#TopTenTuesday: The Dreaded Book Hangovers!

February 18, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads56 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: the last ten books that gave me a book hangover!

This is a toughie because I really can’t remember the last time I had a book hangover? I don’t think I have them that often and most of the time it’s because I try to push through those feelings (and I guess I’m pretty good at it)! 😂 When I think about books that have given me hangovers, they’re usually the ones that leave me so emotionally devastated and thinking “what in the actual f did I just read?!” They’re the ones I can’t get out of my head when I want to try reading something new; the ones whose stories and characters play on an endless loop because I want more of exactly that kind of emotional devastation (such a masochist but it’s true). Some books I’ve read lately have high book hangover potential, namely Love Lettering, but I refuse to allow myself to dwell too long on the feels because I have book deadlines! But the characters are definitely lingering in my mind.

Goodreads Monday – Tweet Cute by Emma Lord

February 17, 2020February 17, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads13 Comments

It’s the first Goodreads Monday of 2020, friends! 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.

This week’s book is Tweet Cute by Emma Lord. The hype is super real for this book! I think I’ve already mentioned this book a few times in several posts so y’all know how excited I am to read this contemporary YA romance. It has a 4.12 star average with 3.4k+ ratings and 1.4k+ reviews.

Top 5 Saturday: Books about Mermaids

February 15, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads26 Comments

We’re back with another Top 5 Saturday! I might’ve missed last week’s topic but I will come back to it at some point 🙂 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: books about mermaids!

I don’t know about you but I’ve always loved the idea of mermaids and especially of being one! I surprisingly (or not) can’t recall having read many books about mermaids but I do have several on my TBR now (and they’re not all of the pining-teenager Ariel variety but more like the will-eat-you-alive kind)! Here’s what’s on my list:

I was lucky enough to get picked for the blog tour for The Deep. It looks and sounds sufficiently creepy and since we all know I’m a chicken, I’m starting to wonder what business I have reading a book that’s guaranteed to terrify me? I guess I just won’t step into the ocean for a while (not at all hard to do when living on a tropical island *cough*)!

I’ve been really looking forward to giving Sea Witch a try. I have to be honest and say the gorgeous cover is what initially caught my eye but I’m hoping the content will be just as good (although I have heard some mixed reviews)!

All the Stars and Teeth isn’t only about mermaids but I thought it still counts. Again it’s mostly thanks to the insanely good looking cover that caught my eye that this was put on my radar, and I’m only convinced to read it even more now because I’ve seen so many reviews for it lately. They are mixed reviews but I’m hoping I’ll enjoy it all the same!

I’ve heard a lot of great things about Christina Henry’s books and a few of them have admittedly been sitting on my Kindle library for quite some time now… The Mermaid is one of them and I’m really curious to see what her writing is like!

I’ve been looking forward to giving Coral a try ever since I first heard about it but I heard it can be quite triggering as it’s quite heavy on the mental health issues. I’m looking forward to finally picking it up once I feel ready for it though!

Upcoming Schedule:

02 Feb 2020: Dystopian books
08 Feb 2020: Mental Illness
15 Feb 2020: Books about Mermaids
22 Feb 2020: Books about spies
29 Feb 2020: Books inspired by mythology

Do you like reading books with mermaids? What are some of your favourites? Share your recs down below!

First Lines Friday – 14 February

February 14, 2020February 14, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads10 Comments

HAPPY FRIDAY AND LOVERS DAY, book friends! 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:

“On Sunday I work in sans serif.
Boldface for all the headers, because that’s what the client wants, apexes and vertexes flattened way out into big floors and tables for every letter, each one stretching and counting and demanding to be seen.”

Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?

#WWWWednesday: 12 February

February 12, 2020February 12, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads17 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?

Since last Wednesday I’ve managed to finish five books and that’s mostly thanks to my binge reading the rest of the Texting series by Teagan Hunter over the weekend. I may just have discovered a new favourite romance author!

To Kill A Mocking Girl (Bookbinding Mystery #1) by Harper Kincaid ★★★★★
This was my first ever cosy mystery and it had me strongly questioning WHY I hadn’t picked up these types of books before. It had so many things that I love in a book–supportive close-knit communities, a loveable family dynamics, entertaining MCs, a budding swoon-worthy romance, doggos, and an intriguing mystery! I adored this book and I’m gutted it’s not even out yet (and won’t be until May 2020) because I’m already looking forward to the rest of this series. This was Kincaid’s debut mystery too, although she does write romances so I’m tempted to check them out. My full review will be out closer to the pub date!

Nils: The Tree of Life by Jerome Hamon ★★★☆☆
While the illustrations blew me away (seriously gorgeous art work!) the storyline of Nils was weak and I often found myself confused with what was happening, especially towards the climax. The story felt disjointed at times, jumping too quickly from one fast-paced scene to another, without proper explanations and that was a bit of a let down. Can’t recommend the illustrations more though! If this illustrator put out a book of just their drawings I’d so be down to read it. Check out my full review.

Texting Series by Teagan Hunter ★★★★☆ (average)
I was looking for a lighthearted romcom and this series ticked all the boxes! It’s been a while since I’ve laughed so much reading a romance and I loved every minute of it. The titles are pun-tastic and the cheese is strong in pretty much all of the books but the geeky humor, swoon worthy heros and super sassy heroines make for some deliciously fun (not to mention steamy) times! Check out my full series review.

#TopTenTuesday: Romancing my TBR!

February 11, 2020February 11, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads30 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: a love freebie!

Is it merely a coincidence that I am in a romance mood when it’s Valentine’s Day this week? Absolutely. I’ve never been big on the ‘holiday’ and not because I’m single–I just feel like it’s an unnecessary way to spend more money (lol ok grinch) but of course I’m happy to receive chocolates from friends and colleagues (I’m not kidding anyone about having a secret or not-so-secret admirer lmao)! 😉 This past weekend I binged a new favourite romcom series and now my heart is ready for more laughs and loving feels. Since this is a love freebie, I’m going to share ten contemporary romances that I’m going to try and read this week (kidding! …maybe).*

*Sorry I’m boring and not sharing cool favourites or recs lists! 🤣

Goodreads Monday – The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson

February 10, 2020February 10, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads7 Comments

This week’s book is The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson. Is it a surprise that I was surprised to find this book on my Goodreads TBR considering it is now 1,064 books long? I didn’t even know this book existed until it came up as my random pick for today’s post 😂 But apparently I shelved it in October 2018. It has a 3.65 average with 14.8k+ ratings and 2.4k+ reviews.

Top 5 Saturday: Mental Illness Rep

February 8, 2020February 9, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads19 Comments

This week’s topic is: mental illness. I have so many books with mental illness rep on my TBR and it’s so hard to just pick five. I think these are the ones that I’d like to read as soon as possible though, plus they’re all already on my physical/Kindle shelves! I also just realised all of my picks are YA?

I’ve only read one book by John Green although of course I’ve heard plenty of rave reviews about his books, this one included. I’ve heard that the mental health rep is very well done!

First Lines Friday – 07 February

February 7, 2020February 7, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads13 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:

“Benny Imura couldn’t hold a job, so he took to killing.”

Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?

My Thoughts While Writing Book Reviews: Panic and No Disco!

February 6, 2020August 30, 2024 Dini @ dinipandareads26 Comments

I was looking through the posts sitting in my draft folder and came across this “Off Tangent Thoughts” post that I guess I never got around to sharing last year. I thought it was funny to see what I had written because even though I don’t think my thought process is as hectic as it was (such as when I was writing this post), I still do go through challenging moments especially when it comes to my memory and remembering what I read, even if I did just finish a book yesterday! So I thought I’d finally share this post today.

Off Tangent Thoughts (OTT) was a new meme hosted by Charvi @Not Just Fiction in 2019, but it has since been stopped due to a lack of time; that said, bloggers can still post about the prompts. OTT was a bi-monthly meme that has a basic list-based format wherein bloggers express their points in the form of a short or long list with the points under the list being merely a couple lines or even complete paragraphs. It’s about letting your thoughts run wild! The OTT prompt that I’ll be answering today is: Thoughts I Have While Writing Book Reviews. I’m going to start with when I open a new book because that’s when I *attempt* to start preparing for my review… Here we go…