#chess desalls

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Book Tour, Excerpt, Giveaway: The Lantern Collection

Welcome to the blog tour for The Lantern Collection by Chess Desalls!

  Description

Lantern: The Complete Collection by Chess Desalls Genre: YA Fantasy/Sci-fi Pages: 230 Release Date: September 26th 2017

Summary:

The story of every lantern is unique, just like yours and mine.

This collection includes all three novellas, Lantern, Beacon, and Torch.

Tori discovers a lantern that shines for her and…

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Lantern - Blog Tour and Book Review

'Lantern' by @chessdesalls - Book Review up on @RiddlesReviews now!

Click on the tour banner above to see the list of the other great blogs featuring Lantern on this tour! Summary: Five days before Halloween, all sixteen-year-old Tori has on her mind is vacationing with her family and scoring lots of candy. Her grandmother’s estate, with its Gothic spires and trails that lead out to the woods, holds an unexpected secret: a lantern that lights up for Tori and…

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#Review: Travel Glasses, by @ChessDesalls

#Review: Travel Glasses, by @ChessDesalls

Title: Travel Glasses (The Call to Search Everywhen #1) Author: Chess Desalls Rating: 3/5 stars

“Calla Winston’s mobile devices sit in a corner of her room, covered in dust. Weeks ago, she shared photos and laughs with her best online friend. Now, after having felt the sting of betrayal, she prefers being hidden and friendless. She equates privacy with security and technology with pain.

Then she…

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Title: Insight Kindling

Series: The Call to Search Everywhen #2

Publication Date: January 13, 2015

Publisher: Czidor Lore, LLC

Book Links: Goodreads

Purchase: Amazon || iTunes || Barnes & Nobles

Calla faces charges against her for changing the past. Her use of the Travel Glasses resulted in the creation of two writings that affected the lives of Edgar, the inventor of the Travel Glasses, and Valcas, their prior owner. Now Calla must explain her actions before the Time and Space Travel Agency. The hearing does not end well. The travel commissioner finds Calla guilty as charged and forces her to choose between two harsh penalties. Despite the risk of becoming lost herself, Calla accepts a dangerous travel mission that may help her find her father. She teams up with a group of talented travelers. While working with them, she soon discovers that she has a special travel talent of her own. Pursued by the sentient being of white light that’s been tracking her father’s bloodline, Calla fears her newfound talents may not be enough to protect her and her teammates before they complete their mission. 

Insight Kindling is the second installment in The Call to Search Everywhen serial series.

Author Bio:

Chess Desalls recently authored the first two installments of the YA time travel series, The Call to Search Everywhen. She's a longtime reader of fantasy and sci-fi novels, particularly young adult fiction. When she's not reading or writing, she enjoys traveling and trying to stay in tune on her flute.

Author Links:

Goodreads | Twitter | Blog | Facebook | Website | Tumblr | Instagram

Giveaway

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This tour was organized by

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Travel Glasses

Travel Glasses by @ChessDesalls. My Review: #bookreview #Timetravel #YA

The Call to Search Everywhen (1) Author: Chess Desalls Czidor Lore, LLC Published: 13.05.2015 Amazon.co.uk

I was very intrigued by the premise of this book: time travel. It proved to be a light science fiction book without too much focus on technology and futuristic aspects which I appreciated. The female lead is a reasonable girl in her late teens, though at some points she is a bit…

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Title: Travel Glasses Series: The Call To Search Everywhen #1 Author: Chess Desalls Year: 2014 Rating: 3/5

[Read review on Goodreads]

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

“Travel Glasses” enters the YA market with a fresh premise and the ambition to explore a topic that is still underrepresented in the genre. Time travel is not an easy subject to tackle, yet “Travel Glasses” manages to find an interesting and innovative approach to this classic sci-fi concept.

Chess Desalls’s  debut novel is the story of Calla - a girl who lives a secluded and protected life. Her world turns upside down after she meets Valcas - a charming young man who can travel through time and space with the help of a pair of altered sunglasses.

However, Valcas is not who he appears to be. He has reasons for offering Calla his help and protection beyond caring for her safety. Once Calla finds this out, she manages to escape him and sets out on a journey through time on her own. With the help of the Travel Glasses, she tries to solve the mystery that is Valcas and find a safe way back home.

The Plot

In “Travel Glasses” Chess Desalls takes a new and interesting approach towards time travel by designing the Travel Glasses as the device used by the characters to traverse time and space. I found this very refreshing and intriguing as opposed to the ever-present giant and complex machines and portals that reign in the sci-fi real. However, the principles behind the Glasses are confusing and sometimes contradictory. Theory of time travel is hard to understand in general but I think what makes it particularly hard to grasp in “Travel Glasses” is how the information is being presented - which often feels as if a big bomb of information is being dumped on the reader without giving them the time to understand and analyze it.

The plot itself is saturated with action and plot twists. The simple writing style makes the story easy to follow while keeping it engaging at the same time. However, the quick sequence of events sometimes makes the novel feel rushed and disorientating. As I previously said, this is due to the fact that there isn’t much time for the reader to evaluate the information that they are being presented with.

Overall, I feel that it would be fair to give points to the author for her imagination and ambition and the ability to keep the reader entertained throughout the book.

The Setting

Traversing time and space with the Travel Glasses gives the reader the opportunity to see several different worlds and time periods through Calla’s eyes. Chess Desalls explores a versatile set of worlds by assigning each of her characters a world that fits their personality. From the wondrous world where Valcas lives to the quiet and secluded world of the inventor of the Travel Glasses, the author uses every trick in the book to present the full set of possibilities that time travel creates for the traveller.

The Characters

Calla is not my prefered type of character to read, especially in first person prose, but at the end of the day, she fits the novel well. Her lack of knowledge about time travel and every new world she visits, her investigation about the Travel Glasses and Valcas, gives the reader to opportunity to explore the context of the novel alongside her. She asks the questions the reader would like to ask, demands explanation of the same things the reader doesn’t understand.

At the beginning of the novel, a lot of Calla’s reactions and actions don’t make sense (for example, she has cut connections with pretty much anyone she knows and doesn’t trust anyone, yet she chooses to go on a dinner with Valcas the same day she meets him). However, with the progress of the novel, qualities such as her bravery and determination to find answers to her question and survive prevail over the weaker aspects of her personality and give her the adventurous spirit that the narrative demands.

The Verdict

I feel like I might have been a bit too old and experienced for this novel (as in, I have read a lot of YA paranormal novels and I have consumed too much media). However, I found the novel a pleasant and much needed representative of the time-travel subgenre in YA literature. I would recommend this for the moments when school and work are too overwhelming and you just need something to take your mind off things.