#WWWWednesday: 20 October 2021

October 21, 2021October 26, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads12 Comments

Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words, which means I’ll be answering these questions:

What did you read last?
What are you currently reading?
What will you read next?

Post divider: What did you just finish reading?

I’m still in a funky reading mood so I’m kind of surprised that I managed to finish seven books, though a few of them were novellas or quick romances:

Man in Charge Duet by Laurelin Paige ★★½
I thought this duet started out promising. While not really standing out, it wasn’t terribly written and there was some intense sexual tension between the H/h, although there wasn’t much depth to their character. But by the time we hit drama-land and got to book two, I only gave it 2-stars for the smut cos the rest was just a hot hot mess! 🙈

Given to Darkness (Ikiri Book 2) by Phil Williams ★★★★☆
This story picks up right from where Kept from Cages leaves off and it was an absolutely thrilling and action-packed conclusion to the Ikiri duology. We reunite with the fantastic crew and experience more terrifying supernatural events, monsters and even zombies as we travel across continents in a race against time to stop Ikiri’s dark powers from spreading further. Check out my review!

#TopTenTuesday: Online Resources for Book Lovers!

October 20, 2021August 12, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads17 Comments

So, we’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: Online Resources for Book Lovers (what websites, podcasts, apps, etc. do you use that make your reading life better?)

Ooh, this one is probably gonna be a “short and sweet” one for me but I’m so looking forward to seeing what all of you use and recommend! I’m pretty sure this is a topic that hasn’t been done before (or at least, not that I can remember in the years I’ve been doing TTT) so this is gonna be fun!

ARC Review: Given to Darkness by Phil Williams

October 19, 2021October 18, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads6 Comments

🥳 Happy Pub Day to Given to Darkness! 🎉

Today I’m sharing my thoughts on Given to Darkness, book two in the Ikiri duology by Phil Williams. When I was approached by Phil to read the conclusion to this thrilling duology I immediately said yes because I remembered how much I enjoyed book one! Check out my review for Kept from Cages.

Special thanks to Phil Williams for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Goodreads: Given to Darkness (Ikiri Book 2)
Publisher: Rumian Publishing
Publication Date: 19 October 2021
Genre: Supernatural Action Thriller

Panda Rating:

_{(4 pandas)}

Ikiri demands blood. Whose will it be?

A malevolent force stirs from the heart of the Congo. One child can stop it – but everyone wants her dead. Reece Coburn’s gang have travelled half the world to protect Zipporah, only to find her in more danger than ever. Her violent father is missing, his murderous enemies are coming for them, and her brother’s power is growing stronger. Entire communities are being slaughtered, and it’s only getting worse.

They have to reach Ikiri before its corruption spreads. But there’s a long journey ahead, past ferocious killers and unnatural creatures – and very few people can be trusted along the way. Can two criminal musicians, an unstable assassin and a compromised spy reach Ikiri alive? What will it cost them along the way?

Pick up this exciting conclusion to the Ikiri duology today, for a supernatural thriller that will keep you hooked right to the finish

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Book Review: Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous

October 18, 2021August 13, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads13 Comments

Goodreads: Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Published: 01 June 2021
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary, Coming-of-Age

Panda Rating:

_{(4 pandas)}

Sunny Song’s Big Summer Goals:
1) Make Rafael Kim my boyfriend (finally!)
2) Hit 100K followers (almost there…)
3) Have the best last summer of high school ever

Not on Sunny’s list: accidentally filming a PG-13 cooking video that goes viral (#browniegate). Extremely not on her list: being shipped off to a digital detox farm camp in Iowa (IOWA??) for a whole month. She’s traded in her WiFi connection for a butter churn, and if she wants any shot at growing her social media platform this summer, she’ll need to find a way back online.

But between some unexpected friendships and an alarmingly cute farm boy, Sunny might be surprised by the connections she makes when she’s forced to disconnect.

Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp

October 17, 2021October 17, 2021 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 spent time curled up reading in bed with, or which book you wish you had time to read today!

Since I finished a dark fantasy last night I’ve found myself in a bit of a restless reading mood and found it difficult to keep focused on any of the few reads I currently have going. The most I could focus on was Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson and I’m still really enjoying it. The world building is exceptional and I’m loving so many of these characters! Does this mean I need to prepare for their eventual demise? 😭

Warbreaker is the story of two sisters, who happen to be princesses, the God King one of them has to marry, a lesser god, and an immortal trying to undo the mistakes he made hundreds of years ago.

Theirs is a world in which those who die in glory return as gods to live confined to a pantheon in Hallandren’s capital city. A world transformed by BioChromatic magic, a power based on an essence known as breath. Using magic is arduous: breath can only be collected one unit at a time from individual people.

But the rewards are great: by using breath and drawing upon the color in everyday objects, all manner of miracles and mischief can be performed.

What are you currently reading?

Top 5 Saturday: Books set in the Forest!

October 16, 2021October 16, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads22 Comments

Welcome back to another Top 5 Saturday! Just in case you don’t know Top 5 Saturday is a weekly meme created by Mandy @ Devouring Books and it’s where we list the top five books (they can be books on your TBR, favourite books, books you loved/hated) based on the week’s topic. You can see the upcoming schedule at the end of my post 🙂 This week’s topic is actually: books set in the forest.

I focus most of my Top 5 Saturdays on books that are still on my TBR but this week I thought I’d take a look at five favourite books that are set in the forest. There’s a good mix of fantasy, romance, horror, and mystery in this lot and they were all wonderfully atmospheric reads—the forest often felt alive in these settings! Without further ado… Here are my recs for you!

The Bear and the Nightingale

At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.

After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.

And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. Read more…

Blog Tour Review: The Keeper of Night by Kylie Lee Baker

October 16, 2021October 15, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads18 Comments

Today is my stop on the TBR & Beyond Tours for The Keeper of Night by Kylie Lee Baker.
Special thanks to Inkyard Press for providing an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

Be sure to click on the banner above to check out the rest of the amazing bloggers on tour!

Goodreads: The Keeper of Night (The Keeper of Night #1)
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Publication Date: 12 October 2021
Genre: Young Adult Dark Fantasy

Panda Rating:

(3.5 pandas)

Death is her destiny.

Half British Reaper, half Japanese Shinigami, Ren Scarborough has been collecting souls in the London streets for centuries. Expected to obey the harsh hierarchy of the Reapers who despise her, Ren conceals her emotions and avoids her tormentors as best she can.

When her failure to control her Shinigami abilities drives Ren out of London, she flees to Japan to seek the acceptance she’s never gotten from her fellow Reapers. Accompanied by her younger brother, the only being on earth to care for her, Ren enters the Japanese underworld to serve the Goddess of Death… only to learn that here, too, she must prove herself worthy. Determined to earn respect, Ren accepts an impossible task—find and eliminate three dangerous Yokai demons—and learns how far she’ll go to claim her place at Death’s side.

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#FirstLinesFriday: 15 October 2021

October 15, 2021October 23, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads11 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 great advantages to being unimportant.
True, by many people’s standards, Siri wasn’t “unimportant.” She was, after all, the daughter of a king. Fortunately, her father had four living children, and Siri—at seventeen years of age—was the youngest.”

Do you recognise the book these first lines come from?

Fall Bucket List Book Tag!

October 14, 2021October 14, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads33 Comments

Hello, friends! It’s been another minute since I did a tag and thanks to Kerri @ KerriMcBookNerd I have one to share with you! 😍 If you haven’t already, go check out Kerri’s page for a wide-variety of book reviews and other bookish posts.

The original tag was made by Tiffany @ Read by Tiffany.

The Rules

Link back to the original creator in your post.
Feel free to use any of my graphics in your post, or create your own!
Tag 7 other people at the end of your post, and let them know you’ve tagged them.

The Tea Dragon Festival

The Tea Dragon Festival is the second Tea Dragon graphic novel and it’s one of my favourites. It’s beautifully illustrated plus the stories are sweet and guaranteed to warm your heart and make you smile! ❤️

MY REVIEW

The seven husbands of evelyn hugo

Quite of TJR’s books have a lot of hype but Evelyn Hugo is one of them and this book is worth every single word of praise and then some! It’s amazing and I will continue to hype it forever. I love it as much as I love PSL’s! 😍

my review

DIM STARS

I just read this book very recently and although this crew doesn’t start out as friends, they develop a great bond as they dodge alien invaders and y’know, death.

MY FIRST IMPRESSIONS

SING ANYWAY

You might’ve seen this novella mentioned a time or two on my blog… But it filled my heart up with such warmth that it really felt like I had wrapped myself up in a giant cosy cardigan.

My review

WITH THE FIRE ON HIGH

Of course, the first person I thought of was Emoni! WTFOH made me so hungry while reading! It was awesome to watch Emoni explore and pursue her passion for cooking.

amari and the night brothers

Seriously, I excitedly clap my hands every time I see this book mentioned on my feed/timeline! It’s such an amazing MG fantasy and I think everyone needs to read it. I jump with excitement whenever I think about the sequel too 😍

MY REVIEW

I’m tagging…

Please don’t feel obligated to do the tag if you don’t want to! Also, if I don’t tag you and you want to do the tag, please do! 😃

That’s a wrap, folks! I love a fun and short tag 😊
Have you read any of these books or are they also on your TBR?

#WWWWednesday: 13 October 2021

October 13, 2021October 13, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads20 Comments

Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words, which means I’ll be answering these questions:

What did you read last?
What are you currently reading?
What will you read next?

I’ve been in a bit of a funky reading mood since last week and found it difficult to really focus on a book for long. I went back and forth a lot until I managed to finish reading these four books:

Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous by Suzanne Park ★★★★☆
This was a super fast read and a very entertaining and relatable YA contemporary/coming-of-age story. Sunny is a teenager obsessed with social media due to being a mid-level influencer. I think many readers will be able to relate to her rocky relationship with social media! My first book by Park but certainly not my last. 📱 RTC

Hooked (Never After #1) by Emily McIntire ★★★☆☆
If you’re into dark romances with villainous heroes and innocent heroines with darker desires, this might be up your alley! It does get bloody and slightly gory but there are some great twists and turns to the story (although not entirely unpredictable). It’s not a Peter Pan retelling but I loved how elements of the original story were incorporated into this. Also, pretty steamy! 🔥 RTC