moon, Xingyin is accustomed to solitude, unaware that she is being hidden from the feared Celestial Emperor who exiled her mother for stealing his elixir of immortality. But when Xingyin’s magic flares and her existence is discovered, she is forced to flee her home, leaving her mother behind.

Alone, powerless, and afraid, she makes her way to the Celestial Kingdom, a land of wonder and secrets. Disguising her identity, she seizes an opportunity to learn alongside the emperor’s son, mastering archery and magic, even as passion flames between her and the prince.

To save her mother, Xingyin embarks on a perilous quest, confronting legendary creatures and vicious enemies across the earth and skies. But when treachery looms and forbidden magic threatens the kingdom, she must challenge the ruthless Celestial Emperor for her dream—striking a dangerous bargain in which she is torn between losing all she loves or plunging the realm into chaos.

Daughter of the Moon Goddess begins an enchanting, romantic duology which weaves ancient Chinese mythology into a sweeping adventure of immortals and magic—where love vies with honor, dreams are fraught with betrayal, and hope emerges triumphant.

#FirstLinesFriday: 11 November 2022

November 11, 2022November 11, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads10 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!

Blog Tour Spotlight: Fatty Fatty Boom Boom by Rabia Chaudry

November 11, 2022November 10, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads4 Comments

Today I’m shining a spotlight on FATTY FATTY BOOM BOOM: A MEMOIR OF FOOD, FAT, AND FAMILY by Rabia Chaudry. If you’ve followed me for a while you’ll know that I don’t often read non-fiction because I just don’t have the brain bandwidth! 😂 But I do when food is incorporated into books so that’s why this one really caught my eye!

Special thanks to Katrina Tiktinsky from Algonquin Books for providing the digital ARC via NetGalley for this tour!

Fatty Fatty Boom Boom: A Memoir of Food, Fat, and Family
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Publication Date: 08 November 2022
Genre: Memoir, Non FIction

From the bestselling author and host of the wildly popular Undisclosed podcast, a warm, intimate memoir about food, body image, and growing up in a loving but sometimes oppressively concerned Pakistani immigrant family.

“My entire life I have been less fat and more fat, but never not fat.”According to family lore, when Rabia Chaudry’s family returned to Pakistan for their first visit since moving to the United States, two-year-old Rabia was more than just a pudgy toddler. Dada Abu, her fit and sprightly grandfather, attempted to pick her up but had to put her straight back down, demanding of Chaudry’s mother: “What have you done to her?” The answer was two full bottles of half-and-half per day, frozen butter sticks to gnaw on, and lots and lots of American processed foods.

And yet, despite her parents plying her with all the wrong foods as they discovered Burger King and Dairy Queen, they were highly concerned for the future for their large-sized daughter. How would she ever find a suitable husband? There was merciless teasing by uncles, cousins, and kids at school, but Chaudry always loved food too much to hold a grudge against it. Soon she would leave behind fast food and come to love the Pakistani foods of her heritage, learning to cook them with wholesome ingredients and eat them in moderation. At once a love letter (with recipes) to fresh roti, chaat, chicken biryani, ghee, pakoras, shorba, parathay and an often hilarious dissection of life in a Muslim immigrant family, Fatty Fatty Boom Boom is also a searingly honest portrait of a woman grappling with a body that gets the job done but that refuses to meet the expectations of others.

Chaudry’s memoir offers readers a relatable and powerful voice on the controversial topic of body image, one that dispenses with the politics and gets to what every woman who has ever struggled with weight will relate to.

Cover Reveal: Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee

November 10, 2022November 10, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads12 Comments

Friends, I’m a bit late (hello, sickness) but I’m so excited to bring you this cover reveal for an upcoming YA contemporary romance that’s pitched as Heartstopper meets Crazy Rich Asians and who can resist a winning combination like that? It’s got an aspiring chef, fake-dating, crazy rich people drama, food food food, and the cutest corgo in town—just look at that good boi on the cover! 😍 On that note, let’s jump straight to it.

Releasing on 16 May 2023
_{(mark your calendars!!!)}

Fake Dates and Mooncakes
Publisher: Underlined (Delacorte)
Publication Date: 16 May 2023
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary/Romance

Heartstopper meets Crazy Rich Asians in this heartfelt, joyful paperback original rom-com that follows an aspiring chef who discovers the recipe for love is more complicated than it seems when he starts fake-dating a handsome new customer.

Dylan Tang wants to win a Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake-making competition for teen chefs—in memory of his mom, and to bring much-needed publicity to his aunt’s struggling Chinese takeout in Brooklyn.

Enter Theo Somers: charming, wealthy, with a smile that makes Dylan’s stomach do backflips. AKA a distraction. Their worlds are sun-and-moon apart, but Theo keeps showing up. He even convinces Dylan to be his fake date at a family wedding in the Hamptons.

In Theo’s glittering world of pomp, privilege, and crazy rich drama, their romance is supposed to be just pretend . . . but Dylan finds himself falling for Theo. For real. Then Theo’s relatives reveal their true colors—but with the mooncake contest looming, Dylan can’t risk being sidetracked by rich-people problems.

Can Dylan save his family’s business and follow his heart—or will he fail to do both?

Have you added Fake Dates and Mooncakes to your TBR? If not, what are you waiting for?! 😉

#WWWWednesday: 09 November 2022

November 9, 2022November 13, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads26 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: Series I’d Like to Finish

November 8, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads54 Comments

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

This week’s topic is Series I’d Like to Start/Catch up on/Finish.

ARC Review: Reader, I Murdered Him by Betsy Cornwell

November 7, 2022November 7, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads9 Comments

Special thanks to Rylee Warner at Spark Point Studio for providing an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

Reader, I Murdered Him
Publisher: Clarion Books
Pub Date: 11 October 2022
Genre: Young Adult Historical Fiction

Panda Rating:

_{(3.5 pandas)}

📖 SYNOPSIS

The author of the visionary New York Times bestseller Dread Nation returns with another spellbinding historical fantasy set at the crossroads of race and power in America.

It is 1937, and Laura Ann Langston lives in an America divided—between those who work the mystical arts and those who do not. Ever since the Great Rust, a catastrophic event that blighted the arcane force called the Dynamism and threw America into disarray, the country has been rebuilding for a better future. And everyone knows the future is industry and technology—otherwise known as Mechomancy—not the traditional mystical arts.

Laura disagrees. A talented young mage from Pennsylvania, Laura hopped a portal to New York City on her seventeenth birthday with hopes of earning her mage’s license and becoming something more than a rootworker.

But six months later, she’s got little to show for it other than an empty pocket and broken dreams. With nowhere else to turn, Laura applies for a job with the Bureau of the Arcane’s Conservation Corps, a branch of the US government dedicated to repairing the Dynamism so that Mechomancy can thrive. There she meets the Skylark, a powerful mage with a mysterious past, who reluctantly takes Laura on as an apprentice.

As they’re sent off on their first mission together into the heart of the country’s oldest and most mysterious Blight, they discover the work of mages not encountered since the darkest period in America’s past, when Black mages were killed for their power—work that could threaten Laura’s and the Skylark’s lives, and everything they’ve worked for.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Sexual assault, physical violence, murder (on-page), sexual abuse (inferred/implied), parricide (on-page), death of parent (mother, off-page)

Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp [163]

November 6, 2022December 4, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads16 Comments

I’ll be spending my Sunday night continuing A Ghost in Shining Armor by Therese Beharrie. Sadly, I’m not connecting with this one at all and I’m struggling to get through it. I think this could be, in large part, due to my current reading mood and head space because nothing is really clicking with me at the moment and it’s very frustrating. I was kind of tempted to DNF this when I felt like I wasn’t making any progress, but since it’s an ARC, I’m going to do my best to get through it.

📖 SYNOPSIS

Once haunted…

Gemma Daniels has never been quite the “down to earth” woman her adoptive parents raised her to be. She even has a unique gift: she can see ghosts—and she likes helping them settle their unfinished business. But the hotter-than-hot stranger she impulsively kisses on a bet is not only a phantom, he’s determined to help her. And the only way Gemma can explain his presence is to pretend they’re a real-life couple…

Twice shy…

Levi Walker lived—and died—to save his sister. Now he’s got a second chance at life if he assists Gemma in reuniting with her own long-lost sibling… and then never sees Gemma again. But as he starts to enjoy her irrepressible personality, he’s finding it hard to abide by any rules at all…

Third time’s the unforgettable charm…

Gemma is thrilled to be getting to know her sister, but it causes a family rift she may not be able to heal. On top of that, she’s falling for a ghost with a dilemma. For Levi must decide what loyalty—and living—is truly all about. To fix their mistakes, Gemma and Levi must risk being real with themselves—and each other—if they’re ever to claim true love…

MidnighTS Book Tag (I)

November 6, 2022November 9, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads17 Comments

Hello, friends! I’m so excited to do this tag today because it’s based on Taylor Swift’s newest album drop: Midnights. I first saw Yolanda @Past Midnight post this book tag and since then, I’ve seen a few bloggers do it too—even some who haven’t blogged for a long time and who had a revival moment just for this tag! I’m going to keep this introduction short and just get into the good stuff. FYI, this is just for the first 13 tracks on the regular album but there’s a part two for the 3am tracks! ✨