Not a Drop to Drink is very good, I’ll say that. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting it to be but it’s not what I got. It was pretty straight forward and unapologetic. Lynn has lived with her Mother spending every day struggling to survive and protecting their pond. Water has become scarce all over the world and clean water even rarer. Lynn’s pond in many ways is keeping them alive and most be protected at all times. Lynn’s mother is hard. She has taught Lynn from a young age how to use a rifle and to shoot if anyone gets to close. After a tragic accident that kills her mother, Lynn is on her own. She decides to make an alliance with her neighbor, Stebbs. Together they work to protect her pond and check out possible threats to them. This leads them to Lucy, Eli and Neva. They have escaped the city but are unprepared for living in the wild. Lynn takes Lucy home as both Eli and Neva are unable to care for the five year old. Before this the only people that Lynn knew was her mother and Stebbs. She was taught that everyone else was their enemy out to get their pond. Over the course she learns that not everyone is as ruthless and that helping someone is not weakness but also can be a strength. When far more ruthless men build a camp not that far from them, Lynn will do whatever it takes to save her new “family”
I liked the minimalist of the writing style. It really sets the whole mood of the novel. Lynn’s life is a struggle but it’s also pretty simple and straight forward. She does what needs to be done. The writing matches that. It doesn’t over elaborate or go into much details. It tells you what happens and let you fill in the gap. Lynn is a smart, strong but also vulnerable. Living away from the world, there are many things she doesn’t know about and leads to funny but also sad realizations about the world. She has been taught not to trust anyone but learns that sometimes to survive you have to. She’s not a shrinking violet, waiting to be rescued but will do the rescuing. The story is not afraid to be violent and talk about the nastier part of life or is it afraid of killing off characters. This is a harsh world they live in and tragedies will happen but life moves on. You can either deal with it and be stronger or not. There is a sequel but l really liked the ending. I liked the sense of hope it brought with it. I’m not sure there is a need for a second one but I’ll probably read it.
Queen of Shadows is the fourth book in Throne of Glass series. It has taken quite a few twists and turns in the four books. What I love about this series is that it keeps on surprising me. I think I’m a pretty savvy reader but I totally didn’t see the big reveal at the end. If you haven’t read, 
Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton and Brenna Yovanoff are three successful authors on their own right but they are also each other critique partners. They call themselves the 
You would think that this novel about the Black Widow would be about you know, the Black Widow. But it’s really not. Natasha Romanoff has to share the lime light with two other characters. I mean, the girl can’t ever catch a break. First she gets shut out of all the promotional toys and now she can’t even be the main character in her own YA novel. What does a super agent girl got to do to get some respect? Ok, maybe I’m going a little overboard since she is still a major part of the story but she has to share the narrative with two new characters. Ava, another prodigy of the Red Room that Natasha saves in one of her missions and Alex, who at first doesn’t seem at all connected to either lady but of course he is deeply connected to both of them. We also get a little more insight into Natasha in between chapters, as we read transcripts from a hearing about how the mission we are reading about went bad. Right away you know that one of them is not going to make it. 
Disney has been all about re-imagining their classics lately. In the last few years they have told the story of Sleeping Beauty through the eyes of the villain, Maleficent. Made a live action movie of Cinderella and has Beauty and the Beast coming out next year. Not to mention, the show Once Upon a Time, which is nothing more but a chance for all Disney’s characters meet each and hang out. Disney has now taken their new initiative to rewrite all of stories to books. The Twisted Tale series is a new series who’s aim is to ask “What would happen if this or that didn’t happen? Aladdin is the first of their classics to get a new literary spin. What would happen if Aladdin didn’t end up with the lamp but Jafar did? How does that change Aladdin, Jasmine or the Genie? Talk about a plot twist. 
All right I’m going to just get into it. Talis is by far the sassiest AI in history. I knew that I was going to love this book from the the get go. Talis starts things off with outlining how he took over the world. It truly was love at first read. So, here’s the deal, the world was in chaos, the icebergs in the Arctic have melted. Humanity was killing each other with war after war after war so the UN decided to give Talis the task of finding solutions to stop the chaos. So he blew up a couple of cities, just to get people’s attention and then went medieval on all of them and demanded royal hostages. You declare war, well, then your beloved heir to your throne is going to die. Talis’ number one rule. Make it Personal. Mission accomplished. Fast forward 400 years and for the most part, Talis’ rule has worked. The nations of the world have been almost peaceful. Greta is the heir to the PanPol throne aka Canada and has been raised to be the perfect hostage and heir. She knows that the likelihood of her living to rule her people is getting slim. Her people have been at the brink of war for years and she has become sort of ok with it since it is her duty. That is until Elian shows up and challenges everything she thought was true. Elian is everything she is not. He wasn’t raised to rule or to be a hostage. He knows that he is going to die and instead of accepting it, he fights for it. He, with the help of Xie, Greta’s roommate and fellow royal, open Greta’s eyes to different possibilities. Show her how to be strong and how to rule. They show her what she has been missing by only doing her duty. She makes real friends, falls in love and possibly changes the world. All the while Talis is there being his sassy self, keeping the jokes coming and his no nonsense rule. I highly recommend this book. Come for the sass but stay for the heart.
I’ve been looking forward to reading this book for awhile now. I’ve read so many great things about it online but I’m always a little wary, too, when it gets too positive reviews online. I don’t want to be disappointed, you know? So I’m happy to say, I think this one lived up to the hype. An Ember in the Ashes. I think what has drawn so many people to it is that sort of unique. It’s a dystopian novel that isn’t really dystopian. It’s sort of historical fiction but not really. It’s based on Ancient Rome. Yes, it does have a little bit of a Hunger Games feel to it with it’s fight to the death competition in the middle of the novel but I’m willing to forgive because I feel it serves the purpose of the novel. The Martials have taken over the empire and enslave people as they go. One of those newly enslaved peoples are the Scholars. Laia and her family have tried to stay out of trouble but when her brother is arrested for treason she agrees to become a slave and spy on the evil Commandant (she’s seriously evil) for the resistance. Elias is the top student and is poised on carrying on his family’s name but he’s looking for a way out. Their paths collide as they discover they might be exactly who each other needs to get what they want and possibly more.
2 Women, So Many Books 