Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp

May 17, 2020May 17, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads12 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!

This Sunday I spent part of the day in bed with The Die of Death which is book II of The Great Devil War by Kenneth B. Andersen. It’s nice to be back with Philip after book one — I feel in ways that he has grown a lot although time didn’t pass in the real world when he was in hell. I’m looking forward to learning more about Mortimer (Death) and seeing what happens next!

Philip’s adventures as the Devil’s apprentice have changed him—in a good way. Although he misses his friends in Hell, he has made new friends in life.
But when the future of the underworld is threatened once again, Philip’s help is needed. Death’s Die has been stolen and immortality is spreading across the globe.
Philip throws himself into the search—and discovers a horrible truth about his own life along the way.

The Die of Death is volume 2 in The Great Devil War-series and winner of the ORLA-Award.

The Great Devil War-series is a humorous and gripping tale about good and evil, filled with biblical and historical characters, such as Judas, Goliath, and Pontius Pilate, as well as modern figures such as Elvis Presley, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, and many more.

The Great Devil War-series is a Danish bestseller, topping library and school reading lists among teens and young adults. The books have been published in more than ten countries and have won numerous awards.

What are you currently reading?

Harrow Lake Blog Tour Review

May 9, 2020May 9, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads21 Comments

I’m back with another blog tour with The WriteReads gang and this time it’s for the paranormal horror thriller Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis. And I mean, I know–Dini, reading horror? Who am I even, right!? Yep. I’m a masochist but we’ll come back to this one later 😉 Special thanks to Dave @ TheWriteReads for organising this amazing blog tour and to the publisher and author for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Don’t forget to check out the other bloggers who are also on this tour!

Goodreads: Harrow Lake
Publisher: Penguin Random House UK Children’s Penguin
Release Date: 09 July 2020
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Panda Rating:

Welcome to Harrow Lake. Someone’s expecting you . . .

Lola Nox is the daughter of a celebrated horror filmmaker – she thinks nothing can scare her. But when her father is brutally attacked in their New York apartment, she’s swiftly packed off to live with a grandmother she’s never met in Harrow Lake, the eerie town where her father’s most iconic horror movie was shot. The locals are weirdly obsessed with the film that put their town on the map – and there are strange disappearances, which the police seem determined to explain away.

And there’s someone – or something – stalking her every move.

The more Lola discovers about the town, the more terrifying it becomes. Because Lola’s got secrets of her own. And if she can’t find a way out of Harrow Lake, they might just be the death of her.

Goodreads Monday – The Institute by Stephen King

March 30, 2020March 30, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads16 Comments

It’s the first Goodreads Monday of 2020, friends! 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.

So last week was his son’s book and this week it’s The King’s turn with The Institute. I may not be a fan of horror but apparently I do like giving in to the hype and adding them to my shelves in the hopes that I will, one day, read them 🤣 This horror/thriller has a 4.21 star average with 83.8k+ ratings and 10.2k+ reviews, which is pretty great!

Goodreads Monday – NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

March 23, 2020March 23, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads20 Comments

This week’s book is NOS4A2 by Joe Hill. It’s easy to forget this book has been around for a few years considering it got a lot of hype last year and that’s how I discovered it in the first place. This horror/thriller has a 4.07 star average with 92.6k+ ratings and 11.1k+ reviews, which is pretty great!

Top 5 Saturday: Books with Beautiful Covers

March 14, 2020March 14, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads26 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: books with beautiful covers!

I think the only reason this prompt is so hard is because there are so many options and how do I narrow it down to just five books?! But I’m going to do my best by focusing on five upcoming releases with beautiful covers (that I haven’t featured in a post before–I’m looking at you my sexy space elf)!

The Kingdom of Back is so beautiful holy wow 😍

The Deep Blog Tour: Review & Favourite Quotes

March 12, 2020March 12, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads6 Comments

Hello, friends! I’m back with another The Fantastic Flying Book Club blog tour today and this time it’s for The Deep! Every time I get picked to be part of any FFBC blog tour I die a little bit inside out of pure happiness because it’s always such a privilege 🥰 Huge thanks to FFBC for organising these amazing tours and to the authors as well for making the eARCs available to us.

Be sure to click on the banner above to see the other bloggers on tour! 😊

The Deep
Publisher: Transworld Digital
Release date: 10 March 2020
Genre: Historical Fiction, Horror, Mystery/Thriller

Panda Rating:

Someone, or something, is haunting the Titanic.

This is the only way to explain the series of misfortunes that have plagued the passengers of the ship from the moment they set sail: mysterious disappearances, sudden deaths. Now suspended in an eerie, unsettling twilight zone during the four days of the liner’s illustrious maiden voyage, a number of the passengers – including millionaires Madeleine Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim, the maid Annie Hebbley and Mark Fletcher – are convinced that something sinister is going on . . . And then, as the world knows, disaster strikes.

Years later and the world is at war. And a survivor of that fateful night, Annie, is working as a nurse on the sixth voyage of the Titanic’s sister ship, the Britannic, now refitted as a hospital ship. Plagued by the demons of her doomed first and near fatal journey across the Atlantic, Annie comes across an unconscious soldier she recognises while doing her rounds. It is the young man Mark. And she is convinced that he did not – could not – have survived the sinking of the Titanic . . .

#WWWWednesday: 11 March

March 11, 2020March 15, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads16 Comments

Can someone please tell me how it’s only just Wednesday when it absolutely feels like it should already be Friday? Anyone? This week fully needs to be over please lol

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 five books:

Magic Unleashed (Venators #1) by Devri Walls ★★★★☆
This was a fast-paced and action-packed fantasy full of all the supernatural creatures that your heart could ever desire! No, seriously. There are fae, werewolves, vampires, elves, witches/wizards, goblins, giants, shapeshifters and DRAGONS! I was surprised by how quickly I read this and by how much I enjoyed it! My blog tour review post will be up tonight!

The Deep by Alma Katsu ★★★½
I was expecting to be scared out of my wits reading this but thankfully it wasn’t as scary as I thought it’d be. It was also completely different to what I expected! Katsu’s writing is atmospheric and the mystery works its way under your skin. Her characters, however, confused me a bit. Still glad I gave this a read though–it was certainly different to anything I’ve read! My FFBC blog tour review is up tomorrow!

The Guy on the Right (The Underdogs #1) by Kate Stewart ★★★★½
I wrote an extremely gushing post about how much I loved this romcom. Theo and Laney and their love are absolute perfection *chefs kiss*. Their banter was spot on and I loved watching their friendship and romance grow. The pot gummy scenes might be one of my favourites of all time! Check out my review.

The Guy on the Left (The Underdogs #2) by Kate Stewart ★★★★★
I didn’t think I could love a hero more than I did Theo but I WAS WRONG. Who’d have thought it’d be Troy to win me over as well? Definitely shook me! This was a wonderful slow-burn redemption love story and ugh, it had me seriously feeling all the damn feels. It was SO GOOD! Review coming very soon.

Enemies with Benefits (Loveless Brothers #1) by Roxie Noir ★★★½
I’m glad I checked out this series because I love the family relationships and banter, but it wasn’t my favourite romcom (I think I’ve been seriously spoiled by the underdogs)! There’s no denying that the physical chemistry between the two was hella fire, but I wanted more of an emotional/personal connection with the characters. Review coming soon.

Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp [46]

March 8, 2020December 4, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads25 Comments

I spent a part of my Sunday morning finishing my tour read for The Deep. It wasn’t as spooky as I expected, which is always a pleasant surprise for an Ultimate Chicken™️ such as myself because that means I can read it without fear of my feet being grabbed by things once I step outside the safety zone that is my bed 🤣

Someone, or something, is haunting the Titanic.

This is the only way to explain the series of misfortunes that have plagued the passengers of the ship from the moment they set sail: mysterious disappearances, sudden deaths. Now suspended in an eerie, unsettling twilight zone during the four days of the liner’s illustrious maiden voyage, a number of the passengers – including millionaires Madeleine Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim, the maid Annie Hebbley and Mark Fletcher – are convinced that something sinister is going on . . . And then, as the world knows, disaster strikes.

Years later and the world is at war. And a survivor of that fateful night, Annie, is working as a nurse on the sixth voyage of the Titanic’s sister ship, the Britannic, now refitted as a hospital ship. Plagued by the demons of her doomed first and near fatal journey across the Atlantic, Annie comes across an unconscious soldier she recognises while doing her rounds. It is the young man Mark. And she is convinced that he did not – could not – have survived the sinking of the Titanic . . .

What are you currently reading?

#WWWWednesday: 04 March

March 4, 2020March 5, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads25 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 finish four books and three of them were four blog tours!

Jack Janson and The Storm Caller by Andrew Marsh ★★★☆☆
I don’t normally read MG books but I am always keen to step outside my comfort zone. I read this for a blog tour and it ended up being more enjoyable than I anticipated! I can definitely see the younger audiences it’s aimed at really enjoying the story and connecting with the characters. It’s a good introduction to fantasy! Check out my full review.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Adapted & Illustrated by Fred Fordham ★★★★☆
This was a very quick read that I finished in a matter of a few hours. It’s a good adaptation of the classic and really brought the story to life. While the art style wasn’t my favourite kind, it very much suited the era of the book and gave it a ‘old school/classic comic feel’. Would definitely recommend it for those who would like to read the classic but don’t have much time. RTC

Havenfall (Havenfall #1) by Sara Holland ★★★½
This was my first book by Holland but I’m keen to check out her other books now. Due to the mystery element this was a much slower paced fantasy than I expected but it was still enjoyable. I kept second guessing who could be trusted, but I’m glad I got the villain right at least! I read and reviewed this as part of the FFBC Blog Tour! Check out my full review.

The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai ★★★★★
This book was absolutely stunning. It was such an intimate telling of Vietnam’s history beyond the Vietnam War and from the unique perspective of a northern Vietnamese family. This story is filled with so much tragedy, suffering and heartbreak, but also so much love and hope. The Tran family’s resilience and ability to overcome hardship was inspiring and brought me to tears. I’m part of the blog tour for this book so my review will be coming up (sort of) soon!

First Lines Friday – 07 February

February 7, 2020February 7, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads13 Comments

Yayaya, HAPPY FRIYAY, book lovers and friends 😍We’re back with another First Lines Friday! This is 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!