Author: Chess Desalls
Publisher: Czidor Lore, LLC
Pages: 214
Publisher: Czidor Lore, LLC
Pages: 214
Release Date: May 7th, 2014
Source: Received from the author in exchange for
an honest review
an honest review
When an ethereal being knocks Calla to the ground near her family’s lakeside cottage, Valcas helps her to escape by traveling to another place and time. At first, Calla is as intrigued by the otherworldly Valcas as she is by his method of time travel: an altered pair of sunglasses that enable the wearer to search for anyone or anywhere in the past, present or future. That is until she suspects that his search for her was no mere coincidence.
With her trust broken, 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. With Valcas hot on her trail, Calla hopes to find what she’s looking for before he catches up.
Time travel, a little romance, some mystery and adventure, Travel Glasses has the elements to be a good start to a series. There were some disappointments for me as a reader, but I feel like there is potential in perhaps following books in this series.
To be honest, I had some trouble reading Travel Glasses. While the premise was interesting, one of my big tests with any sci-fi novel is believability, and there were many areas where the story really didn’t pass that test. I mean, after being back-stabbed by an online friend, Calla abandons all technology from the betrayal. Yet some random guy knocks her over, asks her to dinner and she says yes? It didn't add up to me, and continued to bother me as the story continued. If she had her trust broken that badly, she should be suspicious of strangers more than ever. Plus, her captivation with Valcas really felt shallow and unwarranted to me. It just felt like this random hot guy drops from the sky, and Calla turns into a zombie letting him take her away with his time traveling glasses. I really had trouble rooting for Calla when she seemed like she was making terrible judgment calls from the start.
Don’t get me wrong though, the book itself wasn’t bad. Travel Glasses is easy to read, and it seems like it would be appealing to the YA market. But there was something missing in the character motivation for me. She doesn't develop caution and question her actions until much later in the story. Some of the elements of this story were interesting, like how people in the past react to a time traveler, but it wasn't my favorite take on time traveling because there were still unanswered questions. There were also too many cases where things felt really coincidental. If it's hard for you to suspend your disbelief, this may be a tough read.
I think I would read the sequel, just to see how some of the plot lines work out, but I don't think it was for everyone. The story gets more engaging near the end, but it didn't quite captivate me like I was hoping.
To be honest, I had some trouble reading Travel Glasses. While the premise was interesting, one of my big tests with any sci-fi novel is believability, and there were many areas where the story really didn’t pass that test. I mean, after being back-stabbed by an online friend, Calla abandons all technology from the betrayal. Yet some random guy knocks her over, asks her to dinner and she says yes? It didn't add up to me, and continued to bother me as the story continued. If she had her trust broken that badly, she should be suspicious of strangers more than ever. Plus, her captivation with Valcas really felt shallow and unwarranted to me. It just felt like this random hot guy drops from the sky, and Calla turns into a zombie letting him take her away with his time traveling glasses. I really had trouble rooting for Calla when she seemed like she was making terrible judgment calls from the start.
Don’t get me wrong though, the book itself wasn’t bad. Travel Glasses is easy to read, and it seems like it would be appealing to the YA market. But there was something missing in the character motivation for me. She doesn't develop caution and question her actions until much later in the story. Some of the elements of this story were interesting, like how people in the past react to a time traveler, but it wasn't my favorite take on time traveling because there were still unanswered questions. There were also too many cases where things felt really coincidental. If it's hard for you to suspend your disbelief, this may be a tough read.
I think I would read the sequel, just to see how some of the plot lines work out, but I don't think it was for everyone. The story gets more engaging near the end, but it didn't quite captivate me like I was hoping.
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