Summer Strawberries at Swallowtail Bay Blog Tour Review

June 27, 2020June 26, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads6 Comments

I’m back with another blog tour and this time it’s for Summer Strawberries at Swallowtail Bay by Katie Ginger. Thanks to Rachel @ Rachel’s Random Resources for organising this blog tour and to HQ Digital and the author for providing the e-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: Summer Strawberries at Swallowtail Bay
Publisher: HQ Digital
Release Date: 24 June 2020
Genre: Women’s Fiction, Romance
Panda Rating:

(3.75 rounded up)

Grab your strawberries and cream and get ready to return to the beautiful Swallowtail Bay! Summer is in full swing and the locals are getting excited for the launch of the Swallowtail Bay strawberry food festival. But will all run smoothly when festival organiser Hetty’s heart is torn between lord of the manor John Thornhill and successful bakery owner Ben?

Buy: Amazon (UK) | Amazon (US)

The Crow Rider Review and Favourite Quotes

June 26, 2020June 29, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads7 Comments

Thanks to NetGalley, Sourcefire Books and Kalyn Josephson for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Crow Rider (The Storm Crow #2)
Publisher: Sourcefire Books
Release date: 01 July 2020
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Panda Rating:

Princess Thia, her allies, and her crow, Res, are planning a rebellion to defeat Queen Razel and Illucia once and for all. Thia must convince the neighboring kingdoms to come to her aid, and Res’s show of strength is the only thing that can help her.

But so many obstacles stand in her way. Res excels at his training, until he loses control of his magic, harming Thia in the process. She is also pursued by Prince Ericen, heir to the Illucian throne and the one person she can’t trust but can’t seem to stay away from.

As the rebel group prepares for war, Res’s magic grows more unstable. Thia has to decide if she can rely on herself and their bond enough to lead the rebellion and become the crow rider she was meant to be.

Note: The quotes below are taken from an advanced/unfinished copy and are subject to change in the final version.

Review: The Storm Crow by Kalyn Josephson

June 20, 2020June 19, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads19 Comments

Goodreads: The Storm Crow (The Storm Crow #1)
Published: 15 July 2019
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Panda Rating:

In the tropical kingdom of Rhodaire, magical, elemental Crows are part of every aspect of life…until the Illucian empire invades, destroying everything.

That terrible night has thrown Princess Anthia into a deep depression. Her sister Caliza is busy running the kingdom after their mother’s death, but all Thia can do is think of all she has lost.

But when Caliza is forced to agree to a marriage between Thia and the crown prince of Illucia, Thia is finally spurred into action. And after stumbling upon a hidden Crow egg in the rubble of a rookery, she and her sister devise a dangerous plan to hatch the egg in secret and get back what was taken from them.

Book Spotlight: Crossing in Time by D.L. Orton

June 18, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads5 Comments

Hi everyone, I’ve joined the @WriteReads gang on another tour and this time it’s for: Crossing in Time by D.L. Orton! Today I’ll be sharing a spotlight of the book. Huge thanks goes to Dave for organising these tours. Don’t forget to check out the other bloggers on tour here.

Goodreads: Crossing in Time (Between Two Evils #1)
Publication Date: 21 April 2015
Publisher: Rocky Mountain Press
Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Romance

The past isn’t over, it’s an opening. The future isn’t hidden, it’s a trap. If she ever wants to see him again, she’ll have to take the risk.

Fall into this “Funny, Romantic & Harrowing” (Publishers Weekly Starred Review) dystopian love story and prepare to encounter a finicky time machine, a mysterious seashell, and a very clever dog (some sex, some swearing, some violence, but no vampires and absolutely NO ditzes!)

When offered a one-way trip to the past, Isabel sacrifices everything for a chance to change the rapidly deteriorating present–and see her murdered lover one last time. When she arrives twenty years in the past, buck naked and mortally wounded, she has 24 hours to convince a stunned but enraptured nineteen-year-old to change their future. Definitely easier said than done, as success means losing him to a brainy, smart-mouthed bombshell (her younger self), and that’s a heart breaker, save the world or not.

This offbeat tale is about falling madly in love when one is too cynical for such things, letting go of pessimism when it’s the last life jacket on a sinking ship, and racing against the clock when one doesn’t have the proper footwear. It’s a coming-of-age story for old fogeys, a how-to-make-love guide for diehard celibates, and a laugh-out-loud tragedy with a hopeful twist.

ARC Review + Favourite Quotes: Royal Decoy by Heather Frost

June 17, 2020April 19, 2023 Dini @ dinipandareads10 Comments

Special thanks to the author for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Royal Decoy (Fate of Eyrinthia #1)
Release date: 18 June 2020
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy, Romance, Romantasy

Panda Rating:

A SERVANT blackmailed into becoming a princess’s decoy.
A BODYGUARD determined to keep her alive.
A PRINCE forced to execute his father’s brutal laws.
A PRISONER used to keep him compliant.
A WORLD on the brink of war.

In one horrible night, Clare goes from kitchen maid to royal decoy. She has three months to become the princess’s perfect double so she can ensure her betrothal to an enemy prince. Desperate to survive, Clare throws herself into self-defense training, taught by her distractingly attractive bodyguard. The danger increases when a ruthless assassin begins stalking her, intent on ending the tenuous peace.

Across the northern mountains, Prince Grayson is his father’s ultimate weapon. He carries out the king’s harsh orders because the one person he cares about is his father’s prisoner. Grayson’s silent obedience is tested when his father plans to exploit the marriage alliance between two of their greatest enemies. If Grayson submits, the blood of thousands will spill. If he resists, the girl who means everything to him will die.

The fate of Eyrinthia hangs in the balance. Some want peace. Some want war. All will be thrown into chaos.

Amazon (US)

The Kinder Poison Review and Favourite Quotes

June 12, 2020July 1, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads29 Comments

Thanks to NetGalley, Razorbill and author Natalie Mae for providing the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Kinder Poison (The Kinder Poison #1)
Publisher: Razorbill
Release date: 16 June 2020
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Panda Rating:

Perfect for fans of Victoria Aveyard and Holly Black, this enthralling fantasy adventure follows a teenage girl chosen to be the human sacrifice in a deadly game between three heirs who will do anything for the crown.

Zahru has long dreamed of leaving the kingdom of Orkena and having the kinds of adventures she’s only ever heard about in stories. But as a lowly Whisperer, her power to commune with animals means that her place is serving in the royal stables until the day her magic runs dry.

All that changes when the ailing ruler invokes the Crossing: a death-defying race across the desert, in which the first of his heirs to finish—and take the life of a human sacrifice at the journey’s end—will ascend to the throne and be granted unparalleled abilities.

With all of the kingdom abuzz, Zahru leaps at the chance to change her fate if just for a night by sneaking into the palace for a taste of the revelry. But the minor indiscretion turns into a deadly mistake when she gets caught up in a feud between the heirs and is forced to become the Crossing’s human sacrifice. Zahru is left with only one hope for survival: somehow figuring out how to overcome the most dangerous people in the world.

Amazon (US) | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Kobo | Google Books

Note: The quotes below are taken from an advanced/unfinished copy and are subject to change in the final version.

“All good stories start with bad decisions”

Half Life Blog Tour: Review and Favourite Quotes

June 11, 2020June 11, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads10 Comments

Hi, friends! I’m so excited to be back with another The Fantastic Flying Book Club tour post today for Half Life by Lillian Clark! Huge thanks to the FFBC for organising these amazing tours and to the authors for making the eARCs available to us.

Be sure to click on the banner above to see the other bloggers on tour! 😊

Half Life
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Release date: 09 June 2020
Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction

Panda Rating:

An overachiever enrolls in an experimental clone study to prove that two (of her own) heads are better than one in this fast-paced, near-future adventure that’s Black Mirror meets Becky Albertalli.

There aren’t enough hours in the day for Lucille–perfectionist, overachiever–to do everything she has to do, and there certainly aren’t enough hours to hang out with friends, fall in love, get in trouble–all the teenage things she knows she should want to be doing instead of preparing for a flawless future. So when she sees an ad for Life2: Do more. Be more, she’s intrigued.

The company is looking for beta testers to enroll in an experimental clone program, and in the aftermath of a series of disappointments, Lucille is feeling reckless enough to jump in. At first, it’s perfect: her clone, Lucy, is exactly what she needed to make her life manageable and have time for a social life. But it doesn’t take long for Lucy to become more Lucy and less Lucille, and Lucille is forced to stop looking at Lucy as a reflection and start seeing her as a window–a glimpse at someone else living her own life, but better. Lucy does what she really wants to, not what she thinks she should want to, and Lucille is left wondering how much she was even a part of the perfect life she’d constructed for herself. Lucille wanted Lucy to help her relationships with everyone else, but how can she do that without first rectifying her relationship with herself?

Note: The quotes below are taken from an advanced/unfinished copy and are subject to change in the final version.

The Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones Review and Favourite Quotes

June 10, 2020July 1, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads20 Comments

Thanks to NetGalley, Wattpad Books and author Daven McQueen for providing the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones
Publisher: Wattpad Books
Release date: 16 June 2020
Genre: Young Adult Historical Fiction

Panda Rating:

It’s the summer of 1955. For Ethan Harper, a biracial kid raised mostly by his white father, race has always been a distant conversation. When he’s sent to spend the summer with his aunt and uncle in small-town Alabama, his Blackness is suddenly front and center, and no one is shy about making it known he’s not welcome there. Except for Juniper Jones. The town’s resident oddball and free spirit, she’s everything the townspeople aren’t―open, kind, and full of acceptance.

Armed with two bikes and an unlimited supply of root beer floats, Ethan and Juniper set out to find their place in a town that’s bent on rejecting them. As Ethan is confronted for the first time by what it means to be Black in America, Juniper tries to help him see the beauty in even the ugliest reality, and that even the darkest days can give rise to an invincible summer.

Amazon (US) | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Kobo | IndieBound

Note: The quotes below are taken from an advanced/unfinished copy and are subject to change in the final version.

“It is also, first and foremost, a story about race. It’s a story about the struggle that it was and is to be black in America. And because that is a hard thing, this story deals heavily with racism in the attitudes and languages of certain characters.”

Review: Promises Forged (Venators #2) by Devri Walls Blog Tour

June 5, 2020June 7, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads8 Comments

Hey, hey friends! I’m so excited to be back for another @WriteReads blog tour for book two of the Venators series: Promises Forged. This was such a fun and fast-paced read and I can’t wait to share my review with all of you 😍 Be sure to check out all the other bloggers participating in this tour over here. You can also read my review for book one here.

Super big thanks to Dave for organising these tours and to the author, Devri Walls, for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review! Let’s get to it…

Goodreads: Promises Forged (Venators #2)
Published: 30 April 2019
Genre: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy, Supernatural
Panda Rating:

It has been mere days in the world of Eon, where Rune Jenkins, her twin brother Ryker, and their friend Grey have been trapped, fighting for their lives. After discovering the truth of their ancestry, the three are far from home, and far from anything resembling their mundane lives of the past. While Ryker is still held captive by the eerily beautiful Zio and her goblins, Grey falls into the clutches of Feena, the Fae queen. She begins to drain his soul bit by bit to feed her dark underground garden, and Grey has no hope of escaping on his own.

It is now up to Rune to save Grey, as his precious time slips away inexorably. But the Council has denied her permission to embark on a rescue mission, until she can harness her Venator gifts and prove herself capable of venturing into the Fae queen’s territory. As Rune discovers that promises in Eon are forged with life-or-death consequences, she realizes that she must act quickly, or else be swallowed and Grey along with her by the dangers of Eon

Book Spotlight: Catalyst by Tracy Richardson

May 31, 2020May 31, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads2 Comments

Hi everyone, I’ve joined the @WriteReads gang on another blog tour and this time it’s for: Catalyst! Today I’ll be doing a spotlight and sharing some mini-excerpts from the book. Super huge thanks goes to Dave for organising these tours and thanks to the author for providing a free copy. Don’t forget to check out the other bloggers on tour here.

Goodreads: Catalyst (The Catalysts #2)
Publication Date: 02 June 2020
Publisher: Brown Books Publishing Group
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Supernatural

Marcie Horton has a sixth sense. Not in the “I see dead people” way, but . . . well, maybe a little. She feels a sort of knowing about certain things that can’t be explained—an intuition that goes beyond the normal. Then there was that one summer four years ago, when she connected with a long-departed spirit . . . But nothing that incredible has happened to Marcie since.

This summer, Marcie is spending time working at Angel Mounds, the archeological dig her mother heads, along with her brother, Eric, and his girlfriend, Renee. The dig is the site of an ancient indigenous civilization, and things immediately shift into the paranormal when Marcie and her teammates meet Lorraine and Zeke. The two mysterious dig assistants reveal their abilities to access the Universal Energy Field with their minds— something Marcie knows only vaguely that her brother has also had experience with. Marcie learns how our planet will disintegrate if action is not taken, and she and her team must decide if they are brave enough to help Lorraine and Zeke in their plan to save Mother Earth, her resources, and her history.

It looks like the summer just got a lot more interesting.