Book Spotlight + Excerpt: Revenge by Dani Hoots

December 9, 2021December 9, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads5 Comments

Hello, friends! Today I’m shining a book spotlight on Revenge by Dani Hoots.

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

Special thanks to the author, Dani Hoots, for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review

Goodreads: Revenge (City of Kaus #1)
Publisher: FoxTales Press
Publish Date: 16 November 2021
Genre: YA/NA Western Sci-Fi, LGBTQ+

A swashbuckling upper YA/NA LGBTQ+ sci-fi western you don’t want to miss!

It has been three years since Elvira “Ellie” Ryder was betrayed by her ex-boyfriend Cor, which caused the destruction of her people by invaders from a different Zone. Now she will do anything to find him and make him pay.

Ellie has found someone who knows where Cor is. The price—assassinate a half-human, half-Sirian who is trying to join the Society, a high-class club only for the rich. Ellie takes the job, as it wouldn’t be the first assassination job she has taken, and heads to the Human Zone. However, when she learns more about her target, the more she realizes what is going on behind the curtain, and how her people were really destroyed.

Will Ellie be able to forgive Cor after learning the truth? Or will she forever hold on to that hatred?

*Rep: Bisexual, asexual, & gay

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Book Spotlight + Excerpt: Towers and Tithes by Christina Bauer

November 19, 2021November 18, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads3 Comments

Hello, friends! Today I’m shining a book spotlight on Towers and Tithes by Christina Bauer. This is actually the eighth book in the Fairy Tales of the Magicorum series but all the books in this series can be read as a standalone!

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

Special thanks to Monster House Books for providing an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Goodreads: Towers and Tithes (Fairytales of the Magicorum #8)
Publisher: Monster House Books
Publish Date: 09 November 2021
Genre: YA Paranormal Fantasy, Retellings

I’m a Tower Tithe with a Rapunzel problem. That’s not as weird as it sounds.

Ever wonder how Rapunzel survives without leaving her home? After all, someone must stock groceries, buy hair products and fix the plumbing. Witches don’t wield toilet brushes, so “Rapunzel care” becomes the job of Tower Tithes like me. Not that we choose this gig. We’re just unlucky elves who get magically chucked into servitude. Since our kind live for ages, being a Tower Tithe can drag on for thousands of years… and I’m eighteen. Yipes.

That said, it wouldn’t be too awful if I had a cool Rapunzel. No such luck.

I serve none other than Lady R, the social media sensation and sadist who lives in Manhattan’s famous Apex Towers. With the help of her manager—a witch named Jocasta—Lady R releases daily gossip videos while assigning me “torture chores.” Many tasks are designed to remind me how Lady R is the gorgeous variety of elf, while I’m beyond plain. I spend a lot of time scheming my escape.

My work pays off when an eccentric billionaire offers to magically set me free. The catch? I must move to Arizona and become his personal assistant. Needless to say, I rush for the door. Turns out, my new employer is none other than Lady R’s ex-boyfriend, Dex, a guy who was blinded in a strange accident and has since become a recluse.

In other words, I ran from my fairy tale life, but it found me again anyway.

At this point, I should head for the hills, yet I simply can’t leave Dex. For the first time, I truly feel comfortable around someone. In all honesty, it’s probably because I have self-esteem issues and Dex can’t see my bland face. Even so, it’s all good until Lady R discovers where I am. And that leads to my Rapunzel problem.

With Lady R back in the picture, can I still find my happily ever after? The truth will emerge soon enough.
Because my name is Grayson Eyre, and this is my story.

Ideal for readers who crave a mash-up between Rapunzel and Jane Eyre.

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Book Spotlight: How Do You Live? by Genzaburo Yoshino, translated by Bruno Navasky

October 28, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads4 Comments

Special thanks to Algonquin Books for providing an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Hello, friends! Today I’m shining a book spotlight on How Do You Live? by Genazburo Yoshino. This book is the first English translation of the Japanese classic and it has a foreword by Neil Gaiman! It has also inspired the world-famous director: Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki is the genius behind some of my all-time favourites from Ghibli Studio (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbour Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Howl’s Moving Castle, etc.), so of course I’m interested in seeing what inspired the man! 😍

Goodreads: How Do You Live?
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Publish Date: 26 October 2021
Genre: Middle-Grade Fiction, Japanese Literature

Anime master Hayao Miyazaki’s favorite childhood book, in English for the first time.
First published in 1937, Genzaburō Yoshino’s How Do You Live? has long been acknowledged in Japan as a crossover classic for young readers. Academy Award–winning animator Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle) has called it his favorite childhood book and announced plans to emerge from retirement to make it the basis of a final film.

How Do You Live? is narrated in two voices. The first belongs to Copper, fifteen, who after the death of his father must confront inevitable and enormous change, including his own betrayal of his best friend. In between episodes of Copper’s emerging story, his uncle writes to him in a journal, sharing knowledge and offering advice on life’s big questions as Copper begins to encounter them. Over the course of the story, Copper, like his namesake Copernicus, looks to the stars, and uses his discoveries about the heavens, earth, and human nature to answer the question of how he will live.

This first-ever English-language translation of a Japanese classic about finding one’s place in a world both infinitely large and unimaginably small is perfect for readers of philosophical fiction like The Alchemist and The Little Prince, as well as Miyazaki fans eager to understand one of his most important influences.

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Book Spotlight: The Archer by Shruti Swamy

September 10, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads3 Comments

Special thanks to Algonquin Books for providing an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review 😊

Hello, friends! I’m happy to shine a spotlight today on The Archer by Shruti Swamy.

“This is a singular work, a story of a dancer, and of a hungry self seated at the table of womanness and desire and art, told with unparalleled originality and elegance. Swamy writes with a thrilling clarity of vision that wakes the sleepwalker right into joyful consciousness. Every word is intimate, honest, ecstatic—utterly alive. I will hold this novel close, and return to it for companionship, for instruction, and for pure pleasure. I love and treasure this book.”
—Meng Jin, author of Little Gods

Goodreads: The Archer
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Publish Date: 07 September 2021
Genre: Literary Cultural Fiction

As a child, Vidya exists to serve her family, watch over her younger brother, and make sense of a motherless world. One day she catches sight of a class where the students are learning Kathak, a precise, dazzling form of dance that requires the utmost discipline and focus. Kathak quickly becomes the organizing principle of Vidya’s life, even as she leaves home for college, falls in love with her best friend, and battles demands on her time, her future, and her body. Can Vidya give herself over to her art and also be a wife in Bombay’s carefully delineated society? Can she shed the legacy of her own imperfect, unknowable mother? Must she, herself, also become a mother?

Intensely lyrical and deeply sensual, with writing as rhythmically mesmerizing as Kathak itself, The Archer is about the transformative power of art and the possibilities that love can open when we’re ready.

Book Spotlight: The Meeting Point by Olivia Lara

August 19, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads4 Comments

Hello, friends! I’m back with another The Write Reads blog tour post for you today and it’s a spotlight for The Meeting Point by Olivia Lara! There are so many wonderful reviews that you can find here and I hope that you do check them out if the plot piques your interest 😊

Goodreads: The Meeting Point
Publisher: Aria Fiction
Publish Date: 02 September 2021
Genre: Contemporary Romance

What if the Lift driver who finds your cheating boyfriend’s phone holds the directions to true love?

‘Who are you and why do you have my boyfriend’s phone?’

‘He left it in my car. You must be the blonde in the red dress? I’m the Lift driver who dropped you two off earlier.’

And with these words, the life of the brunette and t-shirt wearing Maya Maas is turned upside down. Having planned to surprise her boyfriend, she finds herself single and stranded in an unknown city on her birthday.

So when the mystery driver rescues Maya with the suggestion that she cheers herself up at a nearby beach town, she jumps at the chance to get things back on track. She wasn’t expecting a personalised itinerary or the easy companionship that comes from opening up to a stranger via text, let alone the possibility it might grow into something more…

Come on this 5* journey to love, laughter and back again, perfect for fans of Mhairi McFarlane, Josie Silver and Sally Thorne.

Book Spotlight + Excerpt: Paladin Unbound by Jeffrey Speight

July 1, 2021July 1, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads4 Comments

🎂 HAPPY PUB DAY TO PALADIN UNBOUND! 🥳

Hi, friends! I’m delighted to share a book spotlight + excerpt today as part of the tour hosted by Storytellers on Tour for Paladin Unbound by Jeffrey Speight!

Be sure to check out the rest of the bloggers on tour by clicking the banner below.

Goodreads: Paladin Unbound
Publisher: Literary Wanderlust
Publish Date: 01 July 2021
Genre: Epic Fantasy

The last of a dying breed, a holy warrior must rise up against a growing darkness in Evelium.

The most unlikely of heroes, a lowly itinerant mercenary, Umhra the Peacebreaker is shunned by society for his mongrel half-Orc blood. Desperate to find work for himself and his band of fighters, Umhra agrees to help solve a rash of mysterious disappearances, but uncovers a larger, more insidious plot to overthrow the natural order of Evelium in the process.

As Umhra journeys into the depths of Telsidor’s Keep to search for the missing, he confronts an ancient evil and, after suffering a great loss, turns to the god he disavowed for help.

Compelled to save the kingdom he loves, can he defeat the enemy while protecting his true identity, or must he risk everything?

CW/TW: Gore, Violence, Racism, Body Horror, Torture, Human Trafficking

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Book Spotlight + Excerpt + Giveaway:Beautiful Facade by Kathryn S Rose

February 5, 2021June 23, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads7 Comments

Hi, friends! I’m delighted to share a book spotlight + excerpt today as part of the Xpresso Tours tour for Beautiful Facade by Kathryn S Rose! There’s also a tour-wide giveaway (INT) so don’t forget to enter–details at the end of my post!

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

Goodreads: Beautiful Facade
Publish Date: 02 February 2021
Genre: Contemporary Romance, New Adult

On the day that 16-year-old Winter Starling had her life and dreams shattered by a sexual assault, she meets Kai, a boy from her high school obsessed with music. They develop a deep friendship, which comes to an abrupt end when Kai unexpectedly has to leave. Winter has no idea why he went or any way to contact him.

Ten years pass, and Winter has constructed a new reality for herself. Now living in Melbourne, she has a successful career in advertising and is engaged to Liam King, a star player in Australian Rules Football. Winter has a perfect life.

During a night out, Winter runs into Kai, now the lead singer of ‘The Stonevilles.’ Winter and Kai rekindle their friendship, and to everyone around them, their attraction is evident. With Kai back in her life, Winter’s past threatens to ruin her relationship with Liam and everything she has worked to achieve. But can she risk losing Kai a second time?

Emotional and edgy, Beautiful Facade is about love, loss, healing, self-discovery, and the messy battle between one’s head and one’s heart.

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Book Spotlight + Excerpt: Relentless Habit by Karen Renee

September 30, 2020September 30, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads4 Comments

Hi, friends! I’m delighted to share a book spotlight + excerpt today as part of the Xpresso Tours tour for Relentless Habit by Karen Renee!

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

Goodreads: Relentless Habit (O-Town #1)
Publish Date: 01 September 2020
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Cecilia Lyons escapes her sordid past by moving to Orlando and reinventing herself. Staying clean is challenging enough, but she’s challenged further when she catches the eye of the sexiest deejay in Orlando. Desperately, she wants to tell Brock her secret, but telling him would taint his view of her. It’s been years since she’s had a healthy relationship, and the more time she spends with Brock, the harder she falls for him. To protect her heart, she keeps her secret.

Brock Sullivan trusts very few people. Abandoned by his mother and tragically losing his first love, he puts little faith in women. When he meets Cecilia, he is unprepared for their overwhelming attraction. Not only is she a habit he doesn’t want to break, being with her forces him to rethink his beliefs. Even when he learns the worst about Cecilia, he can’t stay away. But when push comes to shove, will Brock be able to keep her safe?