Blog Tour Review: The Keeper of Night by Kylie Lee Baker

October 16, 2021October 15, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads18 Comments

Today is my stop on the TBR & Beyond Tours for The Keeper of Night by Kylie Lee Baker.
Special thanks to Inkyard Press for providing an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

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

Goodreads: The Keeper of Night (The Keeper of Night #1)
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Publication Date: 12 October 2021
Genre: Young Adult Dark Fantasy

Panda Rating:

(3.5 pandas)

Death is her destiny.

Half British Reaper, half Japanese Shinigami, Ren Scarborough has been collecting souls in the London streets for centuries. Expected to obey the harsh hierarchy of the Reapers who despise her, Ren conceals her emotions and avoids her tormentors as best she can.

When her failure to control her Shinigami abilities drives Ren out of London, she flees to Japan to seek the acceptance she’s never gotten from her fellow Reapers. Accompanied by her younger brother, the only being on earth to care for her, Ren enters the Japanese underworld to serve the Goddess of Death… only to learn that here, too, she must prove herself worthy. Determined to earn respect, Ren accepts an impossible task—find and eliminate three dangerous Yokai demons—and learns how far she’ll go to claim her place at Death’s side.

GET A COPY:

AMAZON

B&N

BOOK DEPOSITORY

INDIEBOUND

INDIGO

#FirstLinesFriday: 15 October 2021

October 15, 2021October 23, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads11 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:

“There were great advantages to being unimportant.
True, by many people’s standards, Siri wasn’t “unimportant.” She was, after all, the daughter of a king. Fortunately, her father had four living children, and Siri—at seventeen years of age—was the youngest.”

Do you recognise the book these first lines come from?

Fall Bucket List Book Tag!

October 14, 2021October 14, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads33 Comments

Hello, friends! It’s been another minute since I did a tag and thanks to Kerri @ KerriMcBookNerd I have one to share with you! 😍 If you haven’t already, go check out Kerri’s page for a wide-variety of book reviews and other bookish posts.

The original tag was made by Tiffany @ Read by Tiffany.

The Rules

Link back to the original creator in your post.
Feel free to use any of my graphics in your post, or create your own!
Tag 7 other people at the end of your post, and let them know you’ve tagged them.

The Tea Dragon Festival

The Tea Dragon Festival is the second Tea Dragon graphic novel and it’s one of my favourites. It’s beautifully illustrated plus the stories are sweet and guaranteed to warm your heart and make you smile! ❤️

MY REVIEW

The seven husbands of evelyn hugo

Quite of TJR’s books have a lot of hype but Evelyn Hugo is one of them and this book is worth every single word of praise and then some! It’s amazing and I will continue to hype it forever. I love it as much as I love PSL’s! 😍

my review

DIM STARS

I just read this book very recently and although this crew doesn’t start out as friends, they develop a great bond as they dodge alien invaders and y’know, death.

MY FIRST IMPRESSIONS

SING ANYWAY

You might’ve seen this novella mentioned a time or two on my blog… But it filled my heart up with such warmth that it really felt like I had wrapped myself up in a giant cosy cardigan.

My review

WITH THE FIRE ON HIGH

Of course, the first person I thought of was Emoni! WTFOH made me so hungry while reading! It was awesome to watch Emoni explore and pursue her passion for cooking.

amari and the night brothers

Seriously, I excitedly clap my hands every time I see this book mentioned on my feed/timeline! It’s such an amazing MG fantasy and I think everyone needs to read it. I jump with excitement whenever I think about the sequel too 😍

MY REVIEW

I’m tagging…

Please don’t feel obligated to do the tag if you don’t want to! Also, if I don’t tag you and you want to do the tag, please do! 😃

That’s a wrap, folks! I love a fun and short tag 😊
Have you read any of these books or are they also on your TBR?

#WWWWednesday: 13 October 2021

October 13, 2021October 13, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads20 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?

Post divider: What did you just finish reading?

I’ve been in a bit of a funky reading mood since last week and found it difficult to really focus on a book for long. I went back and forth a lot until I managed to finish reading these four books:

Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous by Suzanne Park ★★★★☆
This was a super fast read and a very entertaining and relatable YA contemporary/coming-of-age story. Sunny is a teenager obsessed with social media due to being a mid-level influencer. I think many readers will be able to relate to her rocky relationship with social media! My first book by Park but certainly not my last. 📱 RTC

Hooked (Never After #1) by Emily McIntire ★★★☆☆
If you’re into dark romances with villainous heroes and innocent heroines with darker desires, this might be up your alley! It does get bloody and slightly gory but there are some great twists and turns to the story (although not entirely unpredictable). It’s not a Peter Pan retelling but I loved how elements of the original story were incorporated into this. Also, pretty steamy! 🔥 RTC

First Impressions Spotlight: Dim Stars by Brian P. Rubin

October 11, 2021December 3, 2024 Dini @ dinipandareads10 Comments

I’m back with the The Storytellers on Tour today with a Book Blitz for Dim Stars by Brian P. Rubin and I’ll be sharing my first impressions of the book so far. Thanks to the author for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review!

Don’t forget to scroll to the end of the post to enter the GIVEAWAY (International) for the chance to win a signed paperback copy of the book!

Goodreads: Dim Stars
Publisher: Critical Eye Publishing
Publication Date: 20 October 2020
Genre: Young Adult Sci-Fi

Kenzie Washington, fourteen-year-old girl genius, signs up for a two-week tour as a cadet on the spaceship of her idol, Captain Dash Drake. Too bad Dash, who once saved the galaxy from the evil Forgers, is a broke loser and much less than meets the eye. But when an intergalactic evil appears and launches an attack, Dash, Kenzie, and the ship’s crew escape, making them the next target. On the run and low on gas, Dash and Kenzie encounter cannibal space-pirates, catastrophic equipment failure, and a cyborg who’s kind of a jerk. Kenzie is determined to discover the bad guys’ secret plan. But for her to succeed, Dash needs to keep his brilliant, annoying cadet from getting killed …which is a lot harder than it sounds.

BUY A COPY:

PAPERBACK

EBOOK

BOOKSHOP.ORG

Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp

October 10, 2021October 10, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads10 Comments

We’re back with another Sundays in Bed With… meme! This meme dares to ask you what book has been in your bed this morning and is hosted by Midnight Book Girl. Come share what book you’ve spent time curled up reading in bed with, or which book you wish you had time to read today!

I’m in a bit of a restless reading mood so I’ve struggled to focus on books this week/end. 😔 It’s giving me some pre-slump feels but I’m trying to push through, which means reading bits of books on rotation. Here’s what I’ve got going on so far:

I’m about 35% through Dim Stars and it’s so much fun! I love this quirky crew and I’ll be sharing my first impressions for the Storytellers on Tour book blitz starting tomorrow!

This cover kinda freaks me out? But the premise has me intrigued plus it’s so short (~90pgs), so it won’t take long to finish once I get into Games We Play!

I’m about 40% through The Bastard’s Betrayal and I’m loving Rose and Dante! I don’t know why I stopped but I think I’ll try to finish it tonight!

What are you currently reading?

Top 5 Saturday: Books with Bones on the Cover!

October 9, 2021October 9, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads15 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: Bones on the Cover

It’s been a hot minute since I did a Top 5 Saturday post but of course I had to come back on the day when the topic is a toughie (for me!) LOL. 😂 It took a little bit of digging on Goodreads but I managed to find 5 books that are on my TBR that have bones on the cover and that I can’t wait to read! ☠️

If We Were Villains

Oliver Marks has just served ten years in jail – for a murder he may or may not have committed. On the day he’s released, he’s greeted by the man who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, but before he does, he wants to know what really happened a decade ago.

As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingenue, extra. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.

#FirstLinesFriday: 08 October 2021

October 8, 2021October 23, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads11 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:

“It was the exploding unicorn that finally broke him.
Until she accidentally brained the most eminent pastry chef in London with a projectile hoof, Sylvie Fairchild had been casually speculating whether—like her ill-fated unicorn cake—Dominic De Vere also contained a hidden robotic mechanism.”

Do you recognise the book these first lines come from?

#WWWWednesday: 06 October 2021

October 6, 2021October 6, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads16 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 week I’ve read seven books. This past week I discovered one of my favourite reads of the year and I can’t recommend it enough—especially if you’re a fan of Norse mythology and unapologetically queer characters! 😍

The Sweetest Oblivion (Made #1) by Danielle Lori ★★★★☆
I didn’t expect to enjoy this mafia romance as much as I did but the characters, the slow burn romance and absolutely explosive sexual tension made this a delightfully heart-pounding read. My review

As Good As Dead (A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder #3) by Holly Jackson ★★★½
This is the third and final book in the AGGGTM series and although Pippa’s story took a wild turn that was outrageous and had me really suspending my disbelief, I appreciated how Jackson tied in all the stories and had everything come full circle. My review

The Goddess of Nothing at All by Cat Rector ★★★★★
This is an amazing Norse Mythology retelling told from the perspective of the lesser known deity Sigyn Odindottir, aka Loki’s wife (and so much more in her own right). This dark fantasy is as much a love story as it is a tragedy that ripped my feelings to shreds, and if you love mythology, queer retellings, and morally grey characters, then defo give this a try! My review

Book Review: Seducing the Sorcerer by Lee Welch

October 5, 2021August 13, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads6 Comments

Goodreads: Seducing the Sorcerer
Publisher: Self-published
Published: 23 September 2021
Genre: Fantasy Romance

Panda Rating:

_{(3.5 pandas)}

Homeless and jobless, Fenn Todd has nearly run out of hope. All he has left is his longing for horses and the strength of his own two hands. But when he’s cheated into accepting a very ugly sackcloth horse, he’s catapulted into a world of magic, politics and desire.

Fenn’s invited to stay at the black tower, home of the most terrifying man in the realm: Morgrim, the court sorcerer. Morgrim has a reputation as a scheming villain, but he seems surprisingly charming—and sexy—and Fenn falls hard for him.

However, nothing is as it seems and everyone at the tower is lying about something. Beset by evil hexes, violent political intrigue and a horse that eats eiderdowns, Fenn must make the hardest choices of his life.
Can a plain man like Fenn ever find true love with a scheming sorcerer?