Spotlight on YA fantasy - Reflection Pond by Kacey Vanderkarr

Genre: Young Adult FantasyRelease Date: Torch Rock April 1, 2014Publisher:  Urban Fey Press


Let me introduce Kacey Vanderkarr and her new book Torch Rock.
Torch Rock is the exciting conclusion to The Reflection Pond Series, which includes Reflection Pond, Poison Tree, and Torch Rock. These YA Fantasy books follow Callie and Rowan as alternating point of view characters. Callie is a seventeen-year-old girl who falls through a pond into Eirensae, a faerie city, only to learn she’s meant to be there all along. Rowan is a nineteen-year-old faerie who has never fit in. Together they grow into strong characters, though their path is littered with more obstacles and setbacks than any one person should endure. The idea for the series started with my fascination with scars. Most people see scars as blemishes, flaws that make a person ugly. I think they’re a beautiful testament to someone’s strength. Not to mention they make for great storytelling. You probably want to know how scars and the series relate…guess you’ll have to read and find out!I’ve been involved in the creation of all three covers. Reflection Pond features Callie falling through the pond into Eirensae.I absolutely adore this cover and seeing her underwater, her feet dangling into this lush green world of faerie. It perfectly embodies her fall. Callie is also on the cover of Poison Tree in profile. She’s grayed out and we see the branches of the poison tree through her. Her arms are crossed, her face down. This represents the hardest, darkest part of the journey. Her stance speaks of defeat. For Torch Rock, the final installment, the cover is meant to show Callie’s growth. She’s no longer hiding, but staring defiantly forward, ready to take on whatever life throws at her. Helping create the covers was possibly as rewarding as writing the books. I love how they represent each part of the story and give us insight into Callie’s character. The covers were created by the lovely Julia Gollbach at Bioblossom Creative.
Have you written other books? Their titles and genres.Stepping Stones – YA Paranormal RomanceAntithesis – YA Sci-fi

Plotter or a pantster?  Why does this work best for you?I do a bit of both. Lately I’ve been using a rough outline to sketch a book before I start. I used to fly by the seat of my pants and love it, but these days I find I rewrite less if I have a partial plan to begin with.

Short question time.Favourite TV show? Game of ThronesMost romantic place you've visited? Key WestIf Hollywood called, which actor should play the hero or heroine in your book? Callie – Annasophia Robb   Rowan – Kit HaringtonThree things you'd want on a deserted island. Laptop, solar charger, and sunscreen. Which would you choose – a knight in shining armour or a roman gladiator? Knight. Gladiators seem so…sweaty.Favourite thing to do on a vacation? Visit the beach.If you could meet one famous person – past or present – who would it be? Why? Nicola Tesla. He seems so strange and interesting. I’d love to write a book about his neurotic genius.
Any last comments – ideas – your blurb or excerpt.
Reflection Pond
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.  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.


CHECK OUT THE OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES:Poison Tree – Book 2

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.



Torch Rock – Book 3


War is coming, and she takes no prisoners. Faced with an impending battle Eirensae cannot win alone, Rowan journeys to Macántacht to seek allegiance from its leader. The City of Honor is beautiful, still untouched by conflict, and full of surprises that bring Callie’s darkest experiences to the surface.

With her friends’ lives at stake, Callie must confront her past, and accept help from a faerie whose face torments her memories. Reconciling the power beneath her skin has never been more painful.

Amid persistent threats from Fraeburdh, an old enemy reemerges with deadly force. Even with Macántacht fighting beside her and Rowan at her back, the odds are insurmountable. Callie’s biggest trial will come not on a blood-soaked battlefield, but in the quiet moments when she must choose.
BUY LINKS FOR THE BOOKS Reflection Pond Poison Tree Torch Rock
ABOUT KACEY VANDERKARR
KACEY VANDERKARR has a penchant for fantasy and frequently listens to the voices in her head--most of whom are teenagers. Her favorite place to write is an old salon chair in her kitchen, with coffee in one hand and adoring cats sprawled across her arms. She prefers her music loud and her skeptics quiet. When she's not writing, Kacey coaches winterguard, works as a sonographer, and hangs out with other weirdos like her at the Flint Area Writer's club. In addition to her novels, The Reflection Pond Series, Antithesis, and The Stone Series, Kacey's short fiction is featured in Sucker Literary Vol III, Ember: A Journal of Luminous Things, and Out of the Green: Tales from Fairyland. Facebook Twitter Goodreads Website

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