Review: Waterworld Volume 2 by Rachel E Kelly

Hey all, Dani here.

Today is a good day, everyone. We all have those books and/or authors that we love to gush about incessantly, and today I have that privilege. Sharing stories that have impacted us or inspired us or that mean so much to us is one of the great joys of being a book blogger, and honestly, no story has influenced my adult life more than this one.

I am so darn excited to be sharing this review, mainly because I adore this series, and I have been anticipating this volume’s release since last year. But obviously first I definitely need to add a disclaimer to this post. Yes, I am friends with Rachel, and yes, I am a member of Team Colorworld and a copy editor for the book series. However, that does not influence my rating or review for this installment or any of the others.

All right, let’s just get started.

Summary

This is Volume 2 of Waterworld, the 6th installment of the Colorworld Series.

“We all know Wendy Whitley shot that man. Everyone knows it. And after this week, we’ve seen it on video ten different ways. What we all want to know is what the sam hell that girl was thinking when she did it.” Like most people, Judy is glued to the televised trial every day to figure out the answer to that question. 

Her best friend, Charlotte, on the other hand, doubts that they’ll learn Whitley’s real story. That’s just the way it is with powerful people. 

Charlotte’s more disturbed that her neighbors, the Kumar’s, haven’t returned home at all this week. Worry for them is in the forefront of Charlotte’s mind until she comes across some of Judy’s old family pictures. Someone in one of the forty year-old photos is disturbingly familiar. This clue quickly leads to a store of mysteries that prove fascinating but too dangerous to pursue. 

While checking on the Kumar’s home, however, Charlotte comes across something in their basement that could link everything together: the Kumar’s disappearance, Judy’s family photos, and the missing history of Wendy Whitley.

My Thoughts

Rating: 4.5 stars

This series is one that has been a major part of my life since 2014, and I feel so lucky to have been involved in helping to spread the word about it, and to have befriended both Rachel and her husband Brad.

Also, I can just say that I am obsessed with pretty much every cover that has been designed for the entirety of the Colorworld series. And quick plug: you can get this series in standard e-book or paperback, Illustrated Edition paperback, OR audiobook–though only the first two are in audio so far. Speaking of the audiobook, if any of you are fans of the anime “Fairy Tail,” you will recognize the narrators for the books (Todd Haberkorn aka Natsu, Cherami Leigh aka Lucy, Brittney Karbowski aka Wendy, and David Wald aka Gajeel) and the cast will likely grow as the series progresses.

Anyway, this particular installment in the series took me a little while to get into. With Waterworld Volume 1: Ezra we had the first story told from a perspective other than Wendy’s. But at least with that tale, we already knew Ezra, so that made following his tale relatively easy. This volume follows Charlotte, who is middle-aged, and it takes some time to see how her story ties into that of Wendy, Gabe, and the rest of the gang.

But I can say that I found Charlotte to be an interesting character, and I especially enjoyed her friend Judy, who was a highly entertaining individual. And much like Volume 1, Volume 2 continues to show us another side and perspective to the events from Dreamworld (which remains my favorite book of the series).

It was actually kind of nice to follow an older character, and since the story takes place in Michigan, it felt sort of homey to me…especially with all the mentions to the appliance corporation I just happen to work for scattered throughout the narrative.

Watching Charlotte get hunches, and follow clues, and try to track down answers got gradually more and more fascinating, and I started to become completely absorbed in the story. This was especially true as the narrative pieces began to come together, and I began to see how Charlotte’s story wove in with the rest, and how her revelations would serve to shake up what we previously knew about the people and events of previous books.

I am trying to be fairly vague with this review because it is the seventh release for the series. While I do recommend eventually reading the entire series, you can either begin reading with the first book–Colorworld–or the fifth book–Dreamworld. This is a series that has a lot going on, and it just gets deeper and more complex the more I read, but it is one of my absolute favorite series, and I literally recommend Colorworld to everyone I meet. If you like stories that start with the simple premise of more realistic superpowers (a la the show “Heroes”) and a main protagonist who is an empath who undergoes an allergy trial and comes out with a lethal touch, but that grows and expands into an amazingly developed world and cast of characters, give this series a try.

You can find my reviews for Colorworld, Teleworld, Lumaworld, Shadoworld, Dreamworld, and Waterworld Volume 1: Ezra at these links.

Where to Buy

You can pick up this book right now from Amazon, or directly from Colorworld Books to get a signed and personalized copy. The Amazon link is for the Kindle edition, but I will add the paperback link here as soon as it goes live.