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:

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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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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…

#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?

#TopTenTuesday: My Favourite Places to Be…

October 12, 2021August 12, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads41 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: Favourite Book Settings

So… This topic was decidedly difficult? 🤔 It could be that my brain just wasn’t in a thinking mood and the brain fog was admittedly working extra hard today (lol, of course I’m making the post on the day of!), so I couldn’t decide on whether I wanted to focus it on a few specific places from my favourite books or whether I wanted to focus on the setting and highlight books based on those. In the end, I decided to go with the former because I thought it would be easier? It wasn’t. There are just too many settings I love so this is simply a tiny taste of my favourites. Sorry in advance cos this post is just a hot mess 😂

First Impressions Spotlight: Dim Stars by Brian P. Rubin

October 11, 2021December 3, 2024 Dini @ dinipandareads10 Comments

I’m back with the The Storytellers on Tour today with a Book Blitz for Dim Stars by Brian P. Rubin and I’ll be sharing my first impressions of the book so far. Thanks to the author for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review!

Don’t forget to scroll to the end of the post to enter the GIVEAWAY (International) for the chance to win a signed paperback copy of the book!

Goodreads: Dim Stars
Publisher: Critical Eye Publishing
Publication Date: 20 October 2020
Genre: Young Adult Sci-Fi

Kenzie Washington, fourteen-year-old girl genius, signs up for a two-week tour as a cadet on the spaceship of her idol, Captain Dash Drake. Too bad Dash, who once saved the galaxy from the evil Forgers, is a broke loser and much less than meets the eye. But when an intergalactic evil appears and launches an attack, Dash, Kenzie, and the ship’s crew escape, making them the next target. On the run and low on gas, Dash and Kenzie encounter cannibal space-pirates, catastrophic equipment failure, and a cyborg who’s kind of a jerk. Kenzie is determined to discover the bad guys’ secret plan. But for her to succeed, Dash needs to keep his brilliant, annoying cadet from getting killed …which is a lot harder than it sounds.

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Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp

October 10, 2021October 10, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads10 Comments

I’m in a bit of a restless reading mood so I’ve struggled to focus on books this week/end. 😔 It’s giving me some pre-slump feels but I’m trying to push through, which means reading bits of books on rotation. Here’s what I’ve got going on so far:

I’m about 35% through Dim Stars and it’s so much fun! I love this quirky crew and I’ll be sharing my first impressions for the Storytellers on Tour book blitz starting tomorrow!

This cover kinda freaks me out? But the premise has me intrigued plus it’s so short (~90pgs), so it won’t take long to finish once I get into Games We Play!

I’m about 40% through The Bastard’s Betrayal and I’m loving Rose and Dante! I don’t know why I stopped but I think I’ll try to finish it tonight!

What are you currently reading?

Top 5 Saturday: Books with Bones on the Cover!

October 9, 2021October 9, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads15 Comments

It’s been a hot minute since I did a Top 5 Saturday post but of course I had to come back on the day when the topic is a toughie (for me!) LOL. 😂 It took a little bit of digging on Goodreads but I managed to find 5 books that are on my TBR that have bones on the cover and that I can’t wait to read! ☠️

If We Were Villains

Oliver Marks has just served ten years in jail – for a murder he may or may not have committed. On the day he’s released, he’s greeted by the man who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, but before he does, he wants to know what really happened a decade ago.

As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingenue, extra. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.

#FirstLinesFriday: 08 October 2021

October 8, 2021October 23, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads11 Comments

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 was the exploding unicorn that finally broke him.
Until she accidentally brained the most eminent pastry chef in London with a projectile hoof, Sylvie Fairchild had been casually speculating whether—like her ill-fated unicorn cake—Dominic De Vere also contained a hidden robotic mechanism.”