Top 5 Saturday: Books with Unique Formats

February 13, 2021June 23, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads21 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: Book with Unique Format (Diary entries, verse, documents, podcast, blog, etc.)

I can’t believe I had such a hard time coming up with five books for this week’s prompt because I do love a book that’s written in mixed-media format. As it turns out though, I don’t seem to have a lot of them on my TBR although I can think of quite a few that I’ve read and loved, such as the Illuminae Files–which you MUST read if you haven’t yet! In the end, I’ve managed to come up with five books that are a mix of verse and epistolary, and some have been on my TBR for way too long (looking at you, Dracula!) but all of them are high on my priority list for this year!

#WWWWednesday: 10 February

February 10, 2021June 23, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads17 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 finished five books and basically I’ve finished an NA romance series, picked up the first book in the spin-off NA series and finished my buddy read for a contemporary romance. It’d be super accurate to say that my February is shaping up to (unintentionally) be a month of all the romance! Other than my two scheduled blog tour reads this month, I think I just might stick to the romance kick until the month ends but as a mood reader, it’s possible this could change on a whim. 😂

The Mistake (Off-Campus #2) by Elle Kennedy ★★★½
The Score (Off-Campus #3) by Elle Kennedy ★★★½
The Goal (Off-Campus #4) by Elle Kennedy ★★★½
The Chase (Briar U #1) by Elle Kennedy ★★★☆☆
I’m planning to write a series review for Off-Campus and I’m going to clump in The Chase in that review as well because I don’t think I’ll be continuing the Briar U series… While this series was a whole lot of fun banter, feisty heroines and smouldering heroes, I felt that the crazy college party and sex vibe of the story became too much in the end and the quality of the romances suffered for it. There were definitely great moments, I still rated the books 3+stars but the constant reminder that these players could get all the girls they wanted and that they frequently did prior to meeting their heroines became pretty gross and tiring in the end. 😅 Full series review to come soon!

#TopTenTuesday: Adult Romances by Authors of Colour

February 9, 2021August 12, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads39 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: Valentine’s Day/Love Freebie

I’ve seen people posting some really fun and creative content for today’s valentine/love freebie and I wanted to do something fun too, but seeing as I have zero ability to plan posts ahead of time, I’ve decided to just share the adult romances by authors of colour that I can’t wait to get my hands on this year. Tied with my love for fantasy, romance is my favourite genre and they make up more than half of the books I read every year. I just love love, y’know? Give me those HEA, the swoony moments, the favourite tropes like friends-to-lovers, the marshmallow soft-on-the-inside heroes, the feisty kick-ass heroines, the delightful banter, explosive chemistry and YES, the *fans self* steaminess!

One goal I have this year is to focus more on romances by authors of colour. I want to be more intentional in picking up diverse romances and I’m glad to see more and more romance by AOC popping up on my radar! This list is a mix of backlist and upcoming releases and I’m so excited to try all of them. Let me know if you have any recommendations–gimme all that good love, please! 😍

#5OnMyTBR: L-O-V-E!

February 8, 2021June 23, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads20 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. You can find the full list of prompts (past and future) at the end of this post!

This week’s prompt is: Love.

Goodreads Monday – Again Again by E. Lockhart

February 8, 2021June 23, 2021 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.*

*Sorry if a book has been featured twice. I need to make better note of which ones I’ve done already!

This week’s featured book is Again Again by E. Lockhart. This is a YA contemporary/coming-of-age story that was published in 2020.

Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp

February 7, 2021June 23, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads5 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 spent time curled up reading in bed with, or which book you wish you had time to read today!

I’ve spent very little of this Sunday with a book but I plan to finish the day off finishing Bad Habits. This is for a blog tour next week and I picked it up in between my romance binges last week, so I’m taking my time with it but I’m really enjoying it so far. While our MC, Alex, can be a bit much at times, I’ve laughed several times cos of her snarky and sassy voice and it’s honesty such a good time. The story is definitely as loud (and fun) as this cover makes it out to be! 😉

Hilarious, bold, sparky and surprising, this is the funniest feminist book you’ll read all year.

Alex is a rebel from the tip of her purple fauxhawk to the toes of her biker boots. She’s tried everything she can think of to get expelled from her strict Catholic boarding school. Nothing has worked so far – but now, Alex has a new plan.
Tired of the sexism she sees in every corner of St Mary’s, Alex decides to stage the school’s first ever production of The Vagina Monologues. Which is going to be a challenge, as no one else at St Mary’s can even bear to say the word ‘vagina’ out loud . . .

What are you currently reading?

Top 5 Saturday: Royalty in the Title

February 6, 2021June 23, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads10 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: Royalty in the Title (King, Queen, Princess, Prince, etc.)

This was only easy because of the search function on Goodreads but otherwise I had a surprisingly difficult time calling to mind the “royal titles” I have on my TBR. Memory, she eludes me often! 😂 On the whole, while it does seem that there are a lot of titles with royalty in them, I don’t seem to find myself gravitating towards them more than other kinds of titles/books. I do read quite a few stories about royals as they’re found in abundance in fantasies, especially YA, but perhaps I think that because I read mostly YA. With that said, here are five titles that are on my TBR that I’m looking forward to reading! Unsurprisingly, most are fantasy but there’s a romance and poetry collection in the mix too! 😉

KING OF SCARS

#WWWWednesday: 03 February

February 3, 2021June 23, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads18 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 finished five books and had my first DNF of 2021 (not included here). My goal this year is to continue DNFing books that aren’t doing it for me instead of letting my guilt push me to keep reading something that I’m really not enjoying, so I’m proud that I managed to put this goal into action so early on in the year! 😂

Deadly Dreams (Fortuna Sworn #4) by K.J. Sutton ★★★☆☆
After ending book two feeling mad let down, I didn’t have big hopes for this book but it was better. I really enjoyed certain aspects of it, such as how Fortuna’s trauma was dealt with (for the most part) but I’m kinda tired of the story cos it keeps going around in circles and I feel like we still get no answers. There were more “political fae games” in this story, which also meant a lot more brutality and murders, which did keep it ‘interesting’ (lol) but I’m truly over the love-triangle/square/whatever vibes. I will say that the ending surprised me and for that alone I will be continuing on with the series because my curiosity has been piqued! Will share a series review soon.

#TopTenTuesday: 10 Books from the 1980s

February 2, 2021August 12, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads41 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 Written Before I Was Born (These can be books you’ve read or want to read!) (submitted by Davida Chazan @ The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blog)

Well, I can’t say that I’ve ever done a prompt like this one before! Prior to starting this book blog I never really paid attention to when books were published. To be honest, even with this book blog, I’m only mostly aware of pub dates for books that I’m reading for blog tours or for ARCs, but otherwise I still don’t pay dates that much attention. So I wasn’t even sure how to go about doing this list but thanks to Goodreads’ compiled lists for books going back to 1980, my decision was made easy! Since I was born in 1988 (I’m old?!) I thought I would share two books from my born year and share one each year going back to 1980. I’m quite surprised to find that I actually do have at least one book for each year! All of these are on my TBR (but like, long, long list TBR with the only exception being Midnight’s Children which is almost immediate TBR lol) and I’ll read them one day… One day! 😂

Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp

January 31, 2021June 23, 2021 Dini @ dinipandareads10 Comments

I’m planning to spend the rest of my Sunday night tucked in bed finishing The Death of Honor. I’m finishing this up for a blog tour next week. So far, it’s an okay read. There are parts that I’m really enjoying and other parts (mostly the writing) is a bit so-so for me! I am enjoying it for the most part though 😊

All Rebecca wants in life is to sail through space in her ship—is that too much to ask? The moment she lays eyes on her old military buddy Jonathan, Rebecca knew there was no running away from her duties. With her best friend, sometimes with benefits, Nik, she desired to return home to the Nreff Nation, one of the four government powers of the systems, to serve on one last mission.

However, the problem with returning is that they all are wanted for treason. It wasn’t their fault, however, as they had been framed by their old admiral, Sebastien Wilde. Fortunately, succeeding in this mission might give them a clean slate, as they are to find evidence of Wilde’s involvement in the illegal human experimentation ring that goes against the Treaty Of World Equality and Rights (T.O.W.E.R.).

Rebecca and Nik agree to the mission, hoping to earn a more peaceful life, however Rebecca hides a dark secret: she was once closer to Sebastien than any of them ever realized, and the evidence incriminating him might also implicate her. Now Rebecca has a choice: turn her back on her comrades and run for her life, or face her sins in order to prevent an all-out war.

What are you currently reading?