Just Add Water — Jessica N. Lane

Legend has it that after the death of his only daughter, Calypso, The water nymph king, Oceanus produced The Great Wave, wiping out most of the human population. 100 years later, Calitta and her grandparents live on one of the small, nearly uninhabitable border islands, fighting daily for survival. The forced evacuation of the only home she's ever known sets Calitta on a collision course with a destiny that will change the world forever. With rumors of a resistance, a damning secret and Calypso's heir still unaccounted for, all the ingredients are ripe for a dystopian romantic fantasy that won't let go until the last page. Just add water.

-Excerpt-

The rumors of an organized resistance were little more than that, but beggars couldn't be choosers. Even if there was no resistance waiting to welcome my grandmother with open arms, at least she'd be safe from the mers until I could catch up to her. I'd first heard of murmurings of a resistance from eavesdropping on my grandfather's “old man talks” he would have with Mr. Benai, and then again from my once-neighbor, Shawn Parker. Shawn and I were close enough in age to be considered childhood friends I guess, though I always considered him more of a nuisance than anything.

He'd left home at fourteen, considering himself a pirate or something like that. He'd stowed away on a ship of vagabonds bound for the east, and soon found himself their captain of sorts. He still returned periodically to check up on the little village that had raised him ever since his parents died. I wasn't oblivious to the changes young adulthood brought to the boy I used to collect seashells with. If I was being honest, I was far too aware of them for my own comfort. His once-scrawny body was still lanky, but the modest musculature beneath his skin didn't go unnoticed by the girls in the village. Years of life on the sea had given his tanned skin an even deeper tone. It was almost equivalent to mine. His deep, brown eyes that were once rounded with innocence had since sharpened with experience and intensity, and the sea breezes had tousled the brown, wavy mop of hair atop his head into the definition of what I'd heard some of the other girls refer to as “sex hair.”

Before the end of his most recent visit, he tried to convince me to journey to Everest with him to join the resistance. I declined, citing my grandmother's frailty as my primary reason for refusing him. The truth was, I didn't believe that there was a resistance on Everest. If there were, wouldn't Oceanus have snuffed it out by now? Wouldn't they have done something to ease our plight? The only possible explanation was that there was no resistance at all, but if there was... there was only one way to find out.

-End Of Excerpt-

Interracial romance. dystopian society. fantasy. romance.