Book Review: The Things We Water

I’ve been patiently waiting for Mariana Zapata to release her next book and she finally did a few weeks ago with The Things We Water and it did not disappoint!

The novel is a paranormal romance and follows Nina Popoca and Henri Blackrock. Nina is a human with magic, but it’s not revealed exactly what kind of magic she has until later in the book and she also only has speculations of what she is because she was not raised by her biological parents. She was raised by werewolves when she was left at their doorstep as a baby. Her best friends are married werewolves as well and throughout her life she’s met all kinds of magical beings. One day an adorable newborn puppy is left at her door. After a little while it becomes clear that her puppy, Duncan, is not your average puppy. Not when his eyes turn red and his tail has a a magical flame!

Now Nina needs somewhere safe to go. She can’t live amongst regular humans because Duncan is too noticeable and even traveling around in her RV and staying in campgrounds has proven to be dangerous as some other people aware of magical beings have tried to steal him from her. Her best option is seeing if the ranch her best friend Matti’s family is from and is run by his cousin, Henri, will allow her and Duncan to live in. The community is hundreds of acres (maybe thousands? I forget exactly what they said!) and full of magical beings such as werewolves, satyrs, ogres, etc. that all work together to make the ranch run smoothly. The catch to living there if you’re an outsider? You have to marry in to the community. So when Nina arrives, the elders say she and Duncan are welcome to stay but she has 1 year to find a mate in the community. Nina is willing to do anything to keep Duncan safe so it’s not even a dealbreaker for her. But is there a chance that Henri, Matti’s older cousin whom she had a crush on when she was a kid, could be interested in her and want to be her mate?

I loved this book and all the characters – especially Agnes – the little girl/wolf pup. I just wanted to give her a big hug. The has Mariana Zapata’s signature slow burn, but also had a very strong thread throughout of family love and especially found family love. I loved all the magical people and the melding of all these different myths and magic coming together into one story.

The slow burn between Nina and Henri was so good and I loved all the scenes where he gets jealous of her potentially mating with others. That always contributes to the tension!

Read this if you want a paranormal slow burn romance with some spice (towards the end) and the found family trope.

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