The Magical Readathon: Orilium Spring Equinox 2022

April 1, 2022August 11, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads19 Comments

It’s finally April which means that classes are now officially in session! What exactly am I on about? The Magical Readathon: Orilium Spring Equinox 2022, of course! Still confused? Check out this video below. The Magical Readathon is hosted by G @ Book Roast who has done an exceptional job preparing all the materials for us—it’s honestly stunning and sets the fantastical vibes of this readathon up so well! If you’re looking for a fun, unique and immersive readathon to join, you don’t need to look any further. This is it! 😍

Last year, I participated in The Novice Path which helped me kickstart the journey to Orilium which was followed up by a mini-readathon last week to “gear up” for classes starting from 01-30 April. Before diving into my classes, prompts and possibility pile, here’s a little character background:

Character BACKGROUND:

Name: Meeska
Guild: House of the Arcane
Calling: Illusionist Rogue
Background: Urban
Province: Kerador
Heritage: Earthling (Fire)

Orilium Spring Equinox Class Prompts+Possibility Pile

It was a little tough to choose a calling because there are so many fantastic options but with a little bit of help, I settled on Illusionist Rogue. I mean, how cool does this sound?

“Illusionist rogues are a mystery in many ways, but one thing about them is certain: reality bends to their will.”
The Orilium Academy “Callings” Guide

To fulfil my calling I luckily only need to take three classes this Spring Equinox: Shapeshifting, Art of Illusion, and Psionics & Divination. There are little extras that we can choose to do, allowing us to earn points for our guild and guild tier ranking, but those extras will be announced via Twitter and Discord and will be more like “limited time/first come first serve” offers.

I’m terrible with TBRs but I’ll be buddy reading one book so that prompt is set but for the other two, I’m not quite sure what I’ll end up reading so I thought I’d share a list of possibilities. Who knows, if you need recommendations, some of these might work for you as well!

*covers linked to Goodreads*

SHAPESHIFTING: CREATURE WITH CLAWS ON THE COVER

I struggled the most with this prompt as it turns out I don’t have many books that have creatures with claws on the cover? 😂 I’m technically buddy reading The Dream Thieves with Leslie this month but any of these options could work too. If you have other suggestions, let me know!

ART OF ILLUSION: BOOK WITH A TROPE YOU LIKE

This is by far the easiest cos I love so many tropes. I’ll be buddy reading My Mechanical Romance with Leslie & Julie, which is the rivals to lovers trope. The others listed here have fake dating, friends to lovers, enemies to lovers/hate to love and found family!

Book cover: My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth

PSIONICS & DIVINATION: BOOK SET IN THE FUTURE

I couldn’t come up with many books on my TBR for this and I’m kinda playing it loose with some of these “future” picks but I’m liking this list! 😂 I’m always open to more suggestions though if anyone has any!

Are you joining the Magical Readathon as well? What’s your calling? Anyone else pursuing the Illusionist Rogue calling or part of House Arcane? If anyone has recommendations, needs recommendations or wants to buddy read anything, let me know! I’d be more than happy to do one 😃

Blog signature that reads: Let's Chat! xoxo, Dini

#WWWWednesday: 30 March 2022

March 30, 2022August 11, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads19 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 five books. Romances continue to dominate my reads but I managed to finish two fantasies as well, one of which has become one of my favourites (so far) this year!

(ARC) One-Timer (Carolina Comets #3) by Teagan Hunter ★★★¾
Hunter never fails to make me laugh and gave me the good vibes I wanted when I read it. It wasn’t perfect but the overall chemistry and banter were fantastic! 👏🏽 Check out my review

The Beast of Beswick by Amalie Howard ★★★★☆
I saw Beauty and the Beast retelling and immediately scooped it up cos I’m a sucker for them! This engaged me right from the beginning and I was invested in both their stories. The chemistry between these strong-willed opposites was explosive—talk about steamy! 🔥

#TopTenTuesday: 21st Century Books That Could Be Classics

March 29, 2022August 11, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads54 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: 21^st Century Books I Think Will Become Classics (Submitted by Lisa of Hopewell)

I found this week’s prompt to be a toughie and I wasn’t entirely jamming with it because I don’t tend to read a lot of classics, but I was also too tired to find a new topic to do, so I decided to dive in and see what I could come up with! I changed the wording of the prompt slightly because I’m not confident at all in my ability to discern which books will become classics but I feel like maybe these books have potential? For starters, I needed to refresh my memory of what makes a classic.

A classic usually expresses some artistic quality—an expression of life, truth, and beauty. A classic stands the test of time. The work is usually considered to be a representation of the period in which it was written, and the work merits lasting recognition. A classic has a certain universal appeal. Great works of literature touch us to our very core beings—partly because they integrate themes that are understood by readers from a wide range of backgrounds and levels of experience. Themes of love, hate, death, life, and faith touch upon some of our most basic emotional responses. A classic makes connections.
ThoughtCo.

With this definition in mind, I managed to come up with a list of books that I think fit the bill— plus, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all of these books and not only have they left a strong impression on me but they’re ones that I frequently recommend to others! I know many people would disagree with at least one of these for sure 😂 Without further ado, let’s get right to it…

#WWWWednesday: 23 March 2022

March 23, 2022August 11, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads29 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 four books. This past week has been hellacious and all I’ve wanted to do is take my sleep-deprived and anxious self and retreat into a cave and never come out. When I’m not playing my new Breath of the Wild save (what’s more de-stressing than slaying Lynels?) romances have been my go-to and even then my anxious mood has made it hard to fully get into the stories…

The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1) by Maggie Stiefvater ★★★½
I buddy read this with Leslie and I’m glad that I finally read it. It’s very hyped and I can see why but it took a bit of time to warm up to it. It was also very different to what I expected which was both awesome but very much threw me off 😂 We’ll read the next book in May and I can’t wait!

Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score ★★★★☆
This was my first book by Lucy Score and I loved it! This had so many tropes including hate-to-love, grumpy/sunshine, single parent with a dash of fake-dating and forced proximity, and all set in an awesome small town. I want more stories set in Knockemout, please!

#TopTenTuesday: Books with Adjectives in the Title!

March 22, 2022August 11, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads26 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: Books with an Adjective in the Title (Submitted by Nicole @ How to Train a Book Dragon)

This was a fun little prompt to test my knowledge of grammar! 😂 I decided to focus today’s list on the books that are just waiting to be read on my Kindle and I was honestly surprised by how far down my list I had to go to find ten titles but we finally got there in the end! To start, let’s take a look at what the definition of an adjective is:

An adjective is a word that modifies a noun or a pronoun. In general, the purpose of an adjective is to describe a noun or pronoun and provide more information about it. Adjectives provide answers to questions such as “What kind?” “Which one?” and “Whose is it?”
Thesaurus.com

#WWWWednesday: 16 March 2022

March 16, 2022August 11, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads21 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?

Is it just me or are the days FLYING by?! Since last week I’ve read five books. Unsurprisingly, most of my reads were romances cos it seems to be the only genre I can happily read in my weird mood that I can’t shake. I admit it’s a little frustrating when I want to read the other books on my TBR and yet nothing else seems to catch! 😂

We Hunt the Flame (Sands of Arawiya #1) by Hafsah Faizal ★★★★½
This was a buddy read with Leslie @ Book Are the New Black & Julie @ One Book More! A good chunk of the beginning was quite a struggle to get through but we all ended up really enjoying the book and came up with some wild and exciting theories for book two! I’m so excited to read the sequel with them next month 😍

(ARC) Anything But Fine by Tobias Madden ★★★½
This was a well-written and engaging YA contemporary debut that sent me running down memory lane as I used to live in Australia and I’m familiar with many of the places mentioned in the book. It was fab! My blog tour review + journal spread is going up tomorrow! 😃

#TopTenTuesday: Spring 2022 Possibility Pile!

March 15, 2022August 11, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads77 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: Books On My Spring 2022 ~~TBR~~ POSSIBILITY PILE!

As someone who lives in the tropics, I ask, what even is spring? 😂 Kidding… Sort of! In Indonesia, we only have two seasons, the muggy and hot and the muggier and hotter, and I miss the years when I lived somewhere with four seasons! But I digress. I’m an epic mood reader and so a TBR pile just doesn’t work for me and I tend to go with very loose “possibility piles”. I’ve got a lot of ARCs that need reading so that’s what makes up this week’s list— it’s a good chunk of YA SFF and YA Contemporary with a sprinkling of Adult Romance and Historical Mystery. I’m very excited about these releases and I can’t wait to read these books! 😍

#WWWWednesday: 09 March 2022

March 9, 2022August 11, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads22 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 finished three books. I started what felt like a million titles but I put them down almost immediately cos my focus wasn’t holding. I’ve been struggling to sleep and my brain is tired? 😮‍💨 I think it also shows with the books I read cos while I liked them well enough, they didn’t pull me in the way I was sure they would!

Sin and Ink (Sweetest Taboo #1) by Naima Simone ★★★½
I don’t often read taboo romance but I really enjoyed this one. Simone balances the sexy, angsty and emotional vibes so well! Knox had me weak 🥵

Side Effects (The Prescotts #5) by Tara Wyatt ★★★½
This was my first book by Tara Wyatt and it was a fun friends-to-lovers paramedic romance with two likeable MCs who were slightly kinky and very into dirty talking! 😉

#WWWWednesday: 02 March 2022

March 2, 2022August 11, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads23 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?

I’ve finished six books since last Wednesday and most of them were shorter reads (>300). It’s been quite a restless reading week with me picking up and then quickly abandoning many books because nothing took. I did have two 5-star reads (one a re-read) though so I guess there’s that? 🤷🏻‍♀️

The Best Men (The Best Men #1) by Sarina Bowen & Lauren Blakely ★★★☆☆
I read the prequel Super Hot Wingman (#0.5) and wasn’t entirely feeling the chemistry between our MCs but thought that’d change once I started The Best Men. Sadly, it never really got there. It wasn’t a bad read but I just wanted a bit more of their backstories, connection, everything?

Anne of West Philly by Ivy Noelle Weir ★★★★☆
I read this graphic novel for an upcoming tour. It’s a modern retelling of Anne of Green Gables which I admittedly haven’t read but I still enjoyed it! The art was wonderful and the character growth was fantastic. My blog tour review is coming this Friday!

#WWWWednesday: 23 February 2022

February 23, 2022August 11, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads19 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?

I’ve managed to read three books since last Wednesday.

Jade Legacy (The Green Bone Saga #3) by Fonda Lee ★★★★★ <– ALL THE STARS
OH, HOW I WEPT. This induced full-body heaving sobs. This book… I just… 😮‍💨 I truly have no words. Trust Lee to write such an epic conclusion that spans over 21-years and still make me feel like it’s not enough. I want more of the Kauls and yet no matter what we get I don’t think it’ll ever be enough. The Green Bone Saga is one of the best fantasies I’ve ever read and it’s top-shelf forever. I don’t have anything else to say cos literally no words! 😂 I’m so glad I went on this journey with Jess cos there was much crying involved, haha! 💜

These Violent Delights (These Violent Delights #1) by Chloe Gong ★★★★☆
I’m so glad I buddy read TVD with Leslie cos she kept me on track while I dealt with the emotional devastation from JL, lol! I’m also glad I finally read this cos I finally get the hype! It was action-packed and much darker than I expected but Gong’s writing was stunning and I loved the slow-burn lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers doomed romance between Juliette and Roma. 😍 My review will go up next week!