Mini Review: Runaway Love by Melanie Harlow

Dini @ dinipandareads4 Comments

Runaway Love (Cherry Tree Harbor #1)
Pub Date: 4 May 2023
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Panda Rating:

(3.5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

Yes, I’m a single dad who needs a nanny for the summer.

But hire the stranded runaway bride who shows up on my doorstep in a wedding gown with no references, no skills, and no experience?

No one is that desperate.

Except within twenty-four hours, down-on-her-luck Veronica Sutton manages to charm my kids, my family, and half the population of Cherry Tree Harbor into believing she’s perfect for the job.

And for me.

It’s not that I can’t see the appeal–those baby blue eyes? The endless legs? That mouth made for trouble? But I’ve got enough on my plate, raising two kids on my own and keeping the family business alive. I don’t have the time or the inclination to fall for an outspoken city girl.

So I should have kept my hands to myself.

Holding her in my arms was a big mistake. Even worse? Spending the night together. She ignites a possessive fire in me that I’m finding hard to snuff out.

But the most unforgivable? Growing attached to the sound of her laugh, the scent of her skin, and the way her body wraps around mine in the dark.

At the end of the summer, she’ll be gone.
And if I’m not careful, she might run away with my heart.

TL;DR: This book was the perfect “no think” read that delivered what I wanted when I picked it up. I really enjoy Melanie Harlow’s writing and this was an easy, relaxing and enjoyable read to breeze through. This single dad + nanny romance was admittedly a little too instalove for me and I wanted a bit more relationship development between Veronica and Austin before they jump into bed together but I did like their chemistry! Overall, this wasn’t my favourite but seeing as how I really enjoy Harlow’s writing, I’m definitely eager to pick up more books by her soon.

Read More »

#FirstLinesFriday: 19 May 2023

Dini @ dinipandareads7 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:

“There were tales that only the island knew. Ones that had never been told. I knew, because I was one of them.”

Read More »

Birthstone Book Covers: May 2023 Edition!

Dini @ dinipandareads13 Comments

Hello friends, I’m back today with another month’s edition for The Birthstone Book Covers series created by one of my favourites, Leslie. 💜 She began this at the start of 2022 and it was born out of her curiosity about birthstone colours. It’s fun to show different book covers/titles corresponding to that month’s birthstone. 🙂

Read More »

#TopTenTuesday: Things That Stop Me From Reading…

Dini @ dinipandareads13 Comments

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

This week’s topic is Things Getting in the Way of Reading (what’s taking up your time right now?) (lovingly stolen from A Cocoon of Books during freebie week)

Read More »

Book Review: Whiteout by Adriana Anders

Dini @ dinipandareads8 Comments

Whiteout (Survival Instincts #1)
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Pub Date: 28 January 2020
Genre: Romantic Suspense

Panda Rating:

(4 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

Angel Smith is finally ready to leave Antarctica for a second chance at life. But on what was meant to be her last day, the remote research station she’s been calling home is attacked. Hunted and scared, she and irritatingly gorgeous glaciologist Ford Cooper barely make it out with their lives…only to realize that in a place this remote, there’s nowhere left to run.

Isolated with no power, no way to contact the outside world, and a madman at their heels, Angel and Ford must fight to survive in the most inhospitable—and beautiful—place on earth. But what starts as a partnership born of necessity quickly turns into an urgent connection that burns bright and hot. They both know there is little chance of making it out alive, and yet they are determined to survive against the odds—and possibly, the world.

TL;DR: I’m glad I finally read Whiteout. I enjoyed Anders’ writing style and thought this delivered a well-balanced romantic suspense story set in a cruel and unforgiving frozen landscape. Anders did a great job of creating a sinister atmosphere and I had no clue how these two would make it out of this seemingly hopeless situation. You’d think a book that’s set in such a never-changing landscape with the characters going through the same thing daily for weeks would be boring but I loved how it gave time for the characters to grow together and for the romance to bloom. It was definitely a little instalove if you think about it too hard but I’m a sucker for the grumpy/sunshine dynamic and their chemistry was great, and the forced proximity made it even better! The ending sets things up nicely for the second book in this series and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Read More »

Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp [189]

Dini @ dinipandareads4 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!

Today I’m spending a very minuscule part of my Sunday in bed reading How to Win a Breakup by Farah Heron.

I’ve been meaning to read this author’s books for a while and I have two or three of her YA contemporary romances on my TBR. I started this quite a while back but since I wasn’t sure what to pick up next, I decided to go back to this and hopefully, I’ll finish it soon!

Read More »

BBNYA Tour Review: Sunbolt by Intisar Khanani

Dini @ dinipandareads9 Comments

Happy Saturday, friends! Today I’m excited to share my review for Sunbolt by Intisar Khanani, the third finalist of the 2022 BBNYA! I read this book as part of the BBNYA Finalist Blog Tour hosted by The Write Reads.

Special thanks to the tour organisers for having me on tour and to the author for providing a digital copy of the book in exchange for an honest review!

About BBNYA

BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists and one overall winner.  If you are an author and wish to learn more about the BBNYA competition, you can visit the official website or Twitter. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.

Subolt (Sunbolt Chronicles #1)
Publisher: Purple Monkey Press
Publication Date: 17 June 2013
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Panda Rating:

(4 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

The winding streets and narrow alleys of Karolene hide many secrets, and Hitomi is one of them. Orphaned at a young age, Hitomi has learned to hide her magical aptitude and who her parents really were. Most of all, she must conceal her role in the Shadow League, an underground movement working to undermine the powerful and corrupt Arch Mage Wilhelm Blackflame.

When the League gets word that Blackflame intends to detain—and execute—a leading political family, Hitomi volunteers to help the family escape. But there are more secrets at play than Hitomi’s, and much worse fates than execution. When Hitomi finds herself captured along with her charges, it will take everything she can summon to escape with her life.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Death of parent, mild xenophobia, violence, blood, imprisonment, torture

📚 BUY A COPY

TL;DR: This is my first book by Khanani and I can see why so many of my blogger friends love her writing and her books. There was so much to enjoy about this novella and the author does a good job of teasing elements of a world that I’m hoping will be further expanded in the next book. The characters are a rich mix of different cultures and I also enjoyed the paranormal fantasy setting. We’ve got the typical vampires, werewolves and shapeshifters, but also other supernaturals that I’ve not read about before, combined with an interesting magic system that I’m looking forward to understanding more of. Overall, I thought this was an intense, action-packed novella that excited me for the next book in this series and I want to read it ASAP!

Read More »

#FirstLinesFriday: 12 May 2023

Dini @ dinipandareads5 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:

“Marvelous.
The lucky kids got called that. Praise like honey drizzled on biscuits. But Ella’s family didn’t believe in gassing you up. Clothes ironed? Make your bed? Clean your plate? And most importantly, did you mind your business so nobody was minding you?”

Read More »

Book Review: Don’t Go Baking My Heart by N.G. Peltier

Dini @ dinipandareads10 Comments

Don’t Go Baking My Heart (Island Bites #2)
Publisher: Piatkus
Pub Date: 21 June 2022
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Panda Rating:

(4 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

Devon King has a plan. An actual with bullet points and everything plan for his life. When he’s called out at work for never participating in any of the office activities he feels compelled to take part in the upcoming office bake off competition to prove he’s a team player, as making partner at his architectural design firm is top on his list of career goals. Only problem, he doesn’t know anything about baking. Failure is not an option so when his first choice for help is unavailable, desperate times lead him to ask Reba Johnson, assistant pastry chef to his brother’s girlfriend.

Reba’s been having fun texting the super serious Devon ridiculous cat pictures, for an entire month, but she’s surprised when he asks for her help with a potential baking crisis, since their conversations have been one sided until now. When her friends make a bet that even she can’t get the stoic Devon to fall for her charms, Reba sets out to prove them wrong and get Devon to have some fun.

As the competition draws closer, their sessions get hotter with a one night stand turning into two nights then three…Reba doesn’t fit into Devon’s carefully crafted life and as he tries to focus on winning the company contest, he discovers that sweet treats aren’t the only thing baking in the kitchen, and all his perfect plans are crumbling.

TL;DR: Don’t Go Baking My Heart took a minute for me to get into but I ended up really enjoying it. This was in large part due to Reba and her amazingness—talk about girl crush material because her fun-shine personality, wit and sass were literally *everything!* I can’t lie and say that I wasn’t worried Devon wouldn’t grow because that stick was shoved so far up his behind that I didn’t think anyone could pull it out but I shouldn’t have underestimated Reba! Her charm chipped away at his cold and stiff demeanour and brought out a surprisingly charming, funny, and flirty guy. They’re the definition of opposites attract and I loved their slow-burn romance!

Read More »