Leah's January Reads

Half Blood by Jennifer Armentrout

Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover

Spell Bound by Rachel Hawks

Fever by Maya Banks

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Paper Towns by John Green

Broken Skies by Theresa Kay

Never Never by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher

Erased by Jennifer Rush

Bound by Duty by Stormy Smith

Red Rising by Pierce Brown
Charmed by Michelle Krys (ARC)
Inexcusable by Chris Lynch
Love, Rosie by Cecelia Ahren 

This year has started off so good with reads!! I've started SO many good series and finished a few. It's nice to tie up some loose ends and start some new beginnings. Even though I've super late to the game, I'm super excited to have started The Covenant series by Jennifer Armentrout. Y'all know our love for JLA runs deep, and I just LOVE this series so far. I've only read the first book, but I'm planning on ordering the rest next month. Two other exciting opportunities I got this month was when two up and coming authors approached us to read their books: Broken Skies by Theresa Kay and Bound by Duty by Stormy Smith. I loved both of the books so much that they are instantly on my 2015 favorites list. YES, REALLY. I'm so excited for the sequels of both to come out. I loved reading books that are being made into and have been opted for movies. Paper Towns (seriously, can John Green write anything bad??), Miss Peregrine's, and Red Rising were all so good. I also got an amazing opportunity to receive an ARC of Charmed by Michelle Krys which doesn't come out until May. Thank you Brittany from Brittany's Book Rambles for the ARC! Y'all got check out her blog, it is one of my favorites! Angela and I also did another book swap, so I have loads of new books to read next month.

My absolute favorite for this month, though, was Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover. This book was absolutely amazing. Definitely one of my all time favorites. We have the opportunity to go to a book signing for CoHo next month in Savannah and I AM SO EXCITED THAT I CAN BARELY BREATHE. She is becoming one of my favorite authors.

Not a Drop to Drink: Mindy McGinnis EpicReads Book of the Month

Not a Drop to Drink: Mindy McGinnis 

Lynn knows every threat to her pond: drought, a snowless winter, animals, and, most importantly, people. She makes sure anyone who comes near the pond leaves thirsty, or doesn't leave at all. Lynn has no need to leave her home and near by woods. Living in what the world has become means dedicating your life to survival, and the constant work of gathering wood and water. Having her own personal pond means having to defend it 24/7. Luckily Lynn's mother taught her well during their quiet hours on the rooftop, rifles in hand.

With smoke appearing on the horizon it can only mean one thing: strangers. The mysterious footprints by the pond, nighttime threats, and gunshots make it all too clear Lynn has exactly what they want, and they won’t stop until they steal it from her. 

I read this book awhile back, but when I saw that it was EpicReads book of the month I figured I would post my review for it on here. When I first saw this book I wanted it right away. The cover is so striking.  

I think that a lot of times when people think about dystopian/world ending novels the fact that water might be something that people are fighting and willing to die over oddly wouldn't even pop into mind. Mcginnis has taken a different spin on dystopian novels.

This book had so much going for it. It wasn't a novel where the angsty teen age girl falls head over heels in love with a mysterious man with some kind of super power and her and her lover run off into a government building and try to save the world (don't get me wrong I love novels like that as much as the next ya fan) but this book had so much heart. It isn't a book that's trying to shove a massive amount of chase scenes or gun battles in it even though there are some, or trying to come up with a million different categories for the characters to fall into... Mcginnis took something that would seem so simple and made it into something so beautiful. 

To me Not a Drop to Drink, is what I imagine it would be like if the world did have a disaster or plague. Lynn and her mother have spent their lives living just together in their home defending the pond in the backyard. Lynn's more or less happy with the way of life that she's been taught and that's to focus on the essentials and surviving.  After a series of events Lynn is left alone and having to rebuild her world.
All of the characters in this novel are stark, but with so much hidden beauty and strength. Watching Lynn break down, and then have to find the strength inside herself to move and and to start trusting people is really something to read. Eli is the definition of character development. He starts as such a small person but becomes someone you can really get behind. Neva is a sweet and loveable character and will steal your heart.

I love how subtle the romance is with Lynn and Eli. It's never over the top, and it's falls way closer to realistic than other ya novels I've read. Getting to know McGinnis characters was like how you go to know your own friends. Slow and steady. The world building is easy to come by in this book because everything seems to feel like it does right now. No crazy locations or places. This book for the most part keeps a pretty steady and light tone the whole time. There aren't any of the usual explosions, mass deaths, and chaos that you might find in a typical dystopian, and the book is stronger for this. Instead, the shocking moments are very human-driven and makes for a bigger impact on the whole story. I know that I usually write sillier and more lax reviews, but I felt this one needed a little more seriousness behind it. This will be a book you didn't see coming. 

Not only will the cover of this book catch your eyes the pages between will really make you think and be thankful to have water at your fingertips. 

8/10 Stars 
-Angela