BOOK TITLE: Dangerous
Reflection
ISBN: 9781620154045
AUTHOR: Shay
West
GENRE: Fiction
FORMAT: Digital
SERIES / STANDALONE: Series
(Adventures of Alexis Davenport #1)
REVIEW BY: Dhivya
Balaji
HOW I GOT THIS BOOK: The
author’s manager sent us digital copies for review. We thank her for it!
SUMMARY:
Alexis
Davenport wants to go home. She hates her new school, her mother for moving her
away from her friends, and her father for walking out.
To
make matters worse, Alex is haunted by images of strange girls reflected in her
mirror. It’s bad enough juggling homework, a relentless bully, boys, and a
deadbeat dad; now, she must save the world from an evil presence hell-bent on
changing the past – and our futures. Who knew her A+ in history was going to be
this important?
REVIEW:
Dangerous Reflection is a pleasant
read. When we were contacted by the publicist for a review, the fantasy genre
initially made me apprehensive, but the gist had enough substance to pique my
interest. And the book crossed my expectations. It was a very pleasant read,
with the right amount of drama, suspense, fantasy, and brilliant event sequence
thrown in.
The protagonist of the story is Alexis
Davenport, a teenager. The story starts with Alex and her mother Patricia
moving to Patricia’s sister Karen’s house because Alex’s father had deserted
them. Naturally, Alex is disappointed both with her father’s departure and her
move to another state, meaning a different school and loss of her friends back
home. But thankfully, the ‘angry teenager’ phase does not dominate the book. ON
the way to her aunt’s house, Alex is frightened when her reflection changes in
a restroom mirror. Where her face should be, she encounters the face of another
girl. Alex does not make much of it, imagining it to be due to her exhaustion
and sadness.
But the reflection repeats itself,
forcing Alex to conclude that she has a weird condition. Alex does not
understand how to control the reflections that appear randomly in mirrors. She
is frightened out of her life when her hand, apparently out of her control
reaches up to touch the reflection in the mirror. It causes her to blackout and
when she regains consciousness, she finds herself in the body of the girl whose
face was shown in the reflection. Alex finds herself inhabiting the body of
some girl in the past, and due to her knowledge in history, knows that she is
about to witness a major happening in history. In her first adventure Alex
saves the Book of Kells, which is an important artefact.
When Alex is zapped back to the
present, she realises that though her adventure in the past seemed to happen
for days, in reality, not even a few minutes had passed. Thoroughly confused,
Alex fears her sanity and is unable to even spill the beans to her mother. Then
there are the regular problems she faces in a new school, trying to gain
friends, to blend in, and going for a sure path to heartbreak when she falls in
love with the sport star co student, Beau Johnson. Meanwhile, she accidentally
gets herself into an audition for a play. On the whole, in spite of her busy
schedule and other teenager problems, she encounters various reflections in the
mirror and finds herself during important moments in history, making sure
nobody tampers with the events in the past that might have catastrophic effects
in the present.
The only person who knows her secret
is her classmate Jenifer, who finds Alex when she is in one of her ‘travels’.
In addition to this, in every trip to the past, Alex senses an evil presence
that might be another traveller who is trying to alter the course of history
and therefore ensure chaos. Alex manages to escape the presence every time, and
realises that her life is in danger. In one final trip, the body Alex inhabits
is killed by the evil traveller and she enters into the void. Whether or not
she makes it out of the void into her own body creates the element of surprise
in the first book.
Thankfully, the story is not over the
top in making out the protagonist to be heroine who takes up the cape and
becomes a super woman. Alex is a normal girl, who is frightened by the
abnormality and faces every problem in school like a normal teenager would do.
Her friends are realistic, natural and her mom and aunt are strong female
characters who lend support. The story is more about a teenager’s adjustment to
life and its problems, and about what a normal girl would do in an abnormal
situation. With no larger than life characters, the book is an interesting page
turner.
The plot is simple enough, with the
author using important, but not very popular events in history, making the
reader maintain the right amount of interest to keep going. The story is set in
a believable tone and the characters are strong, clear, and each leave a strong
impression in the minds of the reader. Go for this book if you like a YA novel
with a female protagonist.
WHAT I LIKED: The
clear story, lucid language, and the believable main characters
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER: The
long yearning of Alex for a jerk (makes her weak, might be the author’s
intention, but is still irritating). And making Alex the reason history is still
untainted. (Wait; was it the whole point of the story?)
VERDICT: Go
for this one. It is written for teenagers, with the least amount of crudeness.
RATING: 4/5
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Shay
West was born in Longmont, CO and earned a doctorate degree in Human Medical
Genetics from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical. Dr. West currently
lives in Grand Junction, CO with her two cats. When not writing novels, she
plays with plushie microbes and teaches biology classes at Colorado Mesa
University. She is the author of the Portals of Destiny series and the
Adventures of Alexis Davenport series. She has also been published in several
anthologies: Battlespace (military scifi), Orange Karen: Tribute to a Warrior
(fundraiser), and Ancient New (steampunk/fantasy).
You
can find Dr. West and more of her work at Shay-West.com.
Social Media Links:
http://Shay-West.com
https://www.facebook.com/shaywestauthor
https://twitter.com/DrShayWest
PRICE: Rs.
240 for Kindle
