Tag: Book Review

Blog Tour Review: Song of the Six Realms by Judy I. Lin

Dini @ dinipandareads8 Comments

Hello, friends. ✨ Today I’m excited to be part of the blog tour for Song of the Six Realms by Judy I. Lin! Special thanks to the TBR & Beyond Tours team for organising the tour and including me in it.

Thanks to Feiwel & Friends for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Click here or on the banner above to check out the rest of the fantastic bloggers on tour!

Song of the Six Realms
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Publication Date: 23 April 2024
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Rep: Chinese mythology, LGBTQIA+, demisexual

Panda Rating:

(4 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

Xue, a talented young musician, has no past and probably no future. Orphaned at a young age, her kindly poet uncle took her in and arranged for an apprenticeship at one of the most esteemed entertainment houses in the kingdom. She doesn’t remember much from before entering the House of Flowing Water, and when her uncle is suddenly killed in a bandit attack, she is devastated to lose her last connection to a life outside of her indenture contract.

With no family and no patron, Xue is facing the possibility of a lifetime of servitude playing the qin for nobles that praise her talent with one breath and sneer at her lowly social status with the next. Then one night she is unexpectedly called to the garden to put on a private performance for the enigmatic Duke Meng. The young man is strangely kind and awkward for nobility, and surprises Xue further with an irresistible serve as a musician in residence at his manor for one year, and he’ll set her free of her indenture.

But the Duke’s motives become increasingly more suspect when he and Xue barely survive an attack by a nightmarish monster, and when he whisks her away to his estate, she discovers he’s not just some country He’s the Duke of Dreams, one of the divine rulers of the Celestial Realm. There she learns the Six Realms are on the brink of disaster, and incursions by demonic beasts are growing more frequent.

The Duke needs Xue’s help to unlock memories from her past that could hold the answers to how to stop the impending war… but first Xue will need to survive being the target of every monster and deity in the Six Realms.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Death of parents (off page), grief, death of Fantasy Animals

📚 BUY A COPY!

TL;DR: In Song of the Six Realms, Lin draws us into a richly developed world inspired by Chinese mythology and lore. Following Xue’s journey, we explore the concepts of fate and what it means to be human experiencing the highs and lows of life. With writing that flows, characters that are easy to root for, and a mysterious turn of events that will make you question the trustworthiness of everyone you meet, it was easy to immerse myself in the story. While not the fastest-paced nor the most action-packed (at least in the beginning), I found myself thoroughly enjoying this story and exploring the mythology that’s woven into its pages. If you enjoyed Lin’s debut, I think it’s safe to say you’ll probably enjoy this one too!

Read More »

Book Review: The Wolf and the Wildflower by Stacy Reid

Dini @ dinipandareads1 Comment

The Wolf and the Wildflower
Publisher: Amara
Pub Date: 27 February 2023
Genre: Historical Romance

Panda Rating:

(4 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

USA Today bestselling author Stacy Reid’s addictive tale of two lost people who are found…by each other.

London is buzzing with the news that James Winters, the Duke of Wulverton—thought lost at sea a decade ago—survived in the harsh wilderness of the Yukon. Now he’s been returned to his family, his responsibilities, and a nightmarish world of artifice and noise. He has three weeks to become a refined, elegant duke for the Queen…or doom the entire family to ruin and scandal.

Promising psychologist Jules Southby knows a lot about disguises. She’s secretly been living as a boy since birth, enjoying the freedoms of men and knowing little about how to behave like a woman. When she meets the alluring duke, she’s unprepared for his raw, masculine beauty and icy intelligence…or that he can see through her darkest secret.

Jules has very little time to transform the duke into a true semblance of an English gentleman. Yet his very presence seems to unravel her in every way. Their attraction is stark and achingly real—and forbidden. But loving the lost duke would mean losing every sacrifice she’s made to earn her freedom…

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Difficult childbirth, forced pregnancy (not the FMC)

TL;DR: This plot was absolutely bonkers but it is absolutely the best thing about historical romances. What a romp! I loved Jules and James so much and the way their relationship evolves throughout the story. The way this man fell on his knees for this woman had me swoony! And his nose and sense of smell… 👀 Other than the fun and sexy elements of this book, this also had some emotionally heavy and trauma-filled moments but Reid handled them so well! Overall, a delight and I can’t wait to read more by this author.

Read More »

ARC Review: To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X. Chang

Dini @ dinipandareads17 Comments

Special thanks to Del Rey for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods (To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods #1)
Publisher: Del Rey
Publication Date: 16 April 2024
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Panda Rating:

(2.5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

She has power over death. He has power over her. When two enemies strike a dangerous bargain, will they end a war . . . or ignite one?

Heroes die, cowards live. Daughter of a conquered world, Ruying hates the invaders who descended from the heavens long before she was born and defeated the magic of her people with technologies unlike anything her world had ever seen.

Blessed by Death, born with the ability to pull the life right out of mortal bodies, Ruying shouldn’t have to fear these foreign invaders, but she does. Especially because she wants to keep herself and her family safe.

When Ruying’s Gift is discovered by an enemy prince, he offers her an impossible deal: If she becomes his private assassin and eliminates his political rivals—whose deaths he swears would be for the good of both their worlds and would protect her people from further brutalization—her family will never starve or suffer harm again. But to accept this bargain, she must use the powers she has always feared, powers that will shave years off her own existence.

Can Ruying trust this prince, whose promises of a better world make her heart ache and whose smiles make her pulse beat faster? Are the evils of this agreement really in the service of a much greater good? Or will she betray her entire nation by protecting those she loves the most?

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

War, violence, blood, multiple deaths, torture, captivity, human experimentation, colonization, drug addition, drug use

TL;DR: Little hurts more than being disappointed by a book on my most anticipated 2024 release list. The premise was intriguing and in general, I think the story and writing were promising but the execution was weak and ultimately, underwhelming. From reading the author’s note, this story is dear to her but that passion didn’t come through the writing. There was a lack of emotional connection and the characters came across as one-dimensional. There have been reviewers saying this is a colonizer romance and I can’t disagree—it was a very uncomfortable relationship (maybe purposefully so but then I think it was clumsily written) but mostly because, IMHO, it felt forced and more like Stockholm Syndrome than any ‘real’ romance. Overall, while I think this had potential, it just didn’t work for me. Part of me is curious to see what happens next but I’m not sure I would buy it to read it.

Read More »

Book Review: The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Dini @ dinipandareads13 Comments

The Starless Sea
Publisher: Doubleday
Pub Date: 5 November 2019
Genre: Adult Fantasy

Panda Rating:

(4 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Night Circus, a timeless love story set in a secret underground world–a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea.

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues–a bee, a key, and a sword–that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library hidden far below the surface of the earth. What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their guardians–it is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead. Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm, relinquishing their sight and their tongues to preserve this archive, and also of those who are intent on its destruction. Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose–in both the mysterious book and in his own life.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Suicidal ideation (mentioned), forced drug use, removal of a tongue mentioned, branding, kidnapping, drowning, animal death (mentioned)

TL;DR: I’m not sure what I expected going into this book but it was so different from what I thought it would be in both good and bad ways. This is a book that requires a great deal of patience but despite the slightly slow pacing and what ended up being a rather loosely joined plot, I did end up liking this a lot. I’m looking forward to eventually re-reading it one day and seeing if my feelings about it will have changed.

Read More »

Book Review: The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin

Dini @ dinipandareads10 Comments

The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot
Publisher: Random House UK
Pub Date: 1 June 2021
Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Panda Rating:

(4.5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

Life is short.

No-one knows that better than seventeen-year-old Lenni. But as she is about to learn, it’s not only what you make of life that matters, but who you share it with.

Dodging doctor’s orders, she joins an art class where she bumps into fellow patient Margot, a rebel-hearted eight-three-year-old from the next ward. Their bond is instant as they realize that together they have lived an astonishing one hundred years.

To celebrate their shared century, they decide to paint their life stories: of growing old and staying young, of giving joy, of receiving kindness, of losing love, of finding the person who is everything.

As their friendship deepens, it becomes vividly clear that life is not done with Lenni and Margot yet.

An extraordinary friendship. A lifetime of stories. Their last one begins here.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Cancer, child death (recounted), war, PTSD, Alzheimer’s, death of loved ones

TL;DR: For some reason, I feel like this is an underrated book… It’s one of those reads that’ll pull on your heartstrings. It’s simple but beautifully written and packs quite an emotional punch. It’ll make you appreciate life and wonder at death, it’ll make you cry but it’ll also make you laugh and feel joy. It’s heartbreaking at the end—after all, it is set in a hospital and tells the story of two terminally ill people who form an unlikely friendship that spans their combined lifetime of 100 years. While the ending may be predictable and the story didn’t wow me with wild plot twists and turns, it did leave me with a sense of peace and gratitude.

Read More »

Book Review: Indigo by Beverly Jenkins

Dini @ dinipandareads6 Comments

Indigo
Publisher: NYLA
Pub Date: 1 November 1996
Genre: Historical Romance

Panda Rating:

(4.5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

As a child Hester Wyatt escaped slavery, but now the dark skinned beauty is a dedicated member of Michigan’s Underground railroad, offering other runaways a chance at the freedom she has learned to love. When one of her fellow conductors brings her an injured man to hide, Hester doesn’t hesitate even after she is told about the price on his head. The man in question is the great conductor known as the “Black Daniel” a vital member of the North’s Underground railroad network, but Hester finds him so rude and arrogant, she begins to question her vow to hide him.

When the injured and beaten Galen Vachon, aka, the Black Daniel awakens in Hester’s cellar, he is unprepared for the feisty young conductor providing his care. As a member of one of the wealthiest free Black families in New Orleans, Galen has turned his back on the lavish living he is accustomed to in order to provide freedom to those enslaved in the south. However, as he heals he cannot turn his back on Hester Wyatt. Her innocence fills him like a breath of fresh air and he is determined to make her his, but traitors have to be found, slave catchers have to be routed and Hester’s refusal to trust her own heart have to be overcome before she and Galen can find the freedom only love can bring.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Slavery, racism, racist slurs, gun violence, kidnapping

Before I get into my review I just want to say: can we get the clinch cover back for this romance, please!? It’s stunning and I want and need it in my life, please and thank you. 🥹

TL;DR: I’ve found another new favourite Jenkins romance! Even set against the tension-filled backdrop of a time of slavery, fugitive slaves and the dangers of being a conductor in the Underground Railroad, Jenkins manages to write a heartfelt and sensual romance full of yearning and I loved it. I was pulled in from their caustic first meeting to the tender blooming of their feelings to their intense chemistry and hot-as-hell sexual tension. I loved Hester and Galen so much!

Read More »

ARC Review: Kindling by Traci Chee

Dini @ dinipandareads8 Comments

Special thanks to HarperCollins and Riley at SparkPointStudio for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Kindling
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: 27 February 2023
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Panda Rating:

(4.5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

From bestselling and award-winning author Traci Chee comes a standalone fantasy set against a war-ravaged world where kindling warfare—the use of elite, magic-wielding teenage soldiers—has been outlawed. In this rich and evocative novel, seven kindlings search for purpose and identity as they prepare for one final battle. For fans of the classic films Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven.

Once, the war was fought with kindlings—elite, magic-wielding warriors whose devastating power comes at the cost of their own young lives.

Now the war is over, and kindlings have been cast adrift—their magic outlawed, their skills outdated, their formidable balar weapons prized only as relics and souvenirs.

Violence still plagues the countryside, and memories haunt those who remain. When a village comes under threat of siege, it offers an opportunity for seven kindlings to fight one last time. But war changed these warriors. And to reclaim who they once were, they will have to battle their pasts, their trauma, and their grim fates to come together again—or none of them will make it out alive.

From bestselling and award-winning author Traci Chee comes a gut-wrenching, introspective fantasy about seven lost soldiers searching for the peace they once fought for and the future in which they’re finally daring to believe.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

War, violence, blood, multiple deaths

TL;DR: This book took me on quite an emotional and mental journey! I went from being unsure whether I could get into this due to the narrative being told in the second person to desperately trying not to cry in public when I got to the last 30% to sobbing at home while reading the last 10% of it. This story is tragic and heartbreaking but beautifully written and somehow also hopeful. I loved going on this journey with these seven brave, powerful yet haunted teenage warriors and I have a feeling I’ll think of them and their experiences for a while to come.

Read More »

Book Review: Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert

Dini @ dinipandareads12 Comments

Act Your Age, Eve Brown (Brown Sisters #3)
Publisher: Avon
Pub Date: 9 March 2021
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Panda Rating:

(5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

Eve Brown is a certified hot mess. No matter how hard she strives to do right, her life always goes horribly wrong—so she’s given up trying. But when her personal brand of chaos ruins an expensive wedding (someone had to liberate those poor doves), her parents draw the line. It’s time for Eve to grow up and prove herself—even though she’s not entirely sure how…

Jacob Wayne is in control. Always. The bed and breakfast owner’s on a mission to dominate the hospitality industry—and he expects nothing less than perfection. So when a purple-haired tornado of a woman turns up out of the blue to interview for his open chef position, he tells her the brutal truth: not a chance in hell. Then she hits him with her car—supposedly by accident. Yeah, right.

Now his arm is broken, his B&B is understaffed, and the dangerously unpredictable Eve is fluttering around, trying to help. Before long, she’s infiltrated his work, his kitchen—and his spare bedroom. Jacob hates everything about it. Or rather, he should. Sunny, chaotic Eve is his natural-born nemesis, but the longer these two enemies spend in close quarters, the more their animosity turns into something else. Like Eve, the heat between them is impossible to ignore—and it’s melting Jacob’s frosty exterior.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Ableism, childhood abandoment recounted, car accident

TL;DR: It took me forever to finally read this book and finish The Brown Sisters series but this solidifies it as one of my all-time favourite romance series and I highly recommend it! Eve and Jacob were so easy to root for and I loved their character arcs. I delighted in their connection and despite a rocky start to their relationship, they had fantastic chemistry and an emotional romance that’s written with so much heart! These two deserved all the happiness and I loved seeing them find it together. 🥰 My heart is so full!

Read More »

Book Review: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Dini @ dinipandareads13 Comments

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries (Emily Wilde #1)
Publisher: Orbit
Pub Date: 19 January 2023
Genre: Adult Fantasy
Panda Rating:

(5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love in the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series.

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party–or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones–the most elusive of all faeries–lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all–her own heart.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Ableism mentioned, death during childbirth mentioned, blood & injury depiction, emesis, self-amputation of finger, decapitation, death of a sibling recounted, murder, violence, kidnapping, animal abuse recounted

TL;DR: If you are a fan of cosy fantasies with a heaping of slow adventure and a soft romance, then you’ll probably enjoy Emily Wilde! This was just as heartwarming and cosy and wonderful as everyone said it would be and I loved it even more on re-read. 💜 Emily and Wendell are both such amazing characters and I absolutely loved the way this story was told! I surprisingly haven’t read *that* many books about the fae/faeries but this is undoubtedly a new favourite story about them.

Read More »

ARC Review: The Time of Your Life by Sandra Kitt

Dini @ dinipandareads5 Comments

Special thanks to Sourcebooks Casablanca for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Time of Your Life (The Millionaires Club #2)
Publisher: Sourcebook Casablanca
Publication Date: 11 April 2023
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Panda Rating:

(3 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

Second chances always lead to a new beginning! When Everett Nicholls died, he left his millions to the two people he cared about most―the young law student he was mentoring, and his beloved stepson. Eden Marsh and Beck Dennison are instantly suspicious of each other. Suddenly, with all this money at their fingertips, family problems they’ve each been ignoring can no longer be swept under the rug. Beck and his mother have had a strained relationship since tragedy befell the family when he was a young teen, and Eden knows it’s long past time to forge a new relationship with her demanding younger sister. As they begin to confide in each other―and to have fun together―their friendship is an anchor in a stormy new life…

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Death of loved one, death of child (recounted), grief, misogyny

TL;DR: My feelings on this vacillated greatly throughout my reading journey. There were moments when I enjoyed our characters and their burgeoning romance but the slow pace, lack of plot, and the total “what the heck is going on” moment of their final conflict almost made the not-so-enjoyable moments outweigh the good. As it is, I’d say this is a solid 3-star read—not bad but not great though I enjoyed it enough to want to possibly read other books by this author in the future.

Read More »