First Lines Friday – 03 April

April 3, 2020April 3, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads10 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:

“Gina Luca knew one thing right down to the very marrow of her wedding-planner bones: brides were the devil. And a bridezilla on her fourth round of tequila shots during the reception? A highly flammable devil capable of anything, including hijacking the videographer and projecting an impromptu Kiss Cam on the movie theater-sized screen behind the bridal party dais.”

Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?

#TopTenTuesday: Signs You’re A Book Lover

March 31, 2020March 31, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads38 Comments

We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: signs you’re a book lover (basically, people know you’re a book lover because… i.e., you’re always carrying a book or two, your library card broke from overuse, etc.)

Friends, these last two weeks have been a time and my weary mind is finding it so hard to focus on anything (as I’m sure almost all of you can relate to). It’s insane! I think the only thing I’ve been able to focus on lately is gaming–not even reading and that’s the craziest part, right?! Maybe this week’s list will remind me why I can still call myself a book lover? 🤣 My brain is seemingly determined to forget what books are since I got my Switch Lite last week… I’m really hoping that something is going to suck me back into reading though, because right now I’m struggling to put down these games. But before I digress even further… here’s a list of 10 signs that I’m a book lover! 📖

First Lines Friday – 27 March

March 27, 2020March 27, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads21 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:

“The journalists arrived before the coffin did. They gathered at the gate overnight and by dawn they were a crowd. By nine o’clock they were a swarm.”

Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?

Anonymous Bookaholics Tag

March 27, 2020March 26, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads25 Comments

I wasn’t tagged to do this post so of course I’m going to be doing it before all the ones I’m actually tagged in! 🙃 I saw Kirsty @ Caffeinated Fae post this on her blog today and it looked like a fun and short tag to do and since my mind is clearly not gunning for the “heavier” stuff right now I thought why not do it!? So here I am and here we go…

What do you like about buying new books?

Does “everything” count as an answer? Well, except for parting with my money… 💸 But no really, I love the new book smell, I love adding an anticipated read to my shelves, I love discovering a new book that I’ve never heard of before. I love walking out of the story with new worlds full of delicious possibilities waiting to be discovered!

Book Review: Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley

March 26, 2020October 12, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads28 Comments

Goodreads: Words in Deep Blue
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: 30 August 2016
Genre: YA Contemporary, YA Romance

Panda Rating:

This is a love story.

It’s the story of Howling Books, where readers write letters to strangers, to lovers, to poets.

It’s the story of Henry Jones and Rachel Sweetie. They were best friends once, before Rachel moved to the sea
Now, she’s back, working at the bookstore, grieving for her brother Cal and looking for the future in the books people love, and the words they leave behind

So wow, I really wasn’t ready for my feels to be completely shattered reading this book. I was a quietly blubbering hot mess by the time I reached the end! I’m not even sure what I can say other than I absolutely loved it. This one reached right into my heart and gave it a big ‘ole squeeze and basically screamed at me to FEEL THINGS.

#TopTenTuesday: Best Families/Friends in Romances

March 24, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads36 Comments

We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: Genre Freebie (pick a genre and build a list around it! i.e., best/worst romances, non-fiction for travelers, memoirs for foodies, classics that feel timeless, romance novel kisses, science fiction that feels too real for comfort, women’s fiction for newbies, etc.)

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I’ve been on a romance/romcom reading streak lately. I’ve tried picking up countless SFF books that I’ve been excited to read but intricate world building, science speak, and made-up/new languages do not seem to be the thing for my weary and anxious mind right now. But romances/romcoms have been a solid winner and they’ve brought much joy into my life!

I’ve come to realise that one of the reasons I love romance is because of the family/friend characters in the stories; not all of them have it but the ones that do are a shoe-in for favourites! I am a total sucker for great banter between siblings and groups of friends. They’re the kind of interactions that worm their way into my heart and make me feel happy and light–not to mention they’re usually the ones that have me “awwing” and cackling like crazy! So today I’ll be sharing a list of romances that have great families/friends and that you should definitely check out if you’re looking for something light-hearted, funny and maybe just a smidge sexy! 😉

Review: The Bromance Book Club (Bromance Book Club #1) by Lyssa Kay Adams

March 24, 2020August 18, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads32 Comments

Goodreads: The Bromance Book Club (Bromance Book Club #1)
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Sports Romance

Panda Rating:

The first rule of book club: You don’t talk about book club.

Nashville Legends second baseman Gavin Scott’s marriage is in major league trouble. He’s recently discovered a humiliating secret: his wife Thea has always faked the Big O. When he loses his cool at the revelation, it’s the final straw on their already strained relationship. Thea asks for a divorce, and Gavin realizes he’s let his pride and fear get the better of him.

Welcome to the Bromance Book Club.

Distraught and desperate, Gavin finds help from an unlikely source: a secret romance book club made up of Nashville’s top alpha men. With the help of their current read, a steamy Regency titled Courting the Countess, the guys coach Gavin on saving his marriage. But it’ll take a lot more than flowery words and grand gestures for this hapless Romeo to find his inner hero and win back the trust of his wife.

I’ve had this one sitting on my shelf for quite a while now and have been excited to read it ever since I first heard about it. There’s a lot of hype around this book and while I did have some issues with it, overall I’m glad to say that this second-chance romance lived up to the hype for me!

Top 5 Saturday: Magical Realism

March 21, 2020March 21, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads23 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: magical realism!

I have a very love/hate relationship with magical realism! A lot of the time they’re misses for me and I find it weird because of how much I love fantasy. But in reality magical realism tends to overwhelm and confuse me, and I focus so much on trying to understand what’s happening that I stop enjoying it. That said, there are some definite winners such as The Shadow of the Wind, The Astonishing Colour of After, and Sourdough, which are some of my favourite books. I guess I’m just picky with magical realism? Here are five books from my TBR that have magical realism elements:

Born at the stroke of midnight at the exact moment of India’s independence, Saleem Sinai is a special child. However, this coincidence of birth has consequences he is not prepared for: telepathic powers connect him with 1,000 other ‘midnight’s children’ all of whom are endowed with unusual gifts. Inextricably linked to his nation, Saleem’s story is a whirlwind of disasters and triumphs that mirrors the course of modern India at its most impossible and glorious.

I’ve wanted to read Midnight’s Children for a long time but a friend bought me a copy a few weeks ago! This book (or should I say its author) intimidates me. I’m scared it’ll go over my head!

First Lines Friday – 20 March

March 20, 2020March 18, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads19 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:

“As Sancia Grado lay facedown in the mud, stuffed underneath the wooden deck next to the old stone wall, she reflected that this evening was not going at all as she had wanted.”

Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?

#TopTenTuesday: Spring Possibility Pile!

March 17, 2020March 17, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads48 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: spring ~~TBR~~ possibility pile!

To say that I’ve got a ton of eARCs that need to be read over the next few months would really be a mild understatement. Why do I keep requesting more books and why do I keep signing up for more blog tours after telling myself I’d take a nice long break from it for a while? *shrugs* I got problems. As fun as it’d be to list all those books here, there are a few others that have been sitting on my TBR that I’d like to get to soon as well, so this is my possibility pile for those reads!