#TopTenTuesday: Mardi Gras Colour Covers!

February 16, 2021August 12, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads21 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: Purple, Yellow, and/or Green Book Covers (in honor of Mardi Gras, which is today!)

I’ve never celebrated Mardi Gras/Carnival in real life although I spent a few hours yesterday participating in the Festival event in Animal Crossing New Horizones and it was a definitely a fun time! 😉 So today’s prompt was a really fun one and I know I’m probably gonna be missing out on a ton of purple, yellow and green book covers but I tried to get a good mix of colours and genres on my list today (lol who am I kidding it’s mostly romance and fantasy! 😂). I’ve loved all of these books (and highly recommend them!) but it also doesn’t hurt that they have great covers too! 😍 I love the brightness and colour pop of all three colours but especially the purples and yellows! Anyway, without further ado, let’s take a look at these popping covers:

Goodreads Monday – The Shadows by Alex North

February 15, 2021June 23, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads8 Comments

Welcome back to Goodreads Monday! It’s been a very hot minute since I did one but I figured I might as well get back into it! This weekly meme was started by @Lauren’s Page Turners and it invites you to pick a book from your TBR and explain why you want to read it. Easy enough, right? Feel free to join in if you want to! I’ll be using a random number generator to pick my books from my insanely long GR Want-to-read list.*

*Sorry if a book has been featured twice. I need to make better note of which ones I’ve done already!

This week’s featured book is The Shadows by Alex North. This is a mystery/thriller with some horror that was published in 2020.

Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp

February 14, 2021June 23, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads18 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!

Earlier today I actually finished Take A Hint, Dani Brown and now I’m not quite sure what I want to read? I’m not sure if I want to pick up another romance or if I want to go something else? I’m really not sure what I’m in the mood for so I think I’m going to dabble in a few titles. Here are the few that I’m thinking of:

Have you read any of these books? Any recs? What are you currently reading?

Top 5 Saturday: Books with Unique Formats

February 13, 2021June 23, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads21 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: Book with Unique Format (Diary entries, verse, documents, podcast, blog, etc.)

I can’t believe I had such a hard time coming up with five books for this week’s prompt because I do love a book that’s written in mixed-media format. As it turns out though, I don’t seem to have a lot of them on my TBR although I can think of quite a few that I’ve read and loved, such as the Illuminae Files–which you MUST read if you haven’t yet! In the end, I’ve managed to come up with five books that are a mix of verse and epistolary, and some have been on my TBR for way too long (looking at you, Dracula!) but all of them are high on my priority list for this year!

First Lines Friday – 12 February

February 13, 2021June 23, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads9 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:

“The day Somebody McSomebody put a gun to my breast and called me a cat and threatened to shoot me was the same day the milkman died.”

Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?

Blog Tour Review: Bad Habits by Flynn Meaney

February 12, 2021June 23, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads7 Comments

Hey friends! I’m excited to be back for another tour with @TheWriteReads for Bad Habits by Flynn Meaney. Be sure to check out all the other bloggers participating in this tour: here! 😍

Special thanks to Penguin & Netgalley for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Goodreads: Bad Habits
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 11 February 2021
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary

Panda Rating:

_{(4 pandas)}

Hilarious, bold, sparky and surprising, this is the funniest feminist book you’ll read all year.

Alex is a rebel from the tip of her purple faux-hawk to the toes of her biker boots. She’s tried everything she can think of to get expelled from her strict Catholic boarding school. Nothing has worked so far – but now, Alex has a new plan. Tired of the sexism she sees in every corner of St Mary’s, Alex decides to stage the school’s first ever production of The Vagina Monologues. Which is going to be a challenge, as no one else at St Mary’s can even bear to say the word ‘vagina’ out loud . . .

BUY NOW: Book Depository | Amazon (UK) | Amazon (US)

#TopTenTuesday: Adult Romances by Authors of Colour

February 9, 2021August 12, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads39 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: Valentine’s Day/Love Freebie

I’ve seen people posting some really fun and creative content for today’s valentine/love freebie and I wanted to do something fun too, but seeing as I have zero ability to plan posts ahead of time, I’ve decided to just share the adult romances by authors of colour that I can’t wait to get my hands on this year. Tied with my love for fantasy, romance is my favourite genre and they make up more than half of the books I read every year. I just love love, y’know? Give me those HEA, the swoony moments, the favourite tropes like friends-to-lovers, the marshmallow soft-on-the-inside heroes, the feisty kick-ass heroines, the delightful banter, explosive chemistry and YES, the *fans self* steaminess!

One goal I have this year is to focus more on romances by authors of colour. I want to be more intentional in picking up diverse romances and I’m glad to see more and more romance by AOC popping up on my radar! This list is a mix of backlist and upcoming releases and I’m so excited to try all of them. Let me know if you have any recommendations–gimme all that good love, please! 😍

Goodreads Monday – Again Again by E. Lockhart

February 8, 2021June 23, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads6 Comments

*Sorry if a book has been featured twice. I need to make better note of which ones I’ve done already!

This week’s featured book is Again Again by E. Lockhart. This is a YA contemporary/coming-of-age story that was published in 2020.

Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp

February 7, 2021June 23, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads5 Comments

I’ve spent very little of this Sunday with a book but I plan to finish the day off finishing Bad Habits. This is for a blog tour next week and I picked it up in between my romance binges last week, so I’m taking my time with it but I’m really enjoying it so far. While our MC, Alex, can be a bit much at times, I’ve laughed several times cos of her snarky and sassy voice and it’s honesty such a good time. The story is definitely as loud (and fun) as this cover makes it out to be! 😉

Hilarious, bold, sparky and surprising, this is the funniest feminist book you’ll read all year.

Alex is a rebel from the tip of her purple fauxhawk to the toes of her biker boots. She’s tried everything she can think of to get expelled from her strict Catholic boarding school. Nothing has worked so far – but now, Alex has a new plan.
Tired of the sexism she sees in every corner of St Mary’s, Alex decides to stage the school’s first ever production of The Vagina Monologues. Which is going to be a challenge, as no one else at St Mary’s can even bear to say the word ‘vagina’ out loud . . .

What are you currently reading?

Top 5 Saturday: Royalty in the Title

February 6, 2021June 23, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads10 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: Royalty in the Title (King, Queen, Princess, Prince, etc.)

This was only easy because of the search function on Goodreads but otherwise I had a surprisingly difficult time calling to mind the “royal titles” I have on my TBR. Memory, she eludes me often! 😂 On the whole, while it does seem that there are a lot of titles with royalty in them, I don’t seem to find myself gravitating towards them more than other kinds of titles/books. I do read quite a few stories about royals as they’re found in abundance in fantasies, especially YA, but perhaps I think that because I read mostly YA. With that said, here are five titles that are on my TBR that I’m looking forward to reading! Unsurprisingly, most are fantasy but there’s a romance and poetry collection in the mix too! 😉