Reflection Pond by Kacey Vanderkarr

Reflection Pond (Refection Pond #1)
Kacey Vanderkarr
Published: 1st April, 2014
Urban Fey Press

Summary:

Sometimes you find home, sometimes it comes looking for you.

Callie knows a lot more about pain than she does about family. She’s never belonged, at least, not until she falls through a portal into her true home. The beautiful faerie city of Eirensae doesn’t come free. Callie must find her amulet and bind herself to the city, and most importantly, avoid the Fallen fae who seek her life. Seems like a small price to pay for the family she’s always wanted.

Then she meets cynical and gorgeous Rowan, who reads the darkness of her past in her eyes. He becomes Callie’s part-time protector and full-time pain in the ass. He has secrets of his own for Callie to unravel. What they don’t know is that the future of Eirensae lies with them, and the once peaceful city is about to become a battleground for power.

What I liked: I loved to see how Callie grew over the book. She had a lot to learn not only about herself, but about Eirensae and its inhabitants. Many of the people are very wary of her and I love how reluctant Callie was about all of it and how she wanted to return to the life she was leaving behind if she stayed, even if the life she had before wasn’t all that hot. It was what she knew, what she was familiar with. I really enjoyed reading that, because I could relate to it! Each of the Fae we meet have backstories that give them their own depth and you can learn about the kind of culture the Fae have adapted to just so they can survive. We learn also about the history of the Fae, and I liked how we got a story for the different things that have happened to change and the different things mentioned that I wanted answers for. The romance was a lot more low key than I was expecting, and most of the story was centered around the action and adventure of Callie learning and trying to adapt while at the same time trying to become part of the Fae herself and stay. The changeling myth that is well associated with Fae also plays a big role about Callie before she arrived in Eirensae, and I thought it was an amazing way to use that myth and work it into the story! Back to Callie, she does make choices I question, but I actually get her choices regarding certain things about Rowan. I know he’s supposed to be her protector and all, but I get her choices.

What I didn’t liked: How she just happened to fall into the pond and into the land of the Fae. We didn’t even get a sense about the people she knew other than what she said because mere pages after the book begins she enters the land of the Fae. I wanted to know more about the life she lived beforehand, how she interacted with them, just a single normal day in the life of Callie before she (literally) fell into and through the pond.

Overall Review: Vanderkarr certainly weaved an increasingly interesting tale and cast of characters for her book and her style of writing was easy to get sucked into and stay glued to the page. Callie and Rowan were two characters who I really enjoyed being inside the heads of to see how they saw the same situation and how different their thoughts about it could be. It’s a plot full of guessing and learning about the characters who surround the two we follow as well as the characters we follow, plus so very interesting mysteries about Callie and learning about what she can really do that is going to lead a city to (basically) fight for her powers. It kept me entertained and flipping pages to find out more about these characters and what was going to happen to them next!

Recommend?: Yes definitely! If you want to read a really good book about Fae I think you might like this!

Goodreads: 4.2/5 Amazon: 4.4/5 Barnes&Noble: 4/5 BookDepository: -/5

My Rating: 4.4/5

Rated Materials:
Cover: 4.3
Idea: 4.3
Story: 4.6
Characters: 4.4

Don’t miss Book 2 in the series!

Poison Tree (Reflection Pond #2)
Kacey Vanderkarr
Published: 2nd December, 2014
Urban Fey Press

Summary:

The road to the City of War is dangerous.

With their home in ruins, Callie and Rowan are Eirensae’s last hope of stealing the cauldron back from Fraeburdh. They must travel into the human world where the Fallen hide. The banished fae wait for Callie, desperate to sacrifice her before she comes of age.

If Callie and Rowan survive the journey, something worse looms in Fraeburdh. Rowan is destined for a dark family legacy too horrifying to accept, and his father is anxious to welcome him home. Once the truth is revealed, will Callie ever look at Rowan the same way?

Trapped between feuding cities lost in a centuries-old war, Callie and Rowan will face their biggest rivals yet, and neither of them will make it out unscathed.

About the Author

Kacey Vanderkarr is a young adult author. She dabbles in fantasy, romance, and sci-fi, complete with faeries, alternate realities, and the occasional plasma gun. She’s known to be annoyingly optimistic and listen to music at the highest decibel. When she’s not writing, she coaches winterguard and works as a sonographer. Kacey lives in Michigan, with her husband, son, and crazy cats. Along with her novels, Reflection Pond and Antithesis, Kacey’s short fiction can be found in Sucker Literary Vol 3, and the upcoming Spark Vol 7, Ember: A Journal of Luminous Things, and Out of the Green: Tales from Fairyland.

Links:

Website│Goodreads│Twitter│Facebook

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