**DNF @ 32%, my review reflects only the portion read**

Reflection: The Stranger in the Mirror by Rachel R. Smith is the first in Records of the Ohanzee series which features an heiress, a masquerade, and an ancient prophecy which is ready to pass. The prophecy is laid out in an optional prologue at the back of the book, which I did read before diving in. Nerissa, our Heiress, is spoiled at the start of the story, wanting freedom anyway she can get it. She notices all the things that are happening in her town like crystals shattering on their own, yet doesn't seem to concerned about it. On the night of the masquerade, she has had a secret dress and mask made and changes into it, leaving no one to know that she is at the party and not in her rooms.

Most of the book is told from Nerissa perspective, but we do get other perspectives scattered throughout the book. While I typically enjoy multiple POV, I personally struggled with it this time. It created a choppy flow to the story making it hard to follow. One of the POV lets us know that the masquerade is doomed from the start as someone is planning to kill the rulers. While I wanted to like this book, I struggled with the multiple POV, choppy plot, and odd grammar/word choices. Normally, I wouldn't comment on the later in an ARC review, however I read a finished copy through Kindle Unlimited, and I would expect these to be corrected.

Overall, The Stranger in the Mirror was not for me. I did stop reading around a third of the way through and skimmed to the end to find out what happened. Even with that, I wasn't interested or engaged enough to continue the series. For those who enjoy fantasy mixed with political intrigue and lots of characters, you may like this one.

I was really interested in this when I read the description, but when I finally got around to giving it a go, I was not interested at all. It wasn't very interesting to me and I couldn't even get through the entire book.

I loved the premise of this book. It's a story line that's been done before but not in this exact way. I feel like this story started off a little slow paced, which was fine with me. Sometimes books that are non-stop action from start to finish are a bit much for me. It gave me time to get to know the plot, setting, characters without being too rushed. Then it picked up it's pace and became very thrilling, which I loved! I know this is a serialized novel and will flow into the next book, but I am coming not to like those so much. I feel like it could have been a little longer than it was and cliffhangers are okay, but not like this! It was too much and it almost made me not want to read the next one because then if there was ANOTHER huge cliffhanger, I would be annoyed and not want to continue waiting to read. I'm all for series that lead into each other, just would like to see less of a cliffhanger ending. I am however invested enough to continue reading.