March Take Control of Your TBR Pile Challenge!

my 2018-take-control shelf:

Kim @Caffeinatedbookreviewer is our host for the 6th Annual Take Control of your TBR Reading Challenge. For anyone who wants to read those books that have been just sitting on your shelf for god knows how long, this month would be a good time to challenge yourself to read them. I hope everyone has some fun and good luck to winning some prizes as well.

Just a few physical books on my shelf that need to-be-read

Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Audiobook 
narrated by Jennifer Ikeda👍👌
Buy on Amazon Canada
The Book Depository(affiliate link)

When Feyre goes hunting in the woods one day, to provide meat for her family, she spots a wolf and a deer and decides to kill the wolf and sell his pelt on the market. She may have regretted killing the wolf, but it wasn't a mistake to be certain. 〘The wolf was a fairy, who had been sent by Tamlin himself as a sacrificial lamb. Feyre was meant to kill the fairy wolf.〙 
Tamlin gets all up in her face for killing the shapeshifting fae and feeds her a mouthful of lies before he takes her back to the Spring Court. There he entices her to fall in love with him. They become intimately closer as Amarantha (the blight) is threatening the faerie realms and taking their magic powers. Tamlin isn't as strong as he used to be and he is cursed to wear a mask until the curse is lifted, which can only happen if a human kills a fae and falls in love with one. Feyre only needed to speak those magic words "I love you," and the curse would be lifted. But Tamlin is running out of time.

I thought Feyre would be happy with Tamlin in the land of faery. I mean she could come and go as she pleases and her bedroom is bigger than her cottage! Not to mention servants who looked after her. Tam and Lucien treat her pretty well, but she was petty and selfish. All she wanted was to go home to her sisters and father, but the memory of the day she was taken was wiped from their minds, and all they knew was that she was with a distant Aunt and safe.

"It took me a couple of hours to stop painting little portraits of Tamlin and Lucien with pigs' features. But as I finished the last one - Two faerie pigs wallowing in their own filth, I would call it - I smiled into the clear, bright light of my private painting room. The Tamlin I knew had returned. And it made me ...happy." page 200

When Feyre was abused by Rhysand, a High Lord of the Night Court, Tamlin was afraid, if Amarantha were to find out about her, Feyre would be killed. So, he sends her back to her village. It was then Feyre should've told Tamlin she loved him. Stupid girl. She could have lifted the curse! She should have listened to the Suriel too. Oh well.

"some people would hurt you, Feyre. Hurt you because of what you are to me. I thought I would be able to handle them, to shield you from it, but after today... I can't. So you need to go home, far from here. You'll be safe there."-page 243-244

Her family was well cared for by Tamlin. They went from rags to riches in no time. Feyre's sister wasn't compelled and knew something was wrong. Feyre admitted to the real truth, but she also was anxious about Tamlin. All she wanted to do was to go back to Tamlin and his estate. Only Alis told her that Tamlin, Lucien and everyone else was taken under the mountain. Alis also was able to tell the real story about everyone and what a story it was indeed!
What the hell made Feyre, a mere human, think she could save Tamlin and the whole of Prythia? She couldn't even read!!?
To take Tamlin back, Amarantha gave Feyre three trials to perform and a riddle to solve. Really? The things she did for love.

There are those who seek me a lifetime but never we meet,
And those I kiss but who trample me beneath ungrateful feet.

At times I seem to favor the clever and the fair,
But I bless all those who are brave enough to dare.

By large, my ministrations are soft-handed and sweet,
But scorned, I become a difficult beast to defeat.

For though each of my strikes lands a powerful blow,
When I kill, I do it slow...

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It's Monday! What Are you Reading?

Weekly meme hosted @Bookdates

I finished two books for the March #TakeControlTBR challenge. 

Bitter Bite by Jennifer Estep and
Mortal Heart by Robin Lafever.

Mortal Heart has been on my TBR for over a year, and I include it in the 2017 Series Ender Challenge as well. It was a great ending to the His Fair Assassin Trilogy.

I am currently reading Day 21 of The 100 by Kass Morgan

New in paperback-the sequel to New York Times bestseller The 100. Now a TV show on The CW!

I binged watched the hundred on Netflix, and I am addicted. I love the show! Since season 4 is airing segments each week, I have only the books to read in between episodes.

Here is my condensed summary of the TV version for The 100 Season 1.

Ninety-seven years after the destruction of planet Earth, the council of the Sky Crew sends 100 delinquent teens to Earth to test the survivability of the world. They discover Earth is survivable, but they rebel against the Arks elders. Some of them find the strength they never knew they had making heroes and warriors of themselves to save their people. 
John Murphy is banished by his friends and tortured by his enemies and is hated by everyone, but he comes back again and again. I love Clarke, but killing Finn, the one who loved her was not ok. It took me awhile to warm up to Bellamy as his decisions weren't the best for everyone only himself. Octavia falls in love with Lincoln, her kidnapper and grounder, and kind of goes off by herself and learns to fight and kill. I thought after all Octavia did for Lincoln, sacrificing himself was an ungrateful and terrible mistake when he gets shot in the head. This show has great characters with its twists and turns making it incredible. ex. King Roen of the Ice nation and Lexa Kom tricru. It was exciting to watch, and I miss them all so much. It hurts how badly I miss them. In the events that unfold, the Ark is running out of oxygen, and the rest of the sky crew make it to Earth but are unwelcome by all ground inhabitants. ex: mountain men, Tree people aka grounders, Reapers, and Ice Nation. The mountain men cannot go outside without a mask and uniform because the air is contaminated and poisonous to them. The Skaicru are subjected to many threats and people.

I plan to read either The Fate of the Tearling next or Truthwitch sorry I forgot I have Blood Vow by J.R.Ward to read first :p

Review: Bitter Bite

Bitter Bite by Jennifer Estep

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Amazon |The book depository

Bitter Bite has an ice magic flare to it and lots of expensive bling if you care about that sort of thing.

The story starts and ends in a cemetery. Gin Blanco has her suspicions about Finn's mother being alive. And she was right. Gin discovers Deirdre Shaw's coffin is empty. When two dwarves interfere with Gin's business, they end up dead. So Gin buries them in the empty grave she just dug up. Good riddance.

Anyhow, Bitter Bite was a hoot, even though the real action doesn't start until page 283. Gin teams up with her sister Bria to stop a bank heist. The bad guys, Deirdre and Santos, are holding Finn hostage to get inside the First Trusts bank vault. The very bank in which Finn works! Deirdre leads Finn to believe she cares for him against Gin's better judgment- but Deirdre is only using Finn as her tool, the same way she used Fletcher.

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