Reaction
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Reactions can be performed in response to specific trigger. By default you can perform a single reaction in a round, though various feats increase this amount. It is usually the player's choice whether to perform a reaction, or save it for later.
A reaction “interrupts” the normal flow of actions in the round. If a reaction is triggered, immediately resolve the reaction, then continue with the next character’s turn (or complete the current turn, if the reaction was triggered in the midst of a character’s turn).
Threatened Area
Some reactions require creatures to be within your threatened area. You threaten all squares into which you can make an unarmed melee attack, even when it is not your turn. Generally, that means everything in all squares adjacent to your space (including diagonally).
Reactions that consist of an attack has a threatened area that matches any square that you can hit with the weapon used. One common example of this are Reach weapons, which threaten squares 10 ft. away, but not squares adjacent to you.
Attack Reaction
If a reaction triggers an attack, it is categorized as an attack reaction. These may be further divided into melee reactions and ranged reactions when the attack reaction allows only melee attacks or ranged attacks.
Unless otherwise noted, attack reactions are made at your normal attack bonus, even if you’ve already attacked in the round, and may be modified (risky strike) or replaced (trip) like normal attacks.
Ready Reaction
A ready reaction cannot be triggered until you have used a standard action to ready it. Once readied, it remains active until it is triggered or until the start of your next turn, whichever comes first.
By default, if a ready reaction is triggered, the reaction must be performed. You cannot choose not to perform the reaction.
Ready reactions do not count against the normal number of reaction you can make in a round. So by default you can perform one normal reaction, and one ready reaction in a round (assuming you've spent a standard action readying the ready action).