Blog Tour Review: Accidentally in Love by Belinda Missen

September 11, 2020September 8, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads6 Comments

I’m back with another blog tour and this time it’s for Accidentally in Love by Belinda Missen. Thanks to Rachel @ Rachel’s Random Resources for organising this blog tour, and to Netgalley and HQ Ditigal for providing the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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

Goodreads: Accidentally in Love
Publisher: HQ Digital
Release Date: 11 September 2020
Genre: Women’s Fiction, Romance
Panda Rating:

Don’t miss the new laugh-out-loud rom com from the author of One Week ’Til Christmas! Perfect for fans of Mhairi McFarlane, Rosie Walsh and Josie Silver.

In the space of a week, Katharine Patterson has quit her job, decided to move back home, and broken up with the guy she thought was the one.
No big deal.

Because Katharine has a plan. She’s going to open her own art gallery, just like she’s always wanted. What she’s not going to do is worry about boyfriends. Then she meets Kit, a handsome and talented local artist. He might be the most stubborn person Katharine has ever met. He might also make her feel like no one ever has before.

And Katharine might be about to fall accidentally in love…

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

Blog Tour Review: His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie

August 28, 2020August 30, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads11 Comments

I’m back with another Algonquin blog tour and this time it’s for this gem of a debut: His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie. Thanks to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

Goodreads: His Only Wife
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Release Date: 01 September 2020
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, African Literature
Panda Rating:

Afi Tekple is a young seamstress whose life is narrowing rapidly. She lives in a small town in Ghana with her widowed mother, spending much of her time in her uncle Pious’s house with his many wives and children. Then one day she is offered a life-changing opportunity—a proposal of marriage from the wealthy family of Elikem Ganyo, a man she doesn’t truly know. She acquiesces, but soon realizes that Elikem is not quite the catch he seemed. He sends a stand-in to his own wedding, and only weeks after Afi is married and installed in a plush apartment in the capital city of Accra does she meet her new husband. It turns out that he is in love with another woman, whom his family disapproves of; Afi is supposed to win him back on their behalf. But it is Accra that eventually wins Afi’s heart and gives her a life of independence that she never could have imagined for herself.

A brilliant scholar and a fierce advocate for women’s rights, author Peace Adzo Medie infuses her debut novel with intelligence and humor. For readers of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Candice Carty-Williams, His Only Wife is the story of an indomitable and relatable heroine that illuminates what it means to be a woman in a rapidly changing world.

Book Spotlight + Giveaway: Losing Control by Rachael Stewart

August 20, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads2 Comments

I’m sharing a book spotlight today for Losing Control by Rachael Stewart. Thanks to Rachel @ Rachel’s Random Resources for organising this blog tour!

Happy book birthday to Losing Control!

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

Goodreads: Losing Control
Publisher: Mills & Boon
Publish Date: 20 August 2020
Genre: Romance

She watched him walk away…

…and now he’s back to claim her!

A family feud forced me to walk away from the woman of my dreams, Alexa—but I didn’t expect her to betray me by falling into my brother’s arms. Now, after a tragic accident, I’ve returned home to find Alexa leading the family business…and the chemistry between us is hotter than ever. The sparks reignite our electrifying connection, but can we learn to trust each other again?

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

Book Spotlight: Hunter’s Secret by Val Penny

August 14, 2020August 13, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads2 Comments

Hi everyone, I’m happy to be sharing a spotlight for Hunter’s Secret by Val Penny as part of the blog tour with Rachel’s Random Resources. Thanks to Rachel for including me in the tour! Don’t forget to check out the other bloggers on tour by clicking on the banner below:

Goodreads: Hunter’s Secret (The Edinburgh Crime Mysteries #5)
Publication Date: 08 August 2020
Publisher: Crooked Cat (Darkstroke)
Genre: Mystery/Thriller, Crime-Procedural

Detective Inspector Hunter Wilson is called to the scene of a murder. DCs Tim Myerscough and Bear Zewedu found a corpse, but when Hunter arrives it has disappeared, and all is not as it seems.

Hunter recalls the disappearance of a dead body thirty years earlier. The Major Incident Team is called in but sees no connection – it is too long ago. Hunter is determined to investigate the past and the present with the benefit of modern DNA testing.

Tim has other problems in his life. His father, Sir Peter Myerscough, is released from jail. He, too, remembers the earlier murder. There is no love lost between Hunter and Sir Peter. Will Hunter accept help from his nemesis to catch a killer?

Hunter’s own secret is exciting and crucial to his future. Will it change his life? And can he keep Edinburgh safe?

BUY IT NOW!

Book Blitz: Warping Minds & Other Misdemeanors

August 13, 2020August 13, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads8 Comments

Hi everyone, today I’m sharing a book blitz for Warping Minds & Other Misdemeanors by Annette Marie & Rob Jacobsen! This New Adult / Urban Fantasy sounds like it’d be such a fun read and I’m happy to be sharing it with you thanks to Xpresso Book Tours.

Goodreads: Warping Minds & Other Misdemeanors (The Guild Codex: Warped #1)
Publication Date: 07 August 2020
Publisher: Dark Owl Fantasy Inc.
Genre: New Adult, Urban Fantasy

My name is Kit Morris, and welcome to my warped life.

Picture the scene: Me, an average guy with psychic powers—not that my abilities are in any way average—just trying to scrape by in a harsh world. So maybe I’ve conned a few people, but did I really deserve to be thrown in MPD jail alongside magic-wielding serial killers?

According to Agent Lienna Shen, one-hundred-percent yes.

But her hardass attitude and “Arcana prodigy” status aren’t enough to bring down my former best friend, who slipped through the MPD’s fingers and is days away from unleashing untold horrors upon the city. Or he’s going to steal something. I don’t really know.

Whatever he’s up to, that’s why I’m sitting in an interrogation room with Lienna. And that’s why I just offered myself as her temporary new partner for the purposes of thwarting my ex-accomplice.

And that’s how I’m going to escape. I might even help with the case before I cut and run.

BUY IT: Amazon (US) | Amazon (UK) | Amazon (AU) | Amazon (CA)

Blog Tour Review: The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed

August 12, 2020August 12, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads9 Comments

I’m so honoured and excited to share my review today as part of the book blog tour for The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed. Special thanks to Shivani at Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing for reaching out and asking if I’d like to be part of their tour for this incredible book. Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

Goodreads: The Black Kids
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Release Date: 04 August 2020
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary, Historical Fiction, Coming-of-Age
Panda Rating:

Perfect for fans of The Hate U Give, this unforgettable coming-of-age debut novel explores issues of race, class, and violence through the eyes of a wealthy black teenager whose family gets caught in the vortex of the 1992 Rodney King Riots.

Los Angeles, 1992
Ashley Bennett and her friends are living the charmed life. It’s the end of senior year and they’re spending more time at the beach than in the classroom. They can already feel the sunny days and endless possibilities of summer.

Everything changes one afternoon in April, when four LAPD officers are acquitted after beating a black man named Rodney King half to death. Suddenly, Ashley’s not just one of the girls. She’s one of the black kids.

As violent protests engulf LA and the city burns, Ashley tries to continue on as if life were normal. Even as her self-destructive sister gets dangerously involved in the riots. Even as the model black family façade her wealthy and prominent parents have built starts to crumble. Even as her best friends help spread a rumor that could completely derail the future of her classmate and fellow black kid, LaShawn Johnson.

With her world splintering around her, Ashley, along with the rest of LA, is left to question who is the us? And who is the them?

Buy: Publisher | Amazon (US) | Amazon (UK) | Book Depository

Blog Tour Review: A House is a Body by Shruti Swamy

August 9, 2020August 9, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads3 Comments

Today I’m back with another Algonquin book tour for A House is A Body by Shruti Swamy. Thanks to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. This book is out 11 August 2020!

Goodreads: A House is a Body
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Release Date: 11 August 2020
Genre: Literary Fiction, Short Stories
Panda Rating:

In two-time O. Henry-prize winner Swamy’s debut collection of stories, dreams collide with reality, modernity collides with antiquity, myth with true identity, and women grapple with desire, with ego, with motherhood and mortality. In “Earthly Pleasures,” Radika, a young painter living alone in San Francisco, begins a secret romance with one of India’s biggest celebrities. In “A Simple Composition,” a husband’s moment of crisis leads to his wife’s discovery of a dark, ecstatic joy and the sense of a new beginning. In the title story, an exhausted mother watches, distracted and paralyzed, as a California wildfire approaches her home. With a knife blade’s edge and precision, the stories of A House Is a Body travel from India to America and back again to reveal the small moments of beauty, pain, and power that contain the world.

Buy: Amazon (US)

Blog Tour Review: With or Without You by Caroline Leavitt

August 8, 2020August 7, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads14 Comments

I’m back with another Algonquin blog tour and this time it’s for With or Without You by Caroline Leavitt. Thanks to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

Goodreads: With or Without You
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Release Date: 04 August 2020
Genre: Literary Fiction
Panda Rating:

A powerful story of love, identity, and the price of fitting in or speaking out.
After her father’s death, Ruth Robb and her family transplant themselves in the summer of 1958 from New York City to Atlanta—the land of debutantes, sweet tea, and the Ku Klux Klan. In her new hometown, Ruth quickly figures out she can be Jewish or she can be popular, but she can’t be both. Eager to fit in with the blond girls in the “pastel posse,” Ruth decides to hide her religion. Before she knows it, she is falling for the handsome and charming Davis and sipping Cokes with him and his friends at the all-white, all-Christian Club.

Does it matter that Ruth’s mother makes her attend services at the local synagogue every week? Not as long as nobody outside her family knows the truth. At temple Ruth meets Max, who is serious and intense about the fight for social justice, and now she is caught between two worlds, two religions, and two boys. But when a violent hate crime brings the different parts of Ruth’s life into sharp conflict, she will have to choose between all she’s come to love about her new life and standing up for what she believes.

Blog Tour Review: Knightmare Arcanist by Shami Stovall

July 16, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads9 Comments

Hey, hey friends! I’m so excited to be back for another @WriteReads blog tour for Knightmare Arcanist. This was such a fun and fast-paced read and I’m so glad this was put on my radar because of this tour 😍 Be sure to check out all the other bloggers participating in this tour over here.

Super big thanks to Dave for organising the tour and to the author, Shami Stovall, for the free copy in exchange for an honest review! Let’s get to it…

Goodreads: Knightmare Arcanist (Frith Chronicles #1)
Publisher: Capital Station Book
Published: 18 June 2019
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Panda Rating:

Magic. Sailing. A murderer among heroes.
Gravedigger Volke Savan wants nothing more than to be like his hero, the legendary magical swashbuckler, Gregory Ruma. First he needs to become an arcanist, someone capable of wielding magic, which requires bonding with a mythical creature. And he’ll take anything—a pegasus, a griffin, a ravenous hydra—maybe even a leviathan, like Ruma.

So when Volke stumbles across a knightmare, a creature made of shadow and terror, he has no reservations. But the knightmare knows a terrible secret: Ruma is a murderer out to spread corrupted magic throughout their island nation. He’s already killed a population of phoenixes and he intends to kill even more.

In order to protect his home, his adopted sister, and the girl he admires from afar, Volke will need to confront his hero, the Master Arcanist Gregory Ruma.

A fast-paced fantasy with magical creatures for those who enjoy the Furies of Calderon (Codex Alera series) by Jim Butcher, Unsouled (Cradle Series) by Will Wight, and Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan.

Buy a copy: Amazon

Blog Tour Review: The Ship of Shadows by Maria Kuzniar

July 13, 2020July 13, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads8 Comments

Hey, hey friends! I’m so excited to be back for another @WriteReads blog tour for The Ship of Shadows. This was such a fun and fast-paced read and I’m so glad this was put on my radar because of this tour 😍 Be sure to check out all the other bloggers participating in this tour over here.

Super big thanks to Dave for organising these tours and to NetGalley and Puffin Books for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review! Let’s get to it…

Goodreads: The Ship of Shadows
Publisher: Puffin Books
Published: 16 July 2020
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
Panda Rating:

Aleja whiles away her days in her family’s dusty tavern in Seville, dreaming of distant lands and believing in the kind of magic that she’s only ever read about in books. After all, she’s always being told that girls can’t be explorers.

But her life is changed forever when adventure comes for her in the form of a fabled vessel called the Ship of Shadows. Crewed by a band of ruthless women, with cabin walls dripping with secrets, the ship has sailed right out of a legend. And it wants Aleja.

Once on board its shadowy deck, she begins to realize that the sea holds more secrets than she ever could have imagined. The crew are desperately seeking something, and their path will take them through treacherous waters and force them to confront nightmare creatures and pitch-dark magic. It will take all of Aleja’s strength and courage to gain the trust of her fellow pirates – and discover what they are risking everything to find

Buy a copy: Amazon