Quick review: War(The Four Horseman #2) by Laura Thalassa

If there were 6 stars, I’d give them to War.

I don’t know how many pages there are but each of them is action packed. So much happened and the % was barely creeping along. I never even noticed! That’s the sign of a great book.

I was sucked in from the beginning and I couldn’t put it down. Was War a bad dude? Yes and no, but you can’t help but love and understand him. He was just doing his job. Miriam was so good with him though. I loved her. She was strong and firm and never gave up. She wanted better for our world and was willing to go toe to toe with him to get it.

Who knew post apocalyptic stories could be so sexy? I mean, the world has crumbled and yet it still turns. Love still happens.

Gah!! I love these books and I can’t wait for the next one!

~Melpomene

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Preview: Everything Under The Sun by J.A.Redmerski

Ya’ll!! Let me tell you, I am super excited to post about this new release. I have loved everything I’ve ever read by Jessica and I know this will be fabulous!

EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN: A Novel
Jessica Redmerski

Fiction & Literature | Post-Apocalyptic | Suspense | Romance
683 pages

Thais Fenwick was eleven-years-old when civilization fell, devastated by a virus that killed off the majority of the world’s population. For seven years, Thais and her family lived in a community of survivors deep in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains. But when her town is attacked by raiders, she and her blind sister are taken away to the East-Central Territory where she is destined to live the cruel and unjust kind of life her late mother warned her about.
Atticus Hunt is a troubled soldier in Lexington City who has spent the past seven years trying to conform to the vicious nature of men in a post-apocalyptic society. He knows that in order to survive, he must abandon his morals and his conscience and become like those he is surrounded by. But when he meets Thais, morals and conscience win out over conformity, and he risks his rank and his life to help her. They escape the city and set out together on a long and perilous journey to find safety in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Struggling to survive in a world without electricity, food, shelter, and clean water, Atticus and Thais shed their fear of growing too close, and they fall hopelessly in love. But can love survive in such dark times, or is it fated to die with them?

Check out this excerpt that has me feeling all kinds of emotions. Yeah. I know what I’m reading tomorrow, when it releases.

“One more night,” I said, not looking at her. “Give me one more night and I’ll get you out of this city.” All I could see in front of me was the scenario: I’d wait until very late, after most of the city was sleeping, and then I’d dress her in my military clothes, make her pin up her hair underneath a cap, strap a rifle to her shoulder, a backpack full of goods on her back, and set her atop the mare waiting at the stables.
“But there’s nothing for me anymore,” Thais said, wiping away the lingering tears on her cheeks. “There’s nowhere for me to go, and no one waiting for me there if by some miracle I make it alive. My mother and father are dead. My sister”—she looked up at me, and although I didn’t meet her gaze, I could feel her eyes on me—“my whole family is dead, and this world is dead and my soul is dead and everything that was once good and beautiful and right, is dead.”
I looked at her then, her words stirring me.
“That’s not true,” I said, and got up from the chair and crouched in front of her. “You may be the only good thing left in this world, and I’ll be goddamned if I let your light fade.”
Tears tumbled down Thais’ cheeks.
I took the gun that had fallen from her hand, tucked it into the back of my pants.
“Promise me you won’t try anything,” I said as I went toward the door. “Promise me on your sister’s soul, that you’ll stay in this room and wait for me.”
“Where are you going?”
“To get your supplies.” I placed my hand on the doorknob. “Don’t open this door for anyone.” I opened it to blackness; the candles that had been lit in the hallway had burned down.
“Wait,” Thais called out, and I stopped.
She stood up on wobbly legs.
“You said to get my supplies—are you sending me away alone?”
I thought on it for a moment. I’d never had any intention of going with her. I couldn’t. Not if I was going to keep others from following her.
“No,” I finally said. “You’re not going alone. I’ll go with you, at least until I can get you somewhere safe.”
“Is there anywhere safe, Atticus?” Her voice was soft, hopeless, and hearing her say my name like that did something to my heart. “Do you know where you’re taking me?”
I sighed. And I looked at the wall.
“Yes,” I lied, and then stepped out into the hallway.
Just before I closed the door I added, “Promise me.”
Thais nodded.
“I promise,” she said. “I’ll wait for you.”

SEE!!! One more day….

Preorder Everything Under the Sun http://amzn.to/2gena7L

~Melpomene

Review: Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis

20131129-123657.jpgReaders of post-apocalyptic and/or dystopian stories must suspend their disbelief for the duration of most of these stories. Plague-induced flesh-eating zombies, alien or cyborg invasion…these make great stories but are a little too far “out there” for the average reader to truly believe. Scarcity of clean drinking water, however, is something that is far too believable.

Not a Drop to Drink takes us into the lives of Lynn and her mother as they try to survive in a harsh, futuristic world where safe, clean drinking water is a commodity worth killing for. Their primary focus is to protect their pond at all costs. Cut off from the rest of the world, they rely on nobody but themselves. Lynn, in fact, cannot recall ever talking to anyone besides her mother. She’s a tough survivor who knows what has to be done when faced with danger. After all, her mother has raised her that way. But when tragedy strikes, Lynn is forced to let down her guard and allow others into her life. This comes in the form of their long-standing neighbor as well as strangers Eli and young Lucy. Of course Eli becomes the love interest. Isn’t that a requirement for a young adult novel? Still, the romance is more of a sideline and doesn’t distract from the inner toughness and maturity that Lynn exhibits throughout the story. It was also nice to see her transformation from a hard-as-nails, unemotional teenager into someone who truly cares for others and puts their well being before hers.

I enjoyed this book tremendously, and in large part because it felt more plausible to me than most of the other books of this genre that I’ve read. Clean water to drink is something that most of us take for granted. But how long would we be able to survive if our supply was limited? What measures would we take to protect what little we had? And what would we be willing to sacrifice for the benefit of others? While I won’t pretend that this was a particularly deep or thought-provoking story, it did make me think “what if” a bit more than others have recently. This book has great character development and the author provides a well-described environment that helps the reader understand why certain tough decisions had to be made. This one is a well-written, strong story!

~Thalia

Buy it Now: Not a Drop to Drink