Blog Tour Review: A Bachelor’s Pledge by Penny Hampson

October 7, 2020October 7, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads7 Comments

I’m back with another blog tour today with Rachel’s Random Resources for A Bachelor’s Pledge by Penny Hampson. Thanks to Rachel for organising this tour, and to the author for providing the book in exchange for an honest review.

Be sure to click on the banner above to check out the other bloggers on tour!

🎉 Happy Pub Day!!! 🎉

Goodreads: A Bachelor’s Pledge
Release Date: 07 October 2020
Genre: Historical Romance, Mystery
Panda Rating:

The woman who haunts his dreams
Secret agent Phil Cullen is upset when he discovers that the young woman he rescued from Mrs Newbody’s establishment has absconded from his housekeeper’s care without a word. Thinking he has been deceived, he resolves to forget about her… something easier said than done.

The man she wants to forget
Sophia Turner is horrified when she is duped into entering a notorious house of ill-repute. Then a handsome stranger comes to her aid. Desperate that no one learns of this scandalous episode, Sophia flees to the one friend she knows she can trust. With luck, she will never see her mysterious rescuer again.

But fate has other plans…
Months later, Phil is on the trail of an elusive French agent and Sophia is a respectable lady’s companion when fate again intervenes, taking their lives on a collision course.

Traitors, spies, and shameful family secrets – will these bring Sophia and Phil together… or drive them apart?

BUY NOW: Amazon (US) | Amazon (UK)

#5OnMyTBR: Books with Magic

October 6, 2020October 5, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads26 Comments

Hello Mondays, welcome back to #5OnMyTBR, a meme created by the wonderful E @ The Local Bee Hunter’s Nook. This bookish meme gets us to dig even further into our TBRs by simply posting about five books on our TBR! You can learn more about it here or in the post announcing it. You can find the full list of prompts (past and future) at the end of this post!

This week’s prompt is: Magic

Goodreads Monday – In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren

October 5, 2020October 5, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads11 Comments

Welcome back to Goodreads Monday! It’s been a very hot minute since I did one but I figured I might as well get back into it! 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 featured book is In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren. This is a contemporary romance that’s actually not out yet (Pub Date: 20 October 2020) but it has a 4.12 star rating on Goodreads (with almost 1k ratings and 800 reviews)!

Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp

October 4, 2020October 4, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads16 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 been you’ve spent time curled up reading in bed with, or which book you wish you had time to read today!

I have plans to spend the rest of my Sunday in bed reading A Bachelor’s Pledge. This is a blog tour read for next week which I started on Friday but put on hold to finish another book. I’ve been wanting to read more regency romances so I’m glad that I picked this one up. The pace is a little slow right now but I am enjoying it and looking forward to seeing where things go for the MCs 😊

The woman who haunts his dreams
Secret agent Phil Cullen is upset when he discovers that the young woman he rescued from Mrs Newbody’s establishment has absconded from his housekeeper’s care without a word. Thinking he has been deceived, he resolves to forget about her… something easier said than done.

The man she wants to forget
Sophia Turner is horrified when she is duped into entering a notorious house of ill-repute. Then a handsome stranger comes to her aid. Desperate that no one learns of this scandalous episode, Sophia flees to the one friend she knows she can trust. With luck, she will never see her mysterious rescuer again.

But fate has other plans…
Months later, Phil is on the trail of an elusive French agent and Sophia is a respectable lady’s companion when fate again intervenes, taking their lives on a collision course. Traitors, spies, and shameful family secrets – will these bring Sophia and Phil together… or drive them apart?

What are you currently reading?

Top 5 Saturday: Intimidating Books

October 3, 2020October 3, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads36 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: intimidating books!

When I first saw this prompt my mind immediately went to the classics and tomes (and classic tomes) because those are truly some of the most intimidating books on my shelves! But I feel like I’ve answered this before and I think that whenever I get asked about intimidating books my go-to answer (classics/tomes) is always the same. So I decided to not look at classics this week and share some of the other intimidating books on my TBR and the reasons why they scare me 😝

(book covers are linked to the Goodreads pages!)

Let’s Talk Bookish: Reviewing Sequels

October 3, 2020August 30, 2024 Dini @ dinipandareads12 Comments

I’ve been seeing Let’s Talk Bookish posts around a lot over the past couple of months and for a few weeks now I’ve been wanting to join the discussions but have mostly remembered too late to post on Fridays. I know I can post on a different day but let’s just pretend that’s not me avoiding and procrastinating, right? 😉 Now the day has finally come and I’ll hopefully be joining in on the discussion posts every week moving forward! But first, a short introduction on what this is all about.

First Lines Friday – 02 October

October 2, 2020October 2, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads12 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:

“For a trial lawyer, there are two words in the English language that terrify us more than any other.”

Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?

September 2020 Monthly Wrap Up!

October 1, 2020January 2, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads35 Comments

Wow, has it really been a month since I did my last wrap up? Because it still feels as if I did my August wrap up last week! 😂 Is time flying for you too or is it just me? Although some weeks this month have felt longer than ever, most days have gone by in a blink and before I know it Mondays have become Wednesdays have become Fridays, and then another week is over. I don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing either. We’re one step closer to having this flaming hot mess of a year be over but what comes next? That’s a question I’ve been really contemplating lately because I’ve been feeling a bit directionless looking forward to 2021 and I’m hoping an answer will come to me soon!

But before I digress further, let’s take a look at what this month of reading has been like. In September, I read a (surprising) 23 books but I read a lot of romance which I tend to speed through so maybe it’s not surprising. I’m actually not sure if this is all the books I’ve read because I haven’t been marking them properly on Goodreads but we’ll roll with it! I also DNF two more books this month and although the guilt made me push on for longer than I wanted to, I ended up putting both books down because they only made me miserable.

#WWWWednesday: 30 September

October 1, 2020September 30, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads36 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 read: 8 books. I also DNF’d two other books but I’m not including them here. Friends, I’m so proud for not putting myself through reading books I’m not enjoying or have no interest in. 2020 year has been a shady ass year, but at least I’ve learned to DNF 😉 Heh…

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia ★★★★☆
I first heard about this book through Sammie and I get why she raves about it. It was so refreshing to read about African Gods and Black-American folklore, but it also deals with grief in a way that’s relatable for both young and old. Tristan and the whole cast had such strong and unique voices but it was Gum Baby that 100% won me over! I absolutely loved her! It’s super action packed and entertaining, and I can’t wait to read more about Tristan and the Gods in the future! Review to come.

Book Spotlight + Excerpt: Relentless Habit by Karen Renee

September 30, 2020September 30, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads4 Comments

Hi, friends! I’m delighted to share a book spotlight + excerpt today as part of the Xpresso Tours tour for Relentless Habit by Karen Renee!

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

Goodreads: Relentless Habit (O-Town #1)
Publish Date: 01 September 2020
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Cecilia Lyons escapes her sordid past by moving to Orlando and reinventing herself. Staying clean is challenging enough, but she’s challenged further when she catches the eye of the sexiest deejay in Orlando. Desperately, she wants to tell Brock her secret, but telling him would taint his view of her. It’s been years since she’s had a healthy relationship, and the more time she spends with Brock, the harder she falls for him. To protect her heart, she keeps her secret.

Brock Sullivan trusts very few people. Abandoned by his mother and tragically losing his first love, he puts little faith in women. When he meets Cecilia, he is unprepared for their overwhelming attraction. Not only is she a habit he doesn’t want to break, being with her forces him to rethink his beliefs. Even when he learns the worst about Cecilia, he can’t stay away. But when push comes to shove, will Brock be able to keep her safe?