Audio Book Review: Beacon

Beacon

By:  Chess Desalls

Publish Date:  January 9, 2017, Audiobook Release June 13, 2017

Format:  Audiobook - 2 hrs 37 mins
Narrated By:  Janine Haynes

Genre:  Young Adult Urban Fantasy

Series:  2nd in Lantern series; 1st Book ~ Lantern

Impression:  Finding what she needs in least expected way.

Synopsis:
When Serah’s life in Havenbrim becomes unbearable, she accepts an apprenticeship with a celestial mechanic and glazier. Her master assigns her the task of opening a globe framed in copper. But the glass and seal are unbreakable. The solution to the puzzle traps Serah inside the globe, and transports her to a world where she longs for home.

First Sentence:
Serah stood on a porch.

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Audible

My Thoughts and Summary:

*I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Serah Kettel interviews with Master Machin to be an apprentice, to tend to the lanterns and let him know when one burns out. Machin asks her which new lantern bulb she likes. When she touches the one she picks, it smokes inside and she feels a shock that lands her on the ground. She's to return for her position as apprentice. When she returns, she expects to learn Machin's secrets to the lanterns. She didn't expect to live it.

Janine is a new voice for me. I thought she did well with the accents of Havenbrim and where Serah ends up. Giving each land a different feel from each other. The audio book sounded seamless as Janine narrated.

Serah is from a time when Halloween is very different than it is now, or where she ends up. Halloween scares Serah with all the creatures, blood, and body parts we have at parties. Seeing this new world and the way things are done opens Serah's eyes to what's important in life, and what she really wants with her family.

Of course we get a pleasant ending for Serah, after all. But the journey to the end is different through the globes. It's different for each person. I didn't expect the story to take the turn it did here, and I like it. The globe, the locket that's a door, and the delight to see who's where in the end. I know it sounds like I'm rambling, but it'll all make sense when you read or listen to the story.

Machin is always an interesting catalyst for stories. He creates the lanterns which lead these characters down their paths to where they need to be in their lives. I'm not sure if he finds them or if they find him, but he knows they will eventually find their happy ending.

It's a pleasant story that Young Adults can read/listen to and enjoy what the characters learn along the way about themselves.



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Audio Book Review: Time for the Lost

Time for the Lost

By:  Chess Desalls

Publish Date:  February 9, 2016, Audiobook Release September 27, 2016

Format:  Audiobook - 6 hrs 24 mins
Narrated By:  Jamie Dufault

Genre:  Fantasy, Young Adult, Time Travel

Series:  3rd in The Call to Search Everywhen series; Book 1 ~ Travel Glasses, Book 2 ~ Insight Kindling

Impression:  We dig a little deeper into the world and what Calla's power can do.

Synopsis:
Calla's disappearance leads her family and friends to suspect that she’s lost. In a desperate attempt to find her, Valcas seeks help from a man he betrayed. A new search begins, one that sounds promising, even if it forces Valcas to confront his past.

The travel team reunites for a mission they never saw coming: a journey to a world caught between life and death, and hidden within the deepest recesses of time. Ivory rediscovers a friend and Ray learns the meaning behind his tattoo. But the connections they make between travelers and the lost may twist the core of the Time and Space Travel Agency inside out.

Time for the Lost is the third installment in The Call to Search Everywhen serial series.

First Sentence:
I grew up in a world of my parents' making.

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Audible

My Thoughts and Summary:
*This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review, at my request.

Valcas doesn't know if he should go find Calla, but finds himself on the journey to find her. When he and Calla's family conclude she's lost, they try their hardest to find and save her. In doing so they learn secrets that the Time and Space Travel Agency wanted kept quiet. Things that could change everything as it's run now.

Jamie is new to me and new to the series. This book is from Valcas's POV so it brings in a male voice to tell the perspective. Then the story switches to Calla's POV in the last half, or Part 2 of the story. He does small changes for tones and feel of voices for different people; softer for female, scratch for older man, and proper for formal male speak.

It's been a while since I listened to the previous books. I think because of this the beginning feels larger than I'm ready for. It feels as though I'm getting a brood range of items all at once and not sure what is now and what has happened already. Valcas feels as though his mind is all over the place and makes it harder for me to narrow in on something.

Time is a tricky topic, and could be discussed in many angles for hours. The concept of time travel, daily reminders, slices of time, and much more are interesting concepts. They feel like topics I could debate and discuss with friends, based on the world created here. They would be deep and detailed discussions that would lead to more terms and ideas for the world. I really like them. There are moments I'm not 100% clear on details as we learn new aspects to the time traveling, like Chars. I first thought these were the Uproar, but figure out they are different. But, what are they or where from? What draws them to the travelers?

This book feels to spend time describing more rules and worries of the traveling. It also feels to be used to raise suspension of the TSTA (Time and Space Travel Agency). It feels slower in action as we learn about the lost and start to question why or how. We see Plaka and Calla do what they do best, heal. But the characters don't feel as personable to me in this story as they did in previous ones. Was it the narrator or the writing? I'm not sure. I didn't feel as drawn to them as I had before.

As I went through the book, it felt more and more as a transition to a new plot arc in the series, however it ends like it's the conclusion too. I liked the story and things we learned here, but at times I didn't see the connections of why things were connected or people were searching for things. Maybe if I had read the book, this way I could have re-read sections, it would sink in better. I don't know.



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Audio Book Review: Glistens

Glistens

By:  Chess Desalls

Publish Date:  July 11, 2016, Audiobook Release August 16, 2016

Format:  Audiobook - 2 hrs 8 mins
Narrated By:  Julie Hinton

Genre:  Fantasy

Series:  Stand alone

First Impression:  A story for the young, how helping others makes a difference.

Synopsis:
Marian Spritz won’t gain guardian fairy status if she fails her summer school project. But when she hears a call for help—a song felt only by Glistens—she must choose between not letting her schoolwork and teammates suffer and protecting a ward who faces grave danger.

A guardian can't shine without the song of her ward.

First Sentence:
"You, Marian Spritz, are the poorest excuse for a Glisten I have ever seen.

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Audible

My Thoughts and Summary:
*This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review at my request.

Marian Spritz is in summer school due to poor grades, and still struggling with spells with her best friend Sal and Endrik, the handsome boy, seems to like Marian where Minx, the mean girl, is jealous of their flirting. Along with their Last Chance Project, helping a fictional ward, they will also have to help a real live being. Should something happen, they are to use their group to help them. Twelve students now have their projects, due in three weeks. The song for help sings through a Glistens veins, when the veil is lifted which their professor does. When Marian's ward asks her to keep her troubles a secret, and ward to guardian secret, it complicates Marian's school project as she's to work with Sal and Endrik to finish, and now can't.


Julie is a new voice for me. And listening to her in the first chapter, I liked her. She does different attitudes with slight voice differences for us to easily separate and get a feel for the characters. This is something that really pops with audiobooks, we don't get when reading. But I think there is a slight ting to Julie's voice, almost an echo. It's hard to tell and could be nothing, or could fit with the fairy feel. For the most part, Julie flows the words as she narrates. However there are moments where she feels as she's working to enunciate the words properly and clearly.


This is a short story at just over 2 hours audio. It feels like a lovely little story for young adults, in middle school and up, to read/listen to. It brings to the front that promises are made and you honor them, but it's also good to talk to others. That others can help. Sometimes, working as a group is better than alone. And, sometimes, helping those that are not so nice means a great deal to them.

I like Marian. She worries and feels bad, but she's also not perfect. Her attention strays when in class, causing her to miss information from class and such. But this feels like a normal person. But when she learns she's got a ward, she does worry about that person, even if it's someone she never expected.

Enrik is the possible boy distraction, love interest, in this story. He sounds sweet. He's also concerned for Marian when he sees her during her moments that she feels the song. Marian is determined to not let him be a distraction, I like this take on her relationship with Enrik.

Sal is so worried. She comes across as whiny at times, but that's her personality. She's so stressed over the great chance of failing this summer course and never becoming a Glisten. She's so worried that she doesn't want Enrik and Marian to become romantically involved as it would be a distraction from their projects, and they'll fail. And much on her mind with her father's disappearance.

One thing I find cool, it's near my home town! They are in Pennsylvania and near the Allegheny River. Pittsburgh is even mentioned. Cool beans!

It was a cute short story.



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Audio Book Review: Wrapped in the Past

Wrapped in the Past

By:  Chess Desalls

Publish Date:  December 11, 2015, Audiobook Release April 21, 2016

Format:  Audiobook - 2 hrs 3 mins
Narrated By:  Janine Haynes

Genre:  Young Adult Fantasy

Series:  Stand-alone

First Impression:  A young girl impacted by who she meets.

Synopsis:
Shirlyn travels back in time to ancient Persia where she meets the three magi who follow the Star of Bethlehem. After a mishap threatens to send her ride home without her, the youngest mage exhibits a hidden talent that leaves an impression on his elders and on Shirlyn's heart. But his silhouette will forget they ever met, unless she leaves a reminder that comes with a heavy price.

First Sentence:
Tailed like a comet, the star glows under the heavens.

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Audible

My Thoughts and Summary:
*I requested to review a copy of this audiobook for an honest review from the author or narrator.

Three magi follow the Star of Bethlehem, carrying gifts to welcome the newborn child.

Shirlyn's father is an inventor, and obsessed with time travel. His gift to Shirlyn and her mother is to travel back to the first Christmas, and observe the three magi. Shirlyn finds she grows attached to those of the past, but there are laws against leaving reminders. But can she leave without leaving a piece of her?

Janine's narration is done with a clear voice and flow. The accent voiced for Shirlyn feels to fit her, as it's what I thought she'd sound like. Janine has an accent I can't place when she speaks as the three magi. Janine expresses the feelings Shirlyn is feeling in voice as Shirlyn thinks and tells the story. The background is clear and seamlessly flows through the chapters.

This is a Christmas story at the heart. When Shirlyn sees the Christmas star she's taken by the sight. Her description is beautiful. Her and her family follow the star, her father hoping to cross paths with the three magi to study them. We experience the travels of the three magi following the Star of Bethlehem to welcome the child. We learn of the three magi's and what gifts they bare. But when Shirlyn sees the young Balthazar, she is attracted to him and he is her age. Balthazar is a special person as well. What he can do, and it's a touch of magic, is beautiful.

This feels like this is Shirlyn's first experience with time travel. We get to experience the effects of traveling, goggles/visors to protect eyes from the blanching effect, the change of traveling vehicle, and the affect of their arrival. Shirlyn's father, Edgar, also tells her of the rules of time travel.

Shirlyn is a young girl and we get a feel of so from her. Shirlyn is young and influential. She finds kind and sweet young men in her travels. Shirlyn falls for them each too. Shirlyn feels she's been impacted by meeting those of the past and she wants them to remember her as much as she'll remember them. Shirlyn is so young in her thinking and it shows, naive in a sense. Then we see Shirlyn meet Romaso for the first time too.

This story is set in the world of "The Call to Search Everywhen".  You do NOT need to read the series first to read this one. This is a story of a secondary character's adventure to the past. We do get a few drops of the time travel agency and ways here. There are rules and consequences, but Shirlyn is just learning as she's new to traveling with her family. She hasn't seen any negative affects yet. Maybe you'll become curious of the world at a larger view after this story.



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Audio Book Review: Lantern

Lantern

By:  Chess Desalls

Publish Date:  December 11, 2015, Audiobook Release March 31, 2016

Format:  Audiobook - 2 hrs 36 mins
Narrated By:  Jill Maglione

Genre:  Young Adult Fantasy

Series:  Stand-alone

First Impression:  The spark of a young relationship starts with a lantern.

Synopsis:
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 nobody else. Certain that it’s a ghost or a prank, she investigates further and discovers a mysterious life that shines in the darkness.

First Sentence:
Fingers trembled along the grains and splinters of a broken leg.

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Audible

My Thoughts and Summary:
*I requested to review a copy of this audiobook for an honest review from the author or narrator.

Tori is at her grandma's 18th century home for a Halloween vacation with her family. Exploring the grounds Tori take a wrong path in returning to the home. Following a light, hoping to find her way home, Tori comes to a single lit, metal and glass lantern hanging on a pole. When she leaves the lantern, it flashes frantically at her. Learning from Grandma that the lantern never worked, Tori is now curious of the lantern and needs to investigate it more! Tori finds something special with the lantern.

I love when narrators do strong different tones and personalities for characters. Jill does just that! Kimmy is a toddler, and Jill does a wonderful youngster voice. Even for Tori, when Tori talks to her little brother Kimmy, it's as many talk to toddlers and different when she talks to her friend and adults. Oh the attitude in Moretta came through loud and clear. Grrr, I don't like her for that. lol. Well done. A slight accent for Grandma as well.

This story is short, so I'm going to keep my thoughts short too, as to not give away to much of the story.

I love the sounds of the plantation. The large home reminds her of a haunted mansion and lots of different gardens. It sounds like a beautiful sight.

I like the feel I get from Tori and her family. She feels like a great family person even for a teenager of sixteen. She does defy her mother's rule, to not go to the lantern. Tori feels bad about it, but she still goes. She does talk to an adult about it, her grandmother. Tori seems like a good kid and raised well by her parents who are present and try to guide her on the right path. Tori also loves her little brother and treats him so well, even with 13 years difference between them. Jared seems like a sweet young man. He's had a hard life at home but he comes across as a good young man.

Jared and Tori's interactions are well done here as I felt they really were getting closer as the story went. Nothing about their times together felt forced in any way. This story was just the right length for the characters to grow fond of each other.

As much as I adore Tori and Jared, I really loved the hint of Machin and what he does. Machin is more than what we think, and the epilogue shows that. I loved it! I even wonder if we could see more stories from Machin's doings. -- When you get through this story, you'll understand why. ;)

The story is a sweet story. It's a perfect blossom of love story for Young Adults. Clean, innocent, and attracting. Lantern is a different idea and is lovely.


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Audio Book Review: Insight Kindling

Insight Kindling

By:  Chess Desalls

Publish Date:  January 22, 2015, Audiobook July 15, 2015

Format:  Audiobook - 7 hrs 35 mins
Narrated By:  Jill Maglione

Genre:  YA Paranormal

Series:  2nd in The Call to Search Everywhen series; 1st Book ~ Travel Glasses

Impression:  The time and space travel world expands as a team is formed and go on a mission to find Calla's lost father. And first love starts to bloom.

Synopsis:
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.

First Sentence:
Valcas and I landed as swiftly as we'd flown away from the White Tower, where we'd left his past behind.

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Amazon  /  Barnes & Nobles

Audible


My Thoughts and Summary:
*This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBlast dot com, at my request.

Through Calla's travels of time and space she's broken TSTA rules and now must stand trial for the daily reminders that were created, by her and in her name. As long as she stays out of jail, Valcas knows of a volunteer mission she can join. Valcas had bigger plans in mind since the first time he meet Calla. He wants to find his best friend, and Calla's dad. To do that, he needs her help. She has a close bond to her father, by blood. All she'd been through was a test to see if she could travel.  Calla's going to be spending a lot of time with Valcas and this is not the same Valcas she grew fond of. Or is he still there?

I slipped right into the story with Jill voicing the characters. It felt she reads the story with more emotion in Calla from the first word. She speaks with personality for all the characters along with voice differences such as scratchy or deeper. I really enjoyed the differentiation between them all, making it easy to tell who was talking. She even carried through with similar voices from the first book voiced by a different narrator. Well done. I think I enjoy Jill's narration much more than the narrator of the first book.

We've picked up a few new characters here! We meet Calla's mom and she doesn't want Calla and Valcas going on this mission alone. She works a few things around and gets two others that are in court the same day and set to go on missions to find Lost people. We add Ivory and Ray to our team. I really enjoy their abilities and the way they interact with Calla. There is another, but you can meet that person when you get there. ;)

It's very neat to see the traveling world in this book. We get lots of details of different things with traveling. It did NOT feel like an info dump either. *Bonus* It is the story and it all comes out to help us understand the way of time and space travels. So much to the way of doing things and rules along with people having special abilities to do unique things in traveling. We also find out, at the very beginning, what is after Calla! I'm so glad this book jumped in with details and answers. Thank you, Chess!

With all the great things we learn of the world, we get to see Calla fall in love. Calla doesn't realize it until she's gone and fallen. But she does. This is Calla and Valcas's story of falling in love all over again while they are looking for her father, and stuck in the Fire Falls.

This story is a YA Paranormal read and is a clean story for young readers to enjoy. There is no swearing and barely a kiss is present. I would suggest this story for many young readers. The story is a simple one, a mission to find Plaka while Calla and Valcas seem to be skating around each other while feelings grow. It held my attention as it feels character based here and the characters feel developed in the story and voice.

I went from not trusting Valcas to liking him in the first book. This book I fell in love with Valcas with Calla. And now I'm very upset with him. But that's the way things go in books. lol. This means the author wrote it right. I should have seen it coming though. However, I fell for the trap and was irritated with the character in the end.

Now I need the next book, due out later 2015, to see where and when the characters are and how they are coping.

Audio Book Review: Travel Glasses

Travel Glasses

By:  Chess Desalls

Publish Date:  May 7, 2014, Audiobook September 16, 2014

Format:  Audiobook - 7 hrs 9 mins
Narrated By:  Natalie Winters

Genre:  YA Paranormal

Series:  1st in The Call to Search Everywhen series

Impression:  A young girl falls into the mind blowing world of time and space travel.

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 no mere 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.

The Call to Search Everywhen is a serial series of novel-length installments. Travel Glasses is YA fantasy filled with metafiction and other literary twistiness. It's a thought-provoking narrative about trust, relationships, reality and illusion.

First Sentence:
The day I met Valcas began within the confines of the grounds surrounding my family's lakeside cottage.

Purchase At:
Amazon  /  Barnes & Nobles  /  Book Depository

Audible


My Thoughts and Summary:
*This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBlast dot com, at my request.

Valcas is helping Calla, and he could use her help too. He's saved her from some thing that's after her, and it's not safe for her to return home. He's also in a tight spot and she can help him by posing as his betrothed. Calla realizes a bit late that the rule she's to play for Valcas seems more long term than she originally thought. When she learns he's searched her out specifically she becomes upset, and Valcas has her locked in her rooms. Young Calla knows the only way out of this palace is the same way they got in. She must retrieve Valcas's traveling glasses, the ones that give him the ability to travel through time and places. To do this, she must act the part she was brought here to be. After she has the glasses, she goes on her own mission to stay safe and learn what she can of Valcas.

Natalie narrates this story with accents for characters from different parts of the world, and time. We have Romaso from Venice and Shirlyn from England. Valcas has a prim and proper sound to him that is relayed in his speaking and the terms he uses. However in the beginning I didn't feel a lot of emotion in her voice while reading. In the end of the book it felt her connection with Calla and Calla's growth grew in her voice acting.

The first few chapters happen fast and left me with lots of questions.  All good as I wanted to know all the answers! What's after Calla? Why? What's knocking her over? He say's it's 1812? Why does Valcas have sunglasses on in the dark? Things change fast and I'm curious as to why and how, jet ski to row boat. I have to keep going to see what's going on!

As you guessed it, the sunglasses are the travel glasses. They are what helps move from world to world and time to time. They do have their affects on the users though.

The neat thing of this story that I enjoyed when thinking back through the story is my thinking process of how or why things are the way they are changes. Each trip to the past or another place brings something to mind that could be an explanation of why. I do like that you can't change the past. Well, there are the written personals you can leave, but there are rules against such things that are monitored by the TSTA, Time and Space Travel Agency. So the changing the past is not an easy answer to everything. I have changed my mind on Valcas's motives about three times with what I learned. lol.

Valcas...Hmm. I love him and think he's scary. How is that? Well, when we first meet Valcas he comes across a bit strong. Calla's view of him leaves us with a creepy feel for him. But when Calla goes to visit a younger Valcas, before he uses the traveling glasses, he is sweet. I think Calla has fallen for this version of Valcas. Then we learn something else about Valcas, after we too have fallen for him, that changes our view yet again. I want to hear Valcas explain things and see what happens with this 'older' Valcas with Calla. I quote older because there is a special thing with Valcas. By the end of the story I'm liking him very much.

Calla. At first I thought it was a bit quick for her to go to dinner with a boy she's just meet. But things move on and I get to know Calla a bit more as the story goes. She is seventeen and still learning the way of the world. Her thinking is a bit innocent in the seventeen year old's ways as well. But at the end of the book it seems Calla is learning and trying to do the right things. Calla also has in mind her father. She's never known her father and maybe, just maybe, she has the means now to find him. But I think that's another story.

This is a Young Adult read. It's done with no violence or overly intimate scenes. Good clean story with a young girl learning her way in the world and getting to experience friendships she never had.

I grew attached to Calla and green eyed Valcas. I'm looking forward to seeing them in the future books. I ended this book surprised that it ended. I want to know what comes of what she learns of her mother's job and her hearing with TSTA. Then what Valcas will say and if there is a connection here with him in the current time. I'm still wondering on what was after Calla too. And her missing father...