Down the TBR Hole – 03

Dini @ dinipandareads20 Comments

We’re back with another episode of Down the TBR Hole! Last week I mentioned how I went up to 1,022 books and after removing a few, and then adding some more, this week I’m at a solid 1,020. Still a lot but at least it’s not more than last week, right?! 😂I didn’t do so well with removing books last week, but let’s see how we do with this week’s 10! I’m trying out a new format that I saw someone else do on their blog, which will make the whole process much quicker.

Down the TBR Hole is a weekly book meme created by the wonderful Lia @ Lost in a Story that attempts to organize our ridiculously long Goodreads TBR list by choosing either to keep or eliminate the books we’ve saved on there. Here’s how it works:

  • Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
  • Order on ascending date added.
  • Take the first 5 (or 10 (or even more!) if you’re feeling adventurous) books. Of course, if you do this weekly, you start where you left off the last time.
  • Read the synopses of the books
  • Decide: keep it or should it go

Verdict: Keep

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah. Seeing as how I only read my first Kristin Hannah books this year, I’m surprised to find that I added this one to my list in 2012! Both her books are candidates for my favorites of the year, so I’m quite excited to see if I feel the same about her others!

Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah. Wow, another Hannah I added in 2012! I’m keeping this on for the same reason as the above. The premise of this sounds eerily similar to Where the Forest Meets the Stars which I read (and loved!) earlier this year…

Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa. All I needed to read was this, and I knew I’d have to keep this because I love The Kite Runner: “A heart-wrenching, powerfully written novel that could do for Palestine what The Kite Runner did for Afghanistan.”

Verdict: Bye-Bye-Bye

Me & Emma by Elizabeth Flock. I’m actually really intrigued by the so-called ‘big twist’ that’s mentioned in the synopsis, but if I’m honest, I don’t know if I’ll ever pick this up…!

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway. This is a classic but I’m just not interested anymore?

Verdict: Keep

Loving by Henry Green. I think I added this book around the time that I was watching (and loving!) Downton Abbey because reading the synopsis gives me major downstairs-of-the-house DA vibes. I’m a little intimidated but I’m keen to try it.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. This has been on my bookshelf for so long and I know there is so much controversy around it but I think I definitely will read this book. I’m very curious to see what it’s like and what I’ll think of it. I’m terrified!

1984 by George Orwell. I’m honestly not even sure why I haven’t read this yet. I think I’m just worried I won’t like it even though I do usually enjoy the genre. I will read it though! *determined face*

Verdict: Bye-Bye-Bye

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe. It’s a classic but I’m just not that interested in it…

Heartsick (Archie Sheridan & Gretchen Lowell #1) by Chelsea Cain. It sounds interesting, especially since it’s got a female serial killer but I don’t think I’ll be reading it anytime soon…?

bluepanda

Damn, people… I’m really sucking at removing books from my TBR! I’m keeping 6/10 books from this week’s round and I’m really hoping that I’ll read the ones that I’ve decided to keep 😂

Have you read any of these books? How easy is it to cull your TBR list? Leave me a comment and let’s chat!

Goodreads Monday – 07 October

Dini @ dinipandareads12 Comments

It’s the first Monday of September and we’re back with another Goodreads Monday, a weekly meme started by @Lauren’s Page Turners. This meme 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.

This week’s book is Enchantée (Enchantée #1) by Gita Trelease. I added this to my list in January 2019. I remember seeing the cover for the first time and thinking WOW, must have! This book has a rating of 3.74 stars with almost 4k ratings and 1,183 reviews.

Paris in 1789 is a labyrinth of twisted streets, filled with beggars, thieves, revolutionaries—and magicians…

When smallpox kills her parents, Camille Durbonne must find a way to provide for her frail, naive sister while managing her volatile brother. Relying on petty magic—la magie ordinaire—Camille painstakingly transforms scraps of metal into money to buy the food and medicine they need. But when the coins won’t hold their shape and her brother disappears with the family’s savings, Camille must pursue a richer, more dangerous mark: the glittering court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

With dark magic forbidden by her mother, Camille transforms herself into the ‘Baroness de la Fontaine’ and is swept up into life at the Palace of Versailles, where aristocrats both fear and hunger for la magie. There, she gambles at cards, desperate to have enough to keep herself and her sister safe. Yet the longer she stays at court, the more difficult it becomes to reconcile her resentment of the nobles with the enchantments of Versailles. And when she returns to Paris, Camille meets a handsome young balloonist—who dares her to hope that love and liberty may both be possible.

But la magie has its costs. And when Camille loses control of her secrets, the game she’s playing turns deadly. Then revolution erupts, and she must choose—love or loyalty, democracy or aristocracy, freedom or magic—before Paris burns…

Why do I want to read it?

I’ve already mentioned it but honestly, this was 80% a cover buy for me 😂I have no shame! Not surprising that I didn’t know it was a series beforehand haha But I love historical fiction and I don’t often read ones that are also a mix of fantasy, so this combination already has me even more intrigued! The whole thing sounds like a proper magical adventure, with a little bit of mystery and I’m always on board for those kinds of stories. I’ve heard some pretty mixed reviews about it though and I have a feeling that it’s either love or hate, but I’m still looking forward to reading it.

Have you read Enchantée? Is it on your TBR too?
Leave me a comment and let’s chat!

Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp [25]

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!

I stayed up well into Sunday morning (the sun was out and the neighborhood coming to life) in order to finish reading The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata and then managed to catch a few hours of zzz’s before finishing getting up to finish The Bookish Life of Nina Hill.

Vanessa Mazur knows she’s doing the right thing. She shouldn’t feel bad for quitting. Being an assistant/housekeeper/fairy godmother to the top defensive end in the National Football Organization was always supposed to be temporary. She has plans and none of them include washing extra-large underwear longer than necessary.

But when Aiden Graves shows up at her door wanting her to come back, she’s beyond shocked. For two years, the man known as The Wall of Winnipeg couldn’t find it in him to tell her good morning or congratulate her on her birthday. Now? He’s asking for the unthinkable.
What do you say to the man who is used to getting everything he wants?

Meet Nina Hill: A young woman supremely confident in her own…shell. The only child of a single mother, Nina has her life just as she wants it: a job in a bookstore, a kick-butt trivia team, a world-class planner and a cat named Phil. If she sometimes suspects there might be more to life than reading, she just shrugs and picks up a new book.

When the father Nina never knew existed suddenly dies, leaving behind innumerable sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews, Nina is horrified. They all live close by! They’re all–or mostly all–excited to meet her! She’ll have to Speak. To. Strangers. It’s a disaster! And as if that wasn’t enough, Tom, her trivia nemesis, has turned out to be cute, funny, and deeply interested in getting to know her. Doesn’t he realize what a terrible idea that is?

Nina considers her options.
1. Completely change her name and appearance. (Too drastic, plus she likes her hair.)
2. Flee to a deserted island. (Hard pass, see: coffee).
3. Hide in a corner of her apartment and rock back and forth. (Already doing it.)

It’s time for Nina to come out of her comfortable shell, but she isn’t convinced real life could ever live up to fiction. It’s going to take a brand new family, a persistent suitor, and the combined effects of ice cream and trivia to make her turn her own fresh page.

What are you currently reading?

This last week was ridiculously busy. Mum was over and left Saturday morning at the butt crack of dawn and I drove her to the airport and then I came home and fell asleep for way too long. Oops? After that I went out to the cinema for the first time in ages and watched Abominable with my bestie. It was ADORABLE! I had no clue what it was about other than it looked cute and exactly what I needed! I loved that it was set in Asia (China) because it’s still so rare to see diverse mainstream movies, especially cartoons. DreamWorks definitely delivered all the cuteness and laughs that I was looking for and I left the theater feeling giggly and buoyant!

This week was (unsurprisingly) super busy with lots of family things because mum was around. We also had some old family friends visiting, which meant more late nights with dinners and socializing after work. It left me completely drained of energy at the end of every night, so I think I really needed a weekend doing as little as possible. I just realized that October is going to be a really busy month with next week being the only one I have to myself until the end of the month. I have some besties coming to visit me for a little over a week and I’m planning to take a few days off from work to spend time with them. After that the office is having the second round of annual meetings and then the month will be over. I’m finding it ridiculous how quickly time is flying!

Reading & Blogging Recap

It was a pretty meh week on the reading and blogging front. Most nights I would normally spend reading was spent out socializing and when we got home, it was spent chatting with mum. It’s moments like these that I miss living closer to my parents (even though only live a short flight over). As it usually is with mothers and daughters, it got a bit rocky sometimes (especially with mum staying over with me in my tiny flat), but it was nice having her around even if it meant I was reading less. The only books I managed to finish this week are the ones I mentioned above. I’m still going on with House of Salt and Sorrows but I haven’t read anymore since Friday night because it’s a lot spookier than I expected and now I’m alone at home and not sure if I can tuck my chicken away and continue reading at night? I’ll bring the book to work and see if I can finish it over my lunch breaks in the coming week!

Despite how hectic the week was I’m impressed that I still managed to post every day, even if it was only one post per day, this week though! Here’s a quick recap of what I posted, in case you missed it:

Top 5 Saturday: Books with the Scariest Covers!
Friday Favorites: Favorite Characters That Other People Hate!
First Lines Friday: 04 October
Summer Bucket List Book Tag!
September Monthly Wrap Up!
WWWWednesday: 02 October
Review: Two Weeks Notice by Whitney G
#TopTenTuesday: Books with Numbers in the Title!
Down the TBR Hole – 02
Goodreads Monday: 30 September

I’m leaving you with one of my favorite (if not my favorite) tracks from TS’s latest album, Lover. I’m still obsessed with this album and it’s kept me company in the background as I read all day today!

How has your week been? Hope everyone has/had a great weekend!
Let me know how you’re doing in the comments and let’s chat, friends 🙂

Top 5 Saturday: Books with the Scariest Covers!

Dini @ dinipandareads23 Comments

It’s time for another Top 5 Saturday, a weekly meme created by Mandy @ Devouring Books and this week’s topic is: books with the scariest covers. If you don’t know me by now I’m letting you in on a not-so-big-secret: I’m a BIG chicken. Like, all the ghosty-spooky things are really not my jam! So it should come as no surprise that I have few to no books with scary covers on my shelf. I actually just acquired one today and since figuring out what’s on the cover, I’ve been sufficiently freaked out 😂Just to be clear, I had to look up some scary covers for this one and I think it’s safe to say that I’ll be sleeping with the lights on tonight 🙃Also, I totes realize that what’s scary for me probably won’t be that scary for others; I’m really that much of a wuss! LOL (and of course a dog starts barking loudly and abruptly while I’m writing this post, shattering the complete silence of the evening. How am I getting to sleep tonight?!)

Rules for Vanishing by Katie Alice Marshall
I honestly didn’t figure out what was on this cover until I saw it about six times. When it clicked I just went: OMFG and closed the tab. Of course when I saw it at the bookstore today I went ahead and picked it up anyway — my excuse is that I’m challenging myself to read outside of my comfort zone this month? I’m really just a masochist who loves to torture herself by getting even less sleep than usual!

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
I haven’t read this book but I’ve seen the movie and all I can remember from it are the dogs that die and that absolutely broke my heart 😭This cover is sufficiently creepy though! Especially with that red background!?

Unwind (Unwind Dystology #1) by Neal Shusterman
The whole silhouette of the hand pressed up against a barrier is one of those ‘iconic’ creepy pictures that never fails to have goosebumps breaking out over my skin. It’s just CREEPY AF.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Graham-Greene and Jane Austen
I remember how shook I was the first time I saw this cover. I almost dropped the book in shock and immediately looked away. I came back to it after mustering some guts and found myself oddly repelled and fascinated by the zombie half of such an iconic image 😂

Night of the Living Dummy (Goosebumps #7) by R.L. Stine
Look, I know this is kids book, but can you tell me you don’t get at least a little bit freaked out when looking at that cover? I mean… DUMMIES. CREEPY DUMMIES. I honestly can’t believe I ever checked this book out of the library as a kid (let alone the countless other Goosebumps tales I devoured). Pretty sure that I already hated dolls/dummies by the time I picked this one up LOL

Alright, that’s it folks. I’m now off to read something HAPPY AND FLUFFY to get these images out of my head! We’re totally fine. What are some of the scariest covers you can think of? Are you a lover of things that go bump? Maybe come let me know in the comments and let’s chat? 😂

Friday Favorites: Favorite Characters that Other People Hate!

Dini @ dinipandareads9 Comments

This week’s answer is gonna be hella short because my Friday at work has been a helluva Friday and I’m not gonna be making it home until much later tonight due to some family stuff (all is fine, just have people visiting). I’ve been so exhausted over the last few days and I think I finally had it today when I basically started crying (literally) over I thought I had lost a design file I’d been working on all day when my application crashed? It was a little embarrassing 😅So I’m sorry in advance for the mediocre-ness of my post today!

It’s time for another Friday Favorites hosted by Kibby @ Something of the Book! This weekly meme is where you get to share a list of all your favourites based on the list of prompts on Kibby’s page. Sounds fun, right? This week’s prompt is: favorite characters that other people hate! Wow, I’m blanking really hard on this one. I cannot for the life of me recall one character that I love and other people hate because most of the time I’m in agreement with the people who hate these same characters? And I’m over here hating on the characters that other people love so… 🤷🏻‍♀️I’m going to really try to pick my brain here but I’ll probably only end up with one or two characters. Bear with me! LOL

The first two characters that come to mind after some digging in my brain are Marianne and Connell from Normal People by Sally Rooney. This book isn’t for everyone and I totally get why. Marianne and Connell are so bad at communicating that it sometimes made me want to throw my book at the wall out of frustration with how much they seriously sucked at it. That said, oh man, I totally loved both of their characters and felt so much for them in this story. What they thought, felt and experienced was so relatable to me and made me love their characters all the more. They’re completely imperfect and sometimes there are just no happy endings, but that’s life.

Another character that comes to mind is Penny Lee from Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi. I’ve heard many people say how they found her character annoying and immature, and it lost the book points because they couldn’t get into it because of her. Honestly? I agreed at the start but Penny very quickly grew on me because there was so much more behind her attitude and her actions that really made me feel for her. She’s a complex character, especially because of her upbringing and particularly her mother, and she suffers from a lot of insecurities and anxiety which I can absolutely relate to. I loved Penny by the end of the book!

What character do you love that others hate?
Please come tell me in the comments below and let’s chat!

First Lines Friday – 27 September

Dini @ dinipandareads14 Comments

Yayaya, HAPPY FRIYAY, book lovers and friends 😍We’re back with another First Lines Friday! This is 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:

Candlelight reflected off the silver anchor etched onto my sister’s necklace. It was an ugly piece of jewelry and something Eulalie would never have picked out for herself. She loved simple strands of gold, extravagant collars of diamonds. Not…that.

Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?

Okay, okay, calm yourself Loki, mate...

*drumroll please!*

The book is: House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

Annaleigh lives a sheltered life at Highmoor, a manor by the sea, with her sisters, their father, and stepmother. Once they were twelve, but loneliness fills the grand halls now that four of the girls’ lives have been cut short. Each death was more tragic than the last—the plague, a plummeting fall, a drowning, a slippery plunge—and there are whispers throughout the surrounding villages that the family is cursed by the gods.

Disturbed by a series of ghostly visions, Annaleigh becomes increasingly suspicious that the deaths were no accidents. Her sisters have been sneaking out every night to attend glittering balls, dancing until dawn in silk gowns and shimmering slippers, and Annaleigh isn’t sure whether to try to stop them or to join their forbidden trysts. Because who—or what—are they really dancing with?

When Annaleigh’s involvement with a mysterious stranger who has secrets of his own intensifies, it’s a race to unravel the darkness that has fallen over her family—before it claims her next.

Have you read House of Salt and Sorrows or is it on your TBR?
Leave me a comment and let’s chat 🙂

Summer Bucket List Book Tag!

Dini @ dinipandareads16 Comments

The very lovely Jen @ Nen & Jen tagged me ages ago for the Summer Bucket List book tag (ages back)! I know for the majority of you summer is already over, some may even be highly anticipating the coming summer (in the southern hemisphere), and since I’m in the tropics, I live in perpetual summer. Trust me, it’s not as great as it sounds when it’s 1000% hot every damn day 🥵 But I digress… Thanks for the tag, Jen! Be sure to check out her answers over on their blog because she is awesome! I only hope my choices will be half as fun as hers! Without further ado… Let’s get back to summer 😊

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
This book is set on an island and the beaches, cliffs and ocean play a big role in the character’s upbringing. Although I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing style (fragmented sentences), I was able to look past that and ended up really enjoying the story. It took me by surprise and I ended up bawling lol

Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J Maas
Caleana is such a fierce and bad ass character and although she had two fiery romances in this series, the one I’m thinking about is definitely between her and Rowan. The build up and the explosion of feelings between them was 🔥!

Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World #1) by Rebecca Roanhorse
This is one of those underrated SFF books in my opinion. The characters do go on somewhat of a journey to solve a mystery that’s plaguing this incredible Native American folklore inspired dystopian world. Maggie, while hard to like at first, really grew on me. She’s such a bad ass! And I loved Kai 💚

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Ugh, this story y’all! I still don’t have the words for how much I loved Evelyn Hugo’s story. I was swept away by the story of this ruthless and brilliant woman in Hollywood from the 50s – 80s; and of course, the story of her seven husbands and how she fought her way to the top. I fell in love with her!

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett
You’ve heard me say it once and I’ll say it again: this book was nothing like I expected in the best way possible. I picked this up on a whim after finishing SJTR and I was so glad I started it on a weekend because the next thing I knew, it was Sunday and my face was blotchy after the unexpected tears I shed reading this incredible story. So damn good, peoples. So damn good!

The Simple Wild (Wild #1) by K A Tucker
Sign me up for a sky cowboy because I’m pretty sure I fell just as much in love with Jonah’s character as Calla did herself. This covered some of my favorite tropes in romance: enemies to sort-of friends to lovers and it did not disappoint! And all of it was set against the Alaskan wild, a place that I’ve developed a very weird fascination with over the years. Theirs was a sweet romance between city girl and ‘country’ boy and I was here for it!

Nevernight (Nevernight Chronicle #1) by Jay Kristoff
What’s more refreshing than a story set against a Hogwarts for assassins? 😂 Okay no, but honestly, I know this is probably a weird pick for this category, but this book is usually filled with things that I don’t enjoy (an incredible amount of blood, guts and gore) but wow, did it blow me away! It’s safe to say that this series has become one of my new favorites and I was completely wowed by it.

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
It’s not just one character in priory that overcomes obstacles, it’s basically all of them. I don’t think I’ve read a book where shit so consistently hits the fan for such a long duration 😂I mean, if you think of something that could possibly go wrong, chances are it will for these characters. I really felt for them but in the end, they grew in very satisfying ways to conquer (all) the obstacles in their way.

Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks
This book made me SO HUNGRY. Although their main mission was to get Josie talking to his long-time crush, Deja’s personal mission was to eat her way through the Disney of pumpkin patches and it’s safe to say I was constantly drooling while they ate all the delicious festive fall foods. DELICIOUS!

Sorry I’m Late I Didn’t Want to Come… by Jessica Pan
Jessica Pan is a (sh)introvert (a shy introvert) who is in the throes of something that looks like a quarter-life crisis, when she decides to take the leap into saying “YES” to all the things she’d normally be terrified to do. I identified so much with Pan and seeing her face these challenges before her despite being utterly terrified was so inspiring! I read this book at a time when I faced a big career challenge and I had just finished a chapter where she basically head the same experience as me but on a much larger scale, and I charged ahead with her in mind. This was a hilarious and inspiring book that is definitely going on my forever shelf!

And there you have it, folks! I’m feeling completely lazy right now (it’s been a long night with sangria!) so I’m going to TAG EVERYONE! If this sounds like something you want to do, don’t forget to link back to me so I can check out your answers!

September Monthly Wrap Up!

Dini @ dinipandareads16 Comments

I still can’t believe that September is already over! This year is going by way too quickly and I’m wondering if the rest of 2019 is going to speed by in the exact same way? September was a pretty mediocre reading month for me. I think I started off pretty strong but once I tucked into Priory of the Orange Tree, my reads slowed down considerably. I still managed to read 15 books though, so it wasn’t all bad! I am now sitting at 156/90 reads (this number still shocks me; being part of the book community has really increased my reading this year)!


⁍ Pumpkinheads (review)
⁍ Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) (review)
⁍ Godsgrave (The Nevernight Chronicle #2) (review)
⁍ The Hating Game (review coming)


⁍ Two Weeks Notice (review)


⁍ The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air #1) (review)
⁍ The Priory of the Orange Tree (review coming)


⁍ A Different Time (TheWriteReads Blog Tour Review)
⁍ Breaking Up Is Hard To Do… But You Could’ve Done Better (review)
⁍ The Ingredients of Us (review)
⁍ The Perfect Moment (review coming)
⁍ On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness (Wingfeather Saga #1) (review coming)


⁍ Fake Date (Dating #2) (review)
⁍ The Stopover (The Miles High Club #1) (review)


⁍ The Love Solution (review)

My favorites out of all of these were Nevernight and Godsgrave. After finishing Nevernight (my mind was totally blown) at the start of the month, I just couldn’t resist reading the sequel as soon as possible. Kristoff is a man who does not hold back on screwing with your feelings. After the ending of Godsgrave, I’m so excited but equally terrified of finishing this series. But I know I won’t be able to resist Darkdawn so it’s gonna be happening this October!

I was planning to read a lot more sequels for Sequel September but also a few more standalone’s for Standalone September (focusing on hyped standalone’s) but both of these endeavors ended up failing pretty badly. I think I can only count one book towards the former and two books towards the latter. I think I’m going to give challenges a break for now? I’m obviously not very good at them 😂

Last time I listed a full recap of all the posts that I did for the month, but since I now have a more organized menu bar, you can find all my weekly memes, challenges, tags and thoughts in the drop down menus! I still have to fix some things up, but I think I’ve done the sorting right and hopefully all my posts will continue to be updated each time I make them! For now, I’ve still listed the other reviews that I did this month (the reviews for this months’ reads are above in the recap), just so it’s easier for you to read them, in case you missed out! I’m still trying to tweak how I do my wrap up posts–I’m sure you’ll notice that from the start they’re all quite different–but I think I’m happy with this? I don’t want to make it too long and boring for people to read! Any tips or comments? Please let me know!

Reviews

⁍ eARC Review: The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

⁍ Review: Matchmaking for Beginners by Maddie Dawson
⁍ Review: One Day in December by Josie Silver
⁍ Review: Vicious (Villains #1) by V.E. Schwab
⁍ Review: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
⁍ Review: Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
⁍ Review: The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan
⁍ Review: The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker

I hope you all had a great reading month in September and I hope that October continues to be awesome for all of us! What was your favorite read this month? Come let me know in the comments & let’s chat!

#WWWWednesday: 02 October

Dini @ dinipandareads18 Comments

It’s time for another 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?

What did you read last?

🎉I FINALLY FINISHED PRIORY OF THE ORANGE TREE LAST WEEK! 🎉

Excuse the all caps because I was SO excited that I managed to finish that hunk of a tome before the end of September. I was so certain that I’d be reading it straight through to October. I still haven’t written my review for it because I’m still not really sure how I feel about it. I enjoyed reading it and when I had it in my hands I would be speeding(ish) through the pages; but when I put it down I didn’t feel compelled to pick it back up again. I knew that I couldn’t have set it down to just read any other book too as I’d probably never come back to it 😂But I still enjoyed it. I think? Anyway, my review will hopefully be coming soon! I binged The Perfect Moment (review coming soon) and Two Weeks Notice (my review for Two Weeks Notice). on Friday night/Saturday morning (yes, both in one night lol) because my soul was craving something super light and fluffy after Priory, and I had no regrets staying up all night reading!

What are you currently reading?

I was feeling restless not knowing what I wanted to read after binging on two contemporary romances after finishing Priory last week, but I ended up choosing The Bookish Life of Nina Hill on a whim the other day and I’ve been speeding through it! The style is not at all what I expected and I wasn’t sure how I felt about Nina at the start, but the style and characters have grown on me. There’s a lot of quirkiness going on in this book and I’m actually really here for it! I’ve laughed aloud countless times since I started and it’s giving me some lightness that I need right now.

What will you read next?

Okay y’all, I have TONS of books outside of my ‘possibility pile’ that I need to get to this October before even turning to look at the ones I want to read! These definitely fall in the ‘must read’ category because they’re eARCs. I’m gonna give priority to several eARCs that are well overdue (I’m sorry pls don’t judge me) and ones whose pub dates are very quickly approaching! I’m actually pretty annoyed at myself for thinking the Shadow Frost pub date was later this month when it was actually yesterday! 🤦🏻‍♀️Epic fail, Dini! I’ve had this e-ARC for a while so I’m annoyed at my ability to push things off until they’re overdue. Someone tell me, why isn’t this a skill we actually need in life?! Lol

What are you currently reading? How’s your week going?
Leave me a comment and let’s chat 🙂

Two Weeks Notice by Whitney G. – #BookReview

Dini @ dinipandareads13 Comments

Goodreads: Two Weeks Notice
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Panda Rating:

To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing this letter to formally announce my resignation from Parker International (& the arrogant, condescending CEO) effective two weeks from today.
This was a VERY EASY decision to make, as the past two years have been utterly miserable. I wish his next executive assistant all the luck in the world (she’ll need it) and if my boss should need me to do anything over the next two weeks, kindly tell him that he can do it [his] goddamn self…
Sincerely (Not Really),
Tara Lauren

That’s the version of my two weeks’ notice I should’ve sent to my boss, because the more professional version – the one where I said I was “grateful for all the opportunities,” and “honored by all the rewarding experiences” over the years? That letter was rejected with his sexy, trademark smirk and an “I highly suggest you read the fine print of your contract…”
So, I did.
And now I’ve realized that unless I fake my death, poison him, or find a way to renegotiate my impossible contract, I’m stuck working under one of the cockiest and most ruthless bosses in New York. Then again, I thought that was the case until he called me late last night with an emergency proposition…

Oh hello steamy, slow-burn office romance! I came across Two Weeks Notice on Katie @ inbetweenspines’ book blog and her review had me wanting to pick this up right away because I was definitely in the mood for it. And before you think you know what the emergency proposition is, well, you’re probably only partially right because it’s really only half-ish of the story! 😂

Even though the old CEO gets with the intern/EA/staff trope is pretty well used in romances, I still enjoy it when it’s done well, and I thought this was one of them! The story is told in alternating perspectives between Tara and Preston, although Tara’s POV gets more time than Preston’s. Usually I find it annoying when the chapters don’t alternate evenly, but I enjoyed Tara’s chapters a lot more since Preston’s was pretty typical of the CEO in these types of romances. I will say that I was curious to know more about him though. While I wasn’t impressed by either of their characters at the start of the book, both really grew on me. Tara was a boss ass bitch who took shit from no one and I honestly loved how she whipped the whole office into shape, and although it takes her a while to find a way, I’m glad that continued to fight for what she wanted in her career without letting a man stop her!

Preston continued to be that asshole CEO throughout the story, but I loved how we slowly found out about all the things he’d done for Tara. It was very sweet and had me swooning (just a little bit). Although sometimes I found the things Preston would say to Tara a lottle OTT, I’m glad that it wasn’t with every single interaction. There was a twist to this office romance that I didn’t expect and I thought it was a nice detail that allowed for Preston’s softer side to shine through even more. What did disappoint me however was that Preston’s history was hinted at so often and yet, there was never any satisfactory explanation as to why all of this happened. It was a little underwhelming and I wish that more attention was given to it, especially if it could’ve explained his character more.

Now let’s talk about the heat. This was pretty steamy and explicit. The chemistry between these two characters was F-I-R-E! 🔥I mean, wow. I’m used to these types of romances leading to the two characters falling into bed with each other as quickly as possible, so it was surprising that nothing more than a little something happened between them for a good majority of the story! The slow burn of the romance was done so well. The author definitely knows how to keep her readers on the edge of their seats with anticipation and all that damn angst! And the wait was so worth it.

Overall, I really enjoyed this read. I devoured it in less than a night (lol) because I just couldn’t put it down (but I’m also the worst kind of insomniac) and I’m glad that I read it. I’ve read a few of Whitney G.‘s books now and I like the balance she strikes in her stories between character and plot development and steaminess, so I’m definitely looking forward to reading more of her books!

Have you read Two Weeks Notice? What do you think of this trope?
Let me know in the comments and let’s chat!