First Lines Friday – 20 November

November 20, 2020November 20, 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:

“The police officer’s body goes blurry, then sharpens again.
I don’t stare at him directly. I can’t really focus on one thing in this room, but when I do look, his face shimmers.”

Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?

Goodreads Monday – Minimum Wage Magic by Rachel Aaron

November 16, 2020November 16, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads15 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 Minimum Wage Magic (DFZ #1) by Rachel Aaron. This is an urban fantasy with magic and dragons and it has a 4.16 star rating on Goodreads with roughly 400 reviews.

Blog Tour Review: Born at Dawn by Christina Davis

November 14, 2020November 14, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads7 Comments

Hello, friends! Today is my stop on the TBR & Beyond Tours for Born at Dawn by Christina Davis. Special thanks to the author for providing 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: Born at Dawn (Da’Valia Trilogy #1)
Publication Date: 15 November 2020
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Panda Rating:

In a world of secrets, the one she never expected is the one that will change her life forever.
When a heist goes terribly wrong and the binding spell holding 17-year-old Neva’s powers at bay is shattered, the half-human thief knows she’s in trouble.

Neva has always hidden her Da’Valian heritage while working risky jobs to make a name for herself and serving at her family’s tavern, but she won’t be able to hide much longer. She can either risk the safety of those she cares about or seek out her mother’s people to gain control over her emerging powers.

The Da’Valia are beautiful, brutal creatures created by the god of war, and the austere Da’Valian soldier Astiand reluctantly agrees to take Neva to his clan under his protection. She makes unexpected friends, including the handsome fighter Emiliand, and a new enemy in the clan’s ruthless leader.

Spying on her guardian, the sly heroine quickly discovers just how deep she has stumbled into a dangerous, developing clan feud. Will she be able to embrace who she is in time to keep her loved ones safe?

⚠This book is about a race of warriors and contains violent scenes, which may not be suitable for all audiences.

Buy: Amazon (US)

First Lines Friday – 13 November

November 13, 2020November 13, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads13 Comments

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:

“After they found the third body that year, Justin Hawthorne knelt in his backyard and prepared to hear his future.”

Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?

First Lines Friday – 23 October

October 23, 2020October 23, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads6 Comments

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:

“Elsie could just barely hear the toll of Big Ben in the distance. Four o’clock. A decent enough time for breaking the law.”

Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?

Blog Tour Review: Legends Rise (Venators #3) by Devri Walls

October 20, 2020November 2, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads11 Comments

Hey friends! I’m excited to be back for another @WriteReads blog tour for book three of the Venators series: Legends Rise. Be sure to check out all the other bloggers participating in this tour over here. You can also read my review for book one and book two.

Thanks to Dave for organising the tour, Noly for the awesome tour banner, and to Devri Walls for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

Goodreads: Legends Rise (Venators #3)
Published: 12 May 2020
Genre: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy, Supernatural
Panda Rating:

The path will be forged in sweat and blood.

Rune, Grey, the shape-shifter Beltran, and willful vampire, Verida, set out to rescue their friend and mentor, Tate, from the gladiator games. But first they must navigate the perils of Eon and its warring factions. Each of this band of four carries with them a secret that threatens to tear their group apart from within. Rune now bears the mark of the promise she made to save Grey’s life-a nixie bubble lodged in her arm that could call her away to do their bidding or spell her death.

Even as their loyalty to their cause and to one another faces its greatest test, Rune’s twin brother Ryker is forging an alliance with their mortal enemy, the powerful sorceress Zio, who has plans of her own for the Venators and Eon. Hearts will be bared, secrets unveiled, and relationships made and destroyed in this stunning new installment of the Venators series.

GET A COPY: Amazon (UK)

Blog Tour Review + Giveaway: A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe

October 17, 2020October 18, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads4 Comments

Hello, friends! Today is my stop on the TBR & Beyond Tours for A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe. Thanks to the TBR & Beyond team for having me on tour and to NetGalley and the publisher 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: A Golden Fury
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Publication Date: 13 October 2020
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy, Historical Fiction
Panda Rating:

Thea Hope longs to be an alchemist out of the shadow of her famous mother. The two of them are close to creating the legendary Philosopher’s Stone—whose properties include immortality and can turn any metal into gold—but just when the promise of the Stone’s riches is in their grasp, Thea’s mother destroys the Stone in a sudden fit of violent madness.

While combing through her mother’s notes, Thea learns that there’s a curse on the Stone that causes anyone who tries to make it to lose their sanity. With the threat of the French Revolution looming, Thea is sent to Oxford for her safety, to live with the father who doesn’t know she exists.

But in Oxford, there are alchemists after the Stone who don’t believe Thea’s warning about the curse—instead, they’ll stop at nothing to steal Thea’s knowledge of how to create the Stone. But Thea can only run for so long, and soon she will have to choose: create the Stone and sacrifice her sanity, or let the people she loves die.

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

Blog Tour Review + Giveaway: The Puppetmaster’s Apprentice by Lisa DeSelm

October 15, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads14 Comments

Hello, friends! I’m so excited to take part in my first blog tour with Caffeine Book Tours today! 😍 It’s my stop on the tour for The Puppetmaster’s Apprentice by Lisa DeSelm and I couldn’t be happier to share my thoughts on this delightfully dark fantasy retelling. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing 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: The Puppetmaster’s Apprentice
Publisher: Page Street Publishing
Publication Date: 13 October 2020
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Panda Rating:

“Listen well. Soon, the blue moon, the rarest of all moons will be on the rise. At its waxing offer up one of your creations and by moonlight they will be given breath. Choose wisely who to awaken.”

With her puppet-maker father imprisoned and the land of Tavia on the brink of war, Pirouette does not have a choice other than to follow the ruler’s whims. But when he discovers her secret – that she was once a puppet brought to life by the magic of the blue moon—he demands that Pirouette create an assassin out of wood and then make it come alive.

Fighting against forbidden magic and racing against the rise of the next blue moon, Pirouette cannot help but wonder, if she is making a masterpiece…or a monster. And if she is making a monster, what does that make her?

BUY NOW: Amazon (US) |Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | IndieBound

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

#5OnMyTBR: Books with Magic

October 6, 2020October 5, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads26 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!