Today’s book review is for Deep Blue Secret, the first book in the Water Keepers Series, by Christie Anderson and is a young adult/teen fantasy read. I read this book while on vacation in St. Lucia, and I’ll add that I was a bit skeptical when I started it. I had spent my entire day by the pool reading another novel–which I put aside without finishing–and I was in a foul mood that I had wasted my day with that read. My husband and I were in our rooms after dinner, and although I usually don’t start a new book at night, I picked up my Kindle and read a few pages from more than one book, stopping with this one. I then spent the entire night reading it.

I’ll start with the pros, and since this is a teen read, I’m more conservative with my rating when it comes to content. However, this book held no foul language or overly sexual content, and it definitely gets my clean read seal of approval. I can easily recommend it to my daughters. I also highly enjoyed the creativity of this story about a unique race of people with water marks. The author weaved an interesting tale that kept me wanting to learn more about the water marks and keepers. As for the main character herself, she is a teenage girl living with her mother, and I love how this author decided to give Sadie and her mother a close relationship. Her mother is an interesting side character, and Sadie shows her a lot of respect and love.

I love to read books with interesting plots that keep you guessing and wanting to learn more. I did not want to put this book down, because the plot held me captive. The author did a great job in keeping things mysterious and not giving away too much. My words of choice for this book are: Creative, Interesting, and Clean.

Now for the cons: I don’t like love at first sight, and it’s a big turnoff for me. However, there was a hint of a reason or something more behind Sadie’s sudden attraction to the mysterious guy, and that stayed with me throughout the read. I also had a problem with her best friend’s tantrum/back stabbing. They’ve been friends forever, and that was a bit much. Both of these problems, however, did not take too much away from the story. I mean, I read through the night and even read the next book while on the vacation.

Overall, I give this book five stars. It’s highly original and a clean read for teens and adult lovers of the fantasy genre. I will be recommending this series to others, which is not something I can do with all the books I read.

Stay tuned for reviews of the other books in this series. Although I have started the third book, I’m on an editing deadline and won’t be able to get back to it for a while. Oh, I almost forgot the covers, which is another pro. They’re beautiful! Hmm… Reminds me somewhat of my novel Unexpected Metamorphosis. Maybe I love eyes, sparkles, and deep colors 🙂

The eBook of Deep Blue Secret is free at the time of this posting, and I’m guessing it’s set as perma-free since it’s the first in the series.