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?

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! 😉

KING OF SCARS

Top 5 Saturday: Weapons on the Cover

January 31, 2021June 23, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads17 Comments

I didn’t think I would struggle so hard to think of covers with weapons on them but I ended up spending a good chunk of time scrolling through my Goodreads TBR to find books for today’s prompt. I’m probably going to be smacking myself in the face when I see other peoples Top 5 Saturday lists because I’ll probably realise I have plenty more books with these covers on my TBR and I just totally forgot about them! 😂

Do I search out these kinds of covers? Not particularly. Do I also find myself more intrigued by a book if it has a weapon on the cover? I think it depends on what else is on there. I know none of these pulled me in because of the weapons–well, okay maybe a bit for These Violent Delights, but all the elements of the cover merge together so nicely and I love how the weapon is kind of obscured but also stands out the more you look at it! Anyway, before I go waffling on any further, here’s what I got on my list:

First Lines Friday – 29 January

January 29, 2021June 23, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads7 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:

“Don’t look down, I told myself. If you look down, you’re friggin’ screwed.
There I was, hanging from a second floor window of St Ambrose Hall in a denim miniskirt and my motorcycle boots.”

Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?

First Lines Friday – 22 January

January 22, 2021June 23, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads10 Comments

It’s been a hot minute since I did my last FLF but I’m back with it today!

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:

“I never meant to kill my brother. I never set out to hate my father. I never dreamed I would bury my own son. Nor could I have imagined that I would betray the childhood friend who saved my life, or win a Pulitzer Prize for telling a lie.”

Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?

Top 5 Saturday: Metals in the Title

January 16, 2021June 23, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads14 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: Metal in the Title (Gold, Silver, Brass, Steel, etc.).

I surprisingly don’t have a lot of books with metals in the titles and neither have I read that many apparently, but I did mange to *just* come up with a list of five that I’m looking forward to reading (mostly). One of them, The Goldfinch has been sat unfinished on my TBR since I started reading it during my worst ever reading slump and that was a bad decision as now I associate that book to that horrible time? I got about 70% through the book and I’m sad I didn’t push myself to keep reading it. The others are ones that I’ve heard mostly good things about while some, like Silver Sparrow, I’ve seen mostly mixed reviews for. Still, I’m eager to check all of these out at some point, especially The City of Brass as so many people have raved about how good that series is!

THE GOLDFINCH BY DONNA TARTT

Top 5 Saturday: Multiple POVs

January 9, 2021June 23, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads25 Comments

I didn’t think I’d have such a hard time coming up with a list for this week’s prompt but I gotta admit that I struggled a little bit. It feels like I haven’t made one of these lists for a while (even though that’s falsies, brain!) so I think I just needed a good warm up by browsing through my Goodreads shelf and staring at my actual bookshelf 😂 Weirdly enough, it worked! I usually love a book with multiple POVs especially when they involve a big cast of characters, like in a lot of YA fantasy. It helps to get a better and more well-rounded picture of what’s going on in the story and I tend to enjoy experiencing events through various characters eyes. As long as it’s well done, of course!

I’m pretty sure at least two of these are definitely multiple POVs but I don’t think I’m wrong in thinking they all are? I’m looking forward to reading them as I’ve heard rave reviews about them all!

Top 5 Saturday: 2021 Releases

December 26, 2020December 25, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads26 Comments

Unlike last year when I spent a good amount of time populating my 2020 releases list on Goodreads, I haven’t really done much of that this year so I know that what’s on my radar is fairly limited to mostly romance and some YA fantasy. These are the two genres I read most of anyway but I know I’m still missing out on *a lot* of what’s coming out next year, so I can’t wait to get caught up with that in the coming week as work slows down and I have more “free” time 😉 But I digress… Here are some books that made it onto my radar and that I’m stupid excited for!

First Lines Friday – 25 December

December 25, 2020December 25, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads8 Comments

🎄 Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all friends who celebrate! 🎄

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:

“I’ve never understood why the heart always reacts. A shot of adrenaline is all it takes, triggered by a thought. A word. A memory. And every time the reaction is singular, a fingerprint of a moment.”

Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?

Top 5 Saturday: Celebrity Authors!

December 19, 2020December 19, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads8 Comments

I’m not really sure what this week’s prompt means with ‘famous authors’ but I’ve decided to interpret it as literal famous authors, so celebrities and the like! Most of these are memoirs that I’ve been looking forward to for a while, especially JVN’s because while he can be so extra sometimes, I absolutely love him to death! I’m also really looking forward to checking out the poetry book on this list as I’m a big Halsey fan. 🥰 So without further ado, let’s get to it!