#WWWWednesday: 14 October

October 15, 2020October 14, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads11 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 4 books. It was a pretty average week of reading…

Sisters of the Moon by Alexandrea Weis ★★★½
This was a gripping supernatural fantasy with horror elements to it. Weis does a fantastic job establishing an eerie atmosphere and creating intrigue through the mystery of the order. While the characters and world building weren’t as developed as I’d hoped they’d be, I am intrigued to see what happens next, especially after that action packed and intense ending! Read my review.

Blog Tour Review: Winter, White and Wicked by Shannon Dittemore

October 14, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads8 Comments

Hello, friends! Today is my stop on the TBR & Beyond Tours for Winter, White and Wicked by Shannon Dittemore. Thanks to the TBR & Beyond team for having me on tour and to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC 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: Winter, White and Wicked
Publisher: ABRAMS Kids
Publication Date: 13 October 2020
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Panda Rating:

Mad Max: Fury Road meets Frozen in this striking YA fantasy about a rig driver’s journey to save her friend

Twice-orphaned Sylvi has chipped out a niche for herself on Layce, an island cursed by eternal winter. Alone in her truck, she takes comfort in two things: the solitude of the roads and the favor of Winter, an icy spirit who has protected her since she was a child.

Sylvi likes the road, where no one asks who her parents were or what she thinks of the rebels in the north. But when her best friend, Lenore, runs off with the rebels, Sylvi must make a haul too late in the season for a smuggler she wouldn’t normally work with, the infamous Mars Dresden. Alongside his team—Hyla, a giant warrior woman and Kyn, a boy with skin like stone—Sylvi will do whatever it takes to save her friend.

But when the time comes, she’ll have to choose: safety, anonymity, and the favor of Winter—or the future of the island that she calls home.

Buy: Amazon (US) |Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indigo

#TopTenTuesday: Books with (Super) Long Titles

October 13, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads20 Comments

So, we’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: Super Long Book Titles!

I realised five minutes ago that I’ve been working on the prompt for next week (welp 🙃) but I’m glad that this week’s prompt is quite easy and fun so I’m going to keep this short and simple! I think there are a lot of long book titles these days (especially in YA fantasy with many combination of the “A _____ of _____ and _____” or “_____ of _____ and _____” titles) but I tried not to include any of those in my list today 😉 Although I know a lot of readers are sick of the similar titles, I’m not particularly fussed by them. But I do think these longer titles are more interesting! These books are a mix of ones that I’ve already read and ones that I still need to read.

#5OnMyTBR: Historical Fiction

October 12, 2020October 11, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads12 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: Historical

Goodreads Monday – The Survivors by Jane Harper

October 12, 2020October 11, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads6 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 The Survivors by Jane Harper. This is mystery thriller that was published a few weeks ago and has a 4.18 star rating on Goodreads.

Top 5 Saturday: Feminist Themes

October 11, 2020October 11, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads8 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: feminist themes!

Saturday has come and gone and I’ve only just realised that I never finished my post 🙃 So, I’m going to keep it short and simple today. I think the topic speaks for itself! But really who doesn’t love a good empowering read about women rising up against the patriarchy or simply advocating for women everywhere by speaking up about experiences that we all face? All of these are on my TBR and I’m looking forward to reading them all, but especially Roxane Gay’s book and of course, Michelle Obama’s book 😍

(book covers are linked to the Goodreads pages!)

First Lines Friday – 08 October

October 9, 2020October 8, 2020 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:

“Casia hated thunderstorms, because they reminded her of the night she had watched her mother kill her father.“

Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?

#WWWWednesday: 07 October

October 8, 2020October 7, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads10 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 7 books. Still going with lots of romance but also quite a bit of historical fiction, too!

Taken to Sasor (Xiveri Mates #3) by Elizabeth Stephens ★★½
This story was set apart from the world we’re introduced to in the first two books in the series and I’m sad to say that it’s my least favourite one. While I loved the heroine and the awesome side characters, I didn’t really care for the hero. The high point of this series continues to be the diversity and amazing world building–the intro to alien cultures, social norms, mythology/folklore is all so well done! I’ll be writing mini-reviews for the whole series once it’s finished.

#TopTenTuesday: Books with Fall Colours/Vibes

October 6, 2020October 8, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads50 Comments

So, we’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: Book Covers with Fall Colours/Vibes (or spring if you live in the southern hemisphere)

Although I live in the tropics, I have lived in places where there were multiple seasons and unsurprisingly, autumn was my favourite! 🍂 I’ve always preferred cold weather to warm weather because I love bundling up under my doona and fluffy throws, and covering myself in oversized cardis/jumpers. At least when it’s cold you can wear multiple layers — when it’s hot you can’t exactly go around in the nude 😂 BUT I DIGRESS!!! 🤣

When I think of autumn I think red, yellow, orange, and black, falling leaves, spooky reads thanks to Halloween, but also cosy romances too! So today’s is going to be a mix of all those, and I realised I do have more spooky reads on my TBR than I expected. Look at me branching out of my comfort zone! 🎃