Tag: Book Blogger

The Stopover by T L Swan – #eARC #BookReview

Dini @ dinipandareads5 Comments

Goodreads: The Stopover
Publish date: 29 October 2019
Publisher: Amazon Publishing UK
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Panda Rating:

I was upgraded to first class on a flight from London to New York. The food, champagne, and service were impeccable—the blue-eyed man sitting next to me, even better. He was smart, suave, and sexy. We talked and flirted—and though the plane was unexpectedly grounded, we still felt sky high in each other’s company. We danced and laughed our way around Boston…and had a night of crazy passion that no woman could forget.
That was twelve months ago, and I haven’t heard from him—until today. I started a new job and met the CEO. Imagine my surprise when I saw those naughty blue eyes gazing at me from behind his mahogany desk. But I’m not that carefree girl anymore. I have a boyfriend now, and responsibilities. Now he wants to see me in his office for a private meeting. How can I resist?

I’m torn with how to review this because I won’t lie: I read it straight through the night and suffered from lack of sleep at the office the next day because of it. It’s a very quick and easy read, but there’s also nothing here that I haven’t read before. This was also one of the most toxic relationships I’ve ever read! I found myself laughing at how ridiculous the ‘relationship’ was, and then I was tearing my hair out and trying not to scream in complete frustration with what was happening. But then again, I couldn’t seem to put the book down and found myself staying up until 5am to finish it… So, there’s that? I’m warning you now, this is a fair bit of a rant (but I’ve tried to reign it in as much as possible)!

It me. FULL OF CONFUSION.

My favorite part of the book had to be the friendship and banter between Emily, Aaron and Molly. I was so worried the latter would end up being bad people but I was glad to be proven wrong! Their friendship reminded me a lot of how I interact with my friends and it just felt completely natural. The interactions between these friends brought much needed comedy to the story to distract from all the silly drama between the two MCs. I initially also liked Emily’s character, mostly for her drive to pursue her passion without letting anything deter her. She knew what she wanted and she went for it without letting anything hold her back. It’s a pity that all but disappeared the minute Jameson came into her life. She mildly protested every now and again but it’s like her backbone shriveled up whenever he came around.

Like I mentioned, this was one of the most toxic relationships I’ve ever read. Emily and Jameson/Jim/Jay’s relationship yo-yo’d from getting into ridiculously blown out of proportion fights over (literally) nothing, to jumping straight into bed for wild sex. It took a really long time for them to even get to the point where they would try being civil and having normal conversations without blowing up; and even then it didn’t really last long most of the time. The basis of their relationship was physical and in my opinion, it never really progressed out of that phase by the end. I will say though that their physical chemistry was off-the-charts. If you don’t like explicit sexual scenes in books, this will not be for you! If I had to rate the heat out of 5, it’d be a solid 5 though lol

But literally me throughout this whole read

For someone who’s meant to be an “older man”, Jay was the most immature rich CEO character I’ve encountered. He was petulant, emotionally unavailable and often times acted like a really big man-child, and at his office no less. He would be cruel and cold one minute and in the next he’d be messaging Emily, demanding she go with him to dinner, as if he hadn’t just treated her like trash not too long back? I wanted to slap him so hard. What gave me hope the first time was that she would say no and I’d be like HELL YEAH EMILY! And then in the next scene she’d cave and they’d end up screwing like rabbits before the night’s out. GIRL, PLEASE! *roll my eyes so far back they get stuck* 🙄 At the same time though, towards the end of the book, I found myself curled over with laughter over some of Jay’s drama queen antics–especially during the camping scene. It was actually hilarious and 100% amusing? Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to redeem his character from start to finish. There were other inconsistencies with the events in the book that had me scratching my head for a while before shrugging and moving past it because I was more concerned with other issues in the book.

All in all, I finished this book laughing in bewilderment (at myself mostly) and I was genuinely curious whether this is what people felt when they finished reading the After series. I’m referring to the people who acknowledge that the relationship in that series was toxic AF and yet they STILL couldn’t put that book down. Is this how you felt?? Haha I’ll still never read that series, but after reading this book, I do think I get what you mean with your comments 😂

Thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book is out 29 October 2019.
Have you read The Stopover? Have you read the After series? I’m still shook by how I just couldn’t put this down. Come chat in the comments if you feel this! LOL

Friday Favorites: WORDS!

Dini @ dinipandareads18 Comments

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 words! Okay, this is such an interesting prompt! Is it odd that this isn’t really something that I’ve really given that much thought about this? Maybe these aren’t my favourite words of all time but definitely some fo them! I had such fun with this prompt, and making some graphics for each word (although I realize that the text is probs a little small now. Oops)!

I mean, do we really need a definition for FLOOF!?

What are some of your favourite words? Do you love any of these?!
Please come tell me in the comments below and let’s chat!

First Lines Friday – 27 September

Dini @ dinipandareads7 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:

It turns out the Leteo procedure isn’t bullshit.

The first time I saw a poster on the subway promoting the institute that could make you forget things, I thought it was a marketing campaign for some new science fiction movie. And when I saw the headline “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow!” on the cover of a newspaper, I mistook it as something boring, like the cure for some new flu—I didn’t think they were talking about memories.

Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?

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

*drumroll please!*

The book is: More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera

In the months after his father’s suicide, it’s been tough for sixteen-year-old Aaron Soto to find happiness but with the support of his girlfriend Genevieve, he’s slowly remembering what that might feel like. When Genevieve leaves for a couple of weeks, Aaron starts hanging out with a new guy, Thomas. Aaron’s friends notices, and they’re not exactly thrilled. But Aaron can’t deny the happiness Thomas brings or how Thomas makes him feel safe from himself.

Since Aaron can’t stay away from Thomas or turn off his newfound feelings for him, he considers turning to the Leteo Institute’s revolutionary memory-alteration procedure to straighten himself out, even if it means forgetting who he truly is… 

Have you read More Happy Than Not or is it on your TBR?
Leave me a comment and let’s chat 🙂

One Day In December by Josie Silver – #BookReview

Dini @ dinipandareads14 Comments

Goodreads: One Day in December
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Reviewed: December 2018
Panda Rating:

Two people. Ten chances. One unforgettable love story.
Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn’t exist anywhere but the movies. But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man who she knows instantly is the one. Their eyes meet, there’s a moment of pure magic… and then her bus drives away. Certain they’re fated to find each other again, Laurie spends a year scanning every bus stop and cafe in London for him. But she doesn’t find him, not when it matters anyway. Instead they “reunite” at a Christmas party, when her best friend Sarah giddily introduces her new boyfriend to Laurie. It’s Jack, the man from the bus. It would be.
What follows for Laurie, Sarah and Jack is ten years of friendship, heartbreak, missed opportunities, roads not taken, and destinies reconsidered. One Day in December is a joyous, heartwarming and immensely moving love story to escape into and a reminder that fate takes inexplicable turns along the route to happiness.

My heart is soaring and a silly grin is still plastered to my face as I lie in bed with this book. What a roller coaster of emotions this book gave me! I was worried at the start that it would be a love-triangle-type of story that would leave me feeling uncomfortable and annoyed, but as I kept reading and realized that it wasn’t, I loved it even more. It’s a story of romance, passion, triumphs, loss, grief, secrets, family and friendships.

If you’re not into romances then this book might not be for you. I, on the other hand, am a hopeless romantic and I loved every heartbreaking, breath stealing, beautiful page of it. It could have very easily been just a sappy, romantic, not-so-well-done novel, but I think that Josie Silver did a fabulous job of writing characters that worm their way into your heart. I think that all of the characters are relatable, they’re not these perfect beings, and you can connect to them on a certain level. I particularly connected with Laurie – her slight shyness, awkwardness in social situations and devotion to family and her closest friends. All of them had endearing qualities that grow on you and by the end of the book it almost feels as if you’re closing a chapter on old friends.

There were several things I enjoyed with the romance in this book. I might have mentioned it previously in another review, but I have this thing for serendipity, fate, destiny or whatever you want to call it. I like the thought of “that one moment” and in this story, I liked how Laurie and Jack had their one moment at the start and although they didn’t get together right then, the world brought them back together in some way. What I also appreciated was the fact that although Laurie felt the way she did about Jack, she didn’t close herself up to the possibility of other love. Is there only one person made for you in this lifetime? In so many romances, it’s boy meets girl, they both fall in love and live happily ever after, the end. Although at times it felt like the characters would endlessly spin around in this dance of falling in love with other characters and it not working out because of their true feelings for someone else, I thought it added more realness to the story.

“I said I know how painful it can be letting someone you think you love go, but that I don’t believe there’s only one person in the world for each of us. It’s too fanciful, too limiting. … I told him that there comes a point where you have to make the choice to be happy, because being sad for too long is exhausting.”

I also liked that despite the tricky “triangle-esque” situation with Sarah, Laurie and Jack, it didn’t get in the way of the friendship between the girls, but also didn’t get in the way of a real friendship blossoming between the latter. I think I would have been as devastated as Laurie was at finding Jack again, only to know that it could never be and it could have been ugly between friends (in the name of love and all of that) but I’m glad that Silver respected that friendship boundary and even strengthened it in the end.

Was it sappy? Sure. Was the ending predictably happy and not at all unexpected? Yeah. But this is definitely one of those feel good novels that you journey through and that give you a satisfying ending and makes you feel happy to read. It makes you want to take chances and to do things that scare you a little bit a lot. That’s life, right?

Have you read One Day in December? Are you a hopeless romantic? Lol
Let me know in the comments and let’s chat!

I Dare You Tag

Dini @ dinipandareads13 Comments

It’s another tag, book friends! I have so many that I need to do and if you’ve tagged me in something and I haven’t done it yet, please don’t think it’s because I don’t want to! I tend to overthink my answers and combined with my awful memory, it ends up taking me forever to finish any tag. 🙈I saw this tag on the amazing Emer’s blog: @ A Little Haze Reads and I decided to give it a go because it looked like some good ‘get-to-know-you’ fun! I’m not sure where this tag originated, but if you do know, please let me know!

What book has been on your shelf the longest?

If we’re talking about my current bookshelves, I think it’s my Canterbury Word Cloud Classic Edition of Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. This edition is gorgeous and I love having it on my shelf but it is one helluva tome. It’s even more intimidating because it’s not only HUGE but the text is TINY 😅

What is your current read, your last read, and the book you’ll read next?

My current read, which I’m finally almost finished with, is The Priory of the Orange Tree! You can check out my last post, #WWWWednesday, to see the books I read last and what I hope to read next!

What book did everyone like, but you hated?

I actually don’t “hate” a lot of books, either in general or that other people loved. One book that is well loved, is known to have brought Latin American literature to the world and that won the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature is One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I was so excited to read this book but I think this is where my hate/sometimes love relationship with magical realism began. I just could not grasp it and it drove me to tears in boredom 🙈It just wasn’t my jam!

What book do you keep telling yourself you’ll read, but you probably won’t?

Oof, this is hard to choose because who’s to say that I probably will never read it? But I probably will never read it 😂 If I had to pick it’d probably be something by Fyodor Dostoyevsky? I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready to read his books lol

What book are you saving for retirement?

What a question! I wonder if this is something that people have actually thought about. Does anyone have a book they’re saving for retirement?! If I had to choose it’d probably be a ton of classics! That’s not a cop out to providing a real answer, alright? 😂

Last page: read it first, or wait ’til the end?

OMG MONSTERS! I had a colleague admit to me the other day that she always reads the last chapter/page first because she said if she doesn’t like the book or never finishes it, it’s OK because she knows what happened. I MEAN… I can’t 🙈 Haha reading it first just takes the whole fun out of the reading experience. Wait ’til the end!

Acknowledgement: waste of paper and ink, or interesting aside?

I admit that I don’t always read the acknowledgements, but when a book has really gripped me and has me enthralled, I will always read it to know who supported the author through the writing process. It’s lovely to see who the author thanks (and how too)!

Which book character would you switch places with?

Off the top of my head right now, I’d love to switch places with Lucy from The Hating Game. She’s at such an amazing point of her career, plus she’s doing something amazing and I’m envious of. PLUS, she has Josh. Can has the Josh in my life, please? 😂

Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life? (place, time, person?)

I have quite a few books that make me nostalgic for people and places. Harry Potter reminds me of when we were visiting America and Harry Potter came out for the first time. I remember looking through a store (I can’t remember which exactly) and the clerk recommending that mum get me Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone! It also reminds me of all the subsequent releases and how I’d be sure to get to the store as soon as mum would let me to buy the next book 😍 Funnily enough, although I wasn’t reading Jane Austen during the trip, her books (particularly Persuasion!) reminds me of when I visited Bath several years ago. I love that place 💞

Name a book that you acquired in an interesting way

Um… A few months ago I placed an order on Book Depository for a few books that were on sale. When my package arrived, I was super excited to open it and the first book that I pulled out of the box was…

It was the wrong order delivery, and even though they sent me the correct book, they still let me keep this gem. LOL It gave me a really good laugh! Haha

Have you ever given a book away for a special reason to a special person?

I’m gonna have to disappoint you with a boring answer here because I’ve never given a book away that I’ve loved to someone special. I would though, probably. On what would depend on the person lol

Which book has been with you most places?

I’d say anything that’s on my Kindle but for physical books it has to be the complete work of Jane Austen. It’s a chunk of a book but it’s precious to me! I took the cover off for this photo but it’s gorgeous, pink and flowery! It’s come with me from Australia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines and now Indonesia 🙂

Any “required reading” you hated in secondary school that wasn’t so bad two years later?

OK, I can’t actually answer the second part of this question because I don’t recall reading anything in high school that I loved reading again two years later. The book I hated reading was The Lord of the Flies–no offense to anyone that loved that book but it was just not my jam. I do wonder whether I’d enjoy it if I read it again now… Maybe one day 🙃

Used or brand new?

I love both equally. I love used books for the old book smell and sometimes I find things (receipts or bookmarks or notes) in them that make me wonder about who had the book last, what they thought of it (maybe they hated it coz it they gave it away), and where they were from. But also, nothing beats the pristine look, feel and smell of a brand new book!

Have you ever read a Dan Brown book?

Oh yeah! I was obsessed with his books for a while back in 2010. I read all of his books and I loved Digital Fortress and Deception Point just as much as The Da Vinci Code! I haven’t read any of his more recent publications, but I do have one sitting on my shelf 😬

Have you ever seen a movie you liked more than the book?

I can’t think of a movie but the first TV show that comes to mind is The Magicians! I love that show but I found the book so boring; which really surprised me because of how exciting the show was (imo)!

Have you ever read a book that’s made you hungry, cookbooks included?

Oh yes! I love a book where the characters eat all these delicious foods. I think books that can make me hungry just from reading it get automatic star points from me. The first ones that come to mind are The Ingredients of Us, Pumpkinheads, The Cruel Prince, The Astonishing Color of After and even The Priory of the Orange Tree! 🤤And obviously, cookbooks. How can you read one and not get hungry?!

Who is the person whose book advice you’ll always take?

There’s not just one person but so many book friends I’ve met through bookstagram and blogging! Sorry if this is a totally boring answer, but it’s true! Lol one reviewer who comes to mind and whose book opinions/ratings I most often gel with is Larry! He’s such a sweet person and his reviews are fantastic!

Is there a book out of your comfort zone (e.g., outside your usual reading genre) that you ended up loving?

I wouldn’t necessarily say non-fiction is ‘out of my comfort zone’ but I do tend to struggle with them more often than not. So I was completely blown away with how quickly I read Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann, and I was shook by how much it shook my feels. I absolutely loved it and will always recommend it, especially if you love true crime!

I TAG WHOEVER IS READING THIS! YES, YOU!
(Soz, I’m a lazy panda tonight)

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett – #eARC #BookReview

Dini @ dinipandareads12 Comments

Goodreads: The Grace Year
Publish date: 08 October 2019
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Dystopia
Panda Rating:

No one speaks of the grace year. It’s forbidden. Girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why they’re banished for their sixteenth year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive. Sixteen-year-old Tierney James dreams of a better life—a society that doesn’t pit friend against friend or woman against woman, but as her own grace year draws near, she quickly realizes that it’s not just the brutal elements they must fear. It’s not even the poachers in the woods, men who are waiting for their chance to grab one of the girls in order to make their fortune on the black market. Their greatest threat may very well be each other.

I think it’s safe to say that I’ve been pulled out of my reading slump because I finished The Grace Year in one night (literally); and despite being hella tired the next day, I had zero regrets doing it. I tried putting it down at one point because responsible adult etc., but it didn’t work. I couldn’t stop thinking about it so I picked it up and kept reading until the end!

“In the county, there’s nothing more dangerous than a woman who speaks her mind. That’s what happened to Eve, you know, why we were cast out from heaven. We’re dangerous creatures. Full of devil charms. If given the opportunity, we will use our magic to lure men to sin, to evil, to destruction.”

The Grace Year was… wow? I really don’t have the words for it but I will say that it’s probably one of my favorite reads of 2019! Whoever said it’s reminiscent of The Handmaid’s Tale and Lord of the Flies was spot on. It’s dark and full of twists. It’s mind-bending and insanely spooky and makes you question whether the magic is real or not. It’s also surprisingly violent and gruesome–don’t let that beautiful pink cover fool you. This book is not full of roses and fluff! It’s a dark read that makes you think and question your role in perpetuating inequalities (whether you know it or not). It’s set in a dystopian society but I have no doubt that elements of this story will ring true for many women because on some level, we have all experienced what these girls/women go through. It took me on an emotional and mental journey that I was totally unprepared for (lol) but hell, it was worth it! I didn’t expect to find myself in tears by the end of this book, but there I was at 4AM hugging my Billy bear to my chest and crying into my pillow.

I loved (MC) Tierney’s character and how she developed throughout the story. Most of the other characters were minor, but I still enjoyed the roles that they played too, especially Ryker, Gertie, Michael and Tierney’s parents. The story was tense and fast-paced; I always felt as if some unknown horror was lurking around the corner waiting to be unleashed. There’s a pervasive eeriness to Liggett’s writing that had me sitting on the edge of my seat and goosebumps constantly rising on my skin, especially towards the latter half. After everything the girls survived, what happens in the end brought me to tears. The defiance and camaraderie, the willingness to acknowledge the need for change, and to open their hearts to making it happen by taking just that small step against the patriarchy, made me emotional AF.

“The things we do to girls. Whether we put them on pedestals only to tear them down, or use them for parts and holes, we’re all complicit in this. But everything touches everything else and I have to believe that some good will come out of all this destruction. The men will never end the grace year. But maybe we can.”

If there’s anything to critique it’s that: 1) I don’t think the romance was necessary. It also came off as hypocritical, especially considering Tierney’s strong stance on marriage throughout the story. 2) I wish that there was more groundwork for how this society came to be. There were hints that things were different beyond the borders, but how did this county and the poachers come to be this way? I would’ve loved to know more of the backstory to this world. And 3) This might be because I read the ARC, but there were some editing errors that I hope are caught before publication because the way it reads right now, paragraphs start in next sentences and it’s often confusing, especially when there’s so much time that’s passed in between (hopefully that explanation makes sense).

This isn’t a story that has a typical HEA, and it was a little bit open to interpretation (imo), but it does bring hope and that’s just as important. I honestly can’t wait until everyone gets the chance to read this because I’d highly encourage you to pick it up. I’m so excited to see what else Liggett has in store!

The quotes used in my review were taken from an advanced copy, so there may be minor differences in the final publication.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and St. Martin’s Press for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book is out 08 October 2019.
Have you read The Grace Year or does it sound like something you want to read?
Come let me know in the comments and let’s chat!

Vicious (Villains #1) by V.E. Schwab – #BookReview

Dini @ dinipandareads15 Comments

Goodreads: Vicious (Villains #1)
Genre: Adult Fiction, Science Fiction, SFF
Reviewed: January 2019
Panda Rating:

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates–brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.
Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find–aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge–but who will be left alive at the end?
In Vicious, V. E. Schwab brings to life a gritty comic-book-style world in vivid prose: a world where gaining superpowers doesn’t automatically lead to heroism, and a time when allegiances are called into question.

“The paper called Eli a hero.
The word made Victor laugh. Not just because it was absurd, but because it posed a question. If Eli really was a hero, and Victor meant to stop him, did that make him a villain?”

This is a story about superheroes and supervillains and ExtraOrdinary people. It’s about right vs wrong, morality, jealousy, revenge and friendship. It explores a complex relationship between two college best friends turned archenemies, and the reasons and consequences of their fall out. Schwab does a magnificent job writing the fantastical into the ordinary, that although you know the concept is a little outlandish, you wonder if maybe it’s really possible. With an immersive style of writing that encourages you to devour as much as quickly as possible, it isn’t surprising that I was hooked right from the start!

Victor and Eli were college roommates and best friends until their senior year of college when everything came crashing down. After a shared interest in adrenaline, near death experiences and an exploration of seemingly extraordinary abilities moves from theoretical to experimental, things go horribly wrong incredibly fast and these two become each other’s worst enemy. When Victor gets thrown in jail because of Eli, he swears that he will get his vengeance and so the battle between our two villains begins.

“But these words that people threw around— humans, monsters, heroes, villains—to Victor it was all just a matter of semantics. Someone could call themselves a hero and still walk around killing dozens. Someone else could be labeled a villain for trying to stop them. Plenty of humans were monstrous, and plenty of monsters knew how to play at being human.”

What can I say about this book? I loved pretty much everything about it. The characters, the storyline, all of it! It pulls you in and makes you think about perceptions – for example, what makes someone a hero or a villain? In the movies it’s usually pretty cut and dry, but even villains have a reason why they end up being so evil, right? You could see from the start that Victor and Eli have such a complex friendship. It’s one filled with admiration but also jealousy, envy, and greed. Make no mistake—both Eli and Victor are “bad nuts” in the traditional sense of the word and as Schwab writes it, they have something dark lurking beneath their skin—but in this story, it works. It’s funny how I didn’t think I’d ever have a favorite supervillain but if there were teams, I think I’d definitely be team Victor. His rag-tag crew of misfits grew on me—especially Mitch and his story and of course, sweet little Sydney and Dol!

I loved that all the characters in this book had complex backgrounds to their stories and that we got to learn about them all as we moved back-and-forth from past to present. Schwab did a great job with that as well, with smooth transitions and always spot on with the answers to your burning questions from the previous scene(s).

Have you read Vicious? Are you a fan of Schwab?
Let me know in the comments and let’s chat!

#WWWWednesday: 25 September

Dini @ dinipandareads9 Comments

YO, can you believe it’s already the last Wednesday of September 2019!? What is this sorcery with the time? I feel like if I close my eyes for too long I’ll open them to find it’s already NYE and the ball’s about to drop! 🙈So 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?

Since last Wednesday I managed to finish three other books alongside the one I’m still reading. I already posted my review for Fake Date (read it here!) but tl;dr, I was pretty disappointed and really wanted more from it! I still need to write reviews for The Hating Game (reread) and The Stopover (eARC). Oh hello, what are these things called eARCs you say?! Yah, it’s been a hot minute since I picked one up but I really needed to take a break from Priory and I decided to finally read this one contemporary romance. My review is going up soon but let me tell you, I am hella conflicted about how I feel because I know the relationship was toxic AF and the dynamic between screwing like wild bunnies to fighting over nothing got old pretty quick. BUT AT THE SAME TIME I also couldn’t put it down? Um, Like… What? Why? I don’t know. Is this how people felt when they finished reading the After series? Because if so, I think I get it now LMAO 😂

What are you currently reading?

GOOD NEWS FRIENDS! After whining about my struggle to get into The Priory of the Orange Tree, I’m now 80% of the way through and I’m really enjoying it! It does have me feeling a bit conflicted though. I’m attached to characters, but not necessarily all of the main ones (something bad just happened to one of the main characters and I felt… Nothing?). At the same time, even though I feel like I’ve sped through the last 40%, I also feel like it’s a little endless (I constantly wonder when, if ever, I’ll finish the book). But it’s really not because I’m not enjoying it, it’s just that it’s a tome 🙈 Shit hit the fan quickly and continuously in this story–literally just one thing after another going horribly wrong and it had my heart racing and me screaming out loud. I know that I don’t want to put this down until it’s over (but alas, life), especially now that I’ve made it to the final section of the book. I really can’t wait to see how it all wraps up!

What will you read next?

I’m still going to be keeping these three on here. Might pick up The Bookish Life of Nina Hill first though! I also missed the group discussion for Sleeping Giants (Themis Files #1) 😅SURPRISE! But I think I’ll still give it a re-read. I’m not sure how I’m feeling about The Light Keeper anymore, as I tried the first three chapters and it just… Wow, confused and annoyed me, and that has me feeling a little yikes about it… Let’s see how it goes!

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

#TopTenTuesday: Books on my Autumn Possibility Pile!

Dini @ dinipandareads73 Comments

It’s that time of the week again, friends! We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: books on my Autumn Possibility Pile! I recently did a similar-ish post for my Friday Favorites, where I listed some TBR reads that suited the Autumn mood! As you’ll know by now, I’m a mood reader so I’m not much for TBRs or seasonal reading. That said, I usually do like to think about books I wanna read over the course of a month if the mood strikes, and I like to think of it as my ‘possibility pile‘! I think of Autumn as going from September – November but I could also be completely wrong as I’ve lived in the tropics basically my whole life (and Australia saw six years of opposite seasons, plus I experienced two extremely warm fall seasons living in the UK so ‘autumn’ only showed towards mid-November/early Dec). A lot of what I’m thinking to read leans to the darker/spookier reads (for me anyway!), sprinkled with some lighter contemporaries and SFF!

The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones. Even though I’m the biggest chicken and really can’t handle much ghosty-paranormal shtuff, I went out and immediately pre-ordered the book after reading Kibby’s review. It’s outside of my norm but it sounds so good and perfect for October!

Darkdawn (The Nevernight Chronicle #3) by Jay Kristoff. I’m not ready for this series to end but I also don’t think that I can put it off for longer. Kristoff’s going to crush my soul either way, so I might as well get the #stabstabstab over with, right?! This series full of darkness, blood and gore has really grown on me and I’m TERRIFIED for how this’ll end. I actually haven’t seen any reviews yet 🤔

Serpent & Dove (Serpent & Dove #1) by Shelby Mahurin. I’ve really only heard amazing things about this book and it honestly sounds really good. Also, apparently there’s no cliffhanger?! I’m definitely looking forward to reading this and not putting it off forever 🙂

House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig. This book has received so much love, even by readers who don’t normally read YA or gothic tales, which makes me all the more excited to read it!

Skyward (Skyward #1) by Brandon Sanderson. The second book in this series comes out on 26 November, and I’ve been telling myself that I haven’t been neglecting this book on my shelf, I’ve just been waiting for the perfect moment to read it 😜 The time has come!

Wicked Saints (Something Dark & Holy #1) by Emily A. Duncan. This was one of the more hyped YA releases earlier this year and I’ve heard so many mixed reviews for it. I’m getting the impression that you either loved/hated it, with little in between. I just got approved for the e-ARC of Ruthless Gods last week though, so I’m VERY EXCITED for this perfectly dark, possibly wicked, Autumn read!

The Toll (Arc of a Scythe #3) by Neal Shusterman. This has already appeared in several of my posts recently but honestly, I can’t wait. I’m SO READY to see what happens next and to see how this fantastic dystopian series will end!

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo. The colors of this cover match perfectly with the season! But in between all of these darker reads I know I’ll need something lighter to make me a little less melancholy. I think this book will give me the warm fuzzies, and I love books with cooking/food!

Twice in A Blue Moon by Christina Lauren. I am so excited for this book which releases 22 October. I still haven’t read a few of the CLo books on my shelf *cough* but this one sounds mega sweet!

Malamander by Thomas Taylor. I don’t often read MG but the cover on this one had me picking it up almost immediately 😬 I’ve heard some really great things about it too so I’m keen!

What’s on your Autumn Possibility Pile/TBR?
If you’ve done a TTT for today, please leave your links in the comments so I can mosey over to your blog and check it out! 🙂

Down the TBR Hole – 01

Dini @ dinipandareads16 Comments

I’M FINALLY DOING IT. After seeing this post countless times weekly, I’ve decided today that I’m going to take the plunge and *finally* start culling some books off my Goodreads TBR! At the moment of writing this my “Want-to-Read” list sits at 1,010 books. I’m almost certain that 80% of these books were added to my list this year when I fully immersed myself in the book community. I was indiscriminately hitting that “want-to-read” button with every blurb I liked the sound of, regardless of whether it was in or out of my comfort zone! But the time has come for me to take a good hard look at this list because am I really going to read 1,010 books?! I’d obviously love that but I also know that I’ll never stop adding books to my tbr (because duh) so… It’s time to start cutting down! I kind of want to kick this off with a bang but maybe I’ll ease into it and start with five books. Is this an excuse to avoid saying bye to books? Absolutely not! 🤔

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

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Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby Jr.

I loved this movie and it has haunted me for years! It’s always one of the first things I associate Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly with. This combo is probably one of the reasons why I want to read this book (not even sure if I read the blurb when I added it). That said, I’m not really sure if I want to read it anymore. It sounds interesting, but I’m not scrambling to get it.

Verdict: Bye-bye-bye!

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Trainspotting (Mark Renton #2) by Irvine Welsh

Don’t shoot but I’ve never actually watched this movie yet and that’s because I wanted to read the book first. I had a sample on my Kindle a peek at and wow, what do you call it when something is written how it’s spoken? I have nothing against it, but I know I’ll be spending 90% of the time not only trying to work out what’s being said but I’ll also be trying to get the accent JUST RIGHT in my head and it’ll drive me insane! I think this might be better on the big screen?

Verdict: Bye-bye-bye!

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Catch-22 (Catch-22 #1) by Joseph Heller

This is a classic I’ve been meaning to read for a while. I got a copy as a gift from a family friend who knew I loved reading about 9 years ago now? Oopsies! I think this book just intimidates me because I’m worried that I either won’t get it or I’ll be bored by it. Which would be worse? Lol I also didn’t realise that it was a series until just now! I hope this doesn’t end on a cliffhanger?!

Verdict: Keep!

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Something Borrowed (Darcy & Rachel #1) by Emily Giffin

I remember when this came out as a movie and I was so excited to watch it but I told myself I’d read the book first. All these years later, I still haven’t done either. After reading this blurb again, I’m just shaking my head. I just don’t do cheating and I don’t want to normalise or excuse it. So… Yeah. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Verdict: Bye-bye-bye!

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The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

I’ve been trying to figure this out for a while now but my brain can’t seem to recall at all. I am almost certain that I read this book when I was in MS or HS but I really can’t remember if I did or not. When I read the blurb some distant bells did go off but I don’t know if that’s me being convinced that I have read it or if it’s because I actually recognise the premise? I want to (re)read it though!

Verdict: Keep!

bluepanda

Well, that wasn’t as painful as I expected! I thought I’d struggle to take books off my list because I have issues with letting go, but I’m proud of how decisive I was! It also feels kinda freeing! LOL

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