Title: Travel Glasses
Series: The Call to Search Everywhen
Author: Chess Desalls
Publication Date: May 7, 2014
Synopsis:
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 meets Valcas, an otherworldly time traveler who traverses time and space with a pair of altered sunglasses. When an ethereal being knocks Calla to the ground near her family’s lakeside cottage, Valcas uses the Travel Glasses to help her escape. He offers his further protection in exchange for a promise. Intrigued by Valcas and the possibility of time travel, Calla accepts. That is until she learns that his search for her was nomere coincidence.
Calla sets off on her own, taking the Travel Glasses with her. Torn between searching for her estranged father and reuniting with the rest of her family, she tracks down the inventor of the Travel Glasses in hopes of discovering more about Valcas’ past and motivations. The Travel Glasses take Calla’s mistrust of technology to all new levels. But without them, she’ll never make it back home. With Valcas hot on her trail, Calla hopes to find what she’s looking for before he catches up.
I drank deeply from the crystal goblet. The liquid was cool and its flavor was unfamiliar.
“Aren’t these the type of questions one asks before choosing a fiancée?”
Valcas flashed a wide toothy grin. “You’ll fill your role perfectly.”
“What is my role, exactly?”
He draped his arm around me, pulling me closer so that he could explain in a hushed voice. “I just usurped a new throne. Local custom, law actually, requires that a successor not related by blood to the prior ruler be married. Do not worry. You’ll just be posing, acting. You are naturally beautiful and slightly unapproachable— they will interpret that as being secure in your own superiority. It also helps that you have the aura and freshness of someone from a distant land.”
I gave Valcas a hard look. I already knew that he wanted me to help him pretend to be engaged and that he was protecting me from what attacked me twice at the dock. In my haste to get away from the lake I’d agreed to help him. As reality set in, however, the arrangement was starting to sound a lot more longterm and, worse yet, deliberately planned—very well researched. I wasn’t exactly bad looking, but I wouldn’t consider myself beautiful. Was he trying to flatter me? The food in my stomach churned. I gently pulled away from Valcas’ embrace and smoothed out my napkin.
“What if when you found me I was unattractive?”
“I don’t see how that would happen. A darkhaired beauty was one of the necessary components of the search.”
“What were the other necessary components of the search?”
“Well, basic information such as your age, name, rough location—”
“You searched for me? By name?” When he told me about tracking my attacker, I assumed that his search was not specific to me, that I just happened to be the white light’s target when he found it and that I conveniently could return his favor.
“Yes, you.”
“Aren’t these the type of questions one asks before choosing a fiancée?”
Valcas flashed a wide toothy grin. “You’ll fill your role perfectly.”
“What is my role, exactly?”
He draped his arm around me, pulling me closer so that he could explain in a hushed voice. “I just usurped a new throne. Local custom, law actually, requires that a successor not related by blood to the prior ruler be married. Do not worry. You’ll just be posing, acting. You are naturally beautiful and slightly unapproachable— they will interpret that as being secure in your own superiority. It also helps that you have the aura and freshness of someone from a distant land.”
I gave Valcas a hard look. I already knew that he wanted me to help him pretend to be engaged and that he was protecting me from what attacked me twice at the dock. In my haste to get away from the lake I’d agreed to help him. As reality set in, however, the arrangement was starting to sound a lot more longterm and, worse yet, deliberately planned—very well researched. I wasn’t exactly bad looking, but I wouldn’t consider myself beautiful. Was he trying to flatter me? The food in my stomach churned. I gently pulled away from Valcas’ embrace and smoothed out my napkin.
“What if when you found me I was unattractive?”
“I don’t see how that would happen. A darkhaired beauty was one of the necessary components of the search.”
“What were the other necessary components of the search?”
“Well, basic information such as your age, name, rough location—”
“You searched for me? By name?” When he told me about tracking my attacker, I assumed that his search was not specific to me, that I just happened to be the white light’s target when he found it and that I conveniently could return his favor.
“Yes, you.”
Author Bio:
Hi! I recently authored the first two installmentsof the YA time travel serial series, The Call to Search Everywhen. I'm a longtime reader of fantasy and sci-fi novels, particularly classics and young adult fiction. There's nothing quite like a good fairy tale or fable. When I'm not writing I enjoy traveling, reading and trying to stay in tune on my flute. Author Links:
This tour was organized by Good Tales Book Tours
Hi Chelsea!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for hosting Chess today. Great review for her too!
We appreciate you!
Laurie Starkey
Good Tales Book Tours
Hi Chelsea! Thanks for hosting and for your kind review!
ReplyDeleteI’d love it if you and your friends would sign up for my newsletter (http://eepurl.com/bgGzOT)! I plan to send updates on future giveaways and new releases. :o)
For anyone who’s curious and hasn’t started yet, Travel Glasses is YA fantasy filled with metafiction and other literary twistiness.
Chess
Hi!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for hosting today! We sure do appreciate your support!
Laurie Starkey
Good Tales Book Tours