L. E. DeLano

Traveler has an interesting premise which is not entirely conveyed accurately by the publisher marketing summary I included above. Jessa is a Traveler, and so is Finn. He is not a character she writes about, he is someone she has seen over and over in alternate realities and dreamed of him in her “original” state.

L. E. DeLano plays with the time/space continuum, a la The Doctor, in a wonderful way. By looking through a reflective surface, Jessa and Finn have the ability to trade places with versions of themselves in alternate realities. There are many questions that this raises, logistically and plot-wise, but as Traveler is the first in a duology, I can only hope that they are answered in the second book. But logistics aside, DeLano crafts an engaging and enjoyable story, but her characters are your stereotypical high schoolers, don’t expect anything too original on the love story/witty banter front, through there is certainly plenty of it to go around!… (meer)

3.5 stars
I'm wondering why this is under 'time travel' on Goodreads because there isn't really time travel here, more like alternate dimension traveling.

Anyhow! Jessa has been having dreams of a mysterious boy and strange otherworldly adventures that she transcribes into stories. Strangely enough, this mysterious boy is actually a real person by the name of Finn. He reveals to her that they're both Travelers - they can travel to different dimensions with the help of other Finns and other Jessas. But Finn has another motive for seeking out Jessa... in other dimensions, she keeps on dying, and Finn has to prevent her death in this world, before it's too late.

There's a lot more backstory to this - involving Dreamers, who direct the Travelers on which dimension they should go to, and how Travelers fix certain points in time in order to have some proper order in the universe. If that was possible.

Jessa's initial reluctance to the whole situation was believable and completely understandable... imagine being in charge of a person's life, with so much control that the smallest thing could alter their future? Jessa doesn't want a part in it, especially when she's set on not doing things completely by the book.

I definitely did not see the villains coming! And there's so much fun to be had with traveling to different dimensions. The concept of this was executed wonderfully and I wasn't lost at all. It was indeed hilarious reading Jessa travel back in her own body, only to find that the previous Jessa who occupied it did some 'minor' adjustments.

My only qualm with this was the love triangle (but that was resolved rather quickly so it wasn't even much of a problem) and the lack of actual traveling. Sure, Jessa travels a few times to different dimensions, ones with a deaf Jessa, chubby Jessa, and a proper lady Jessa. Judging by the cover, however, you'd think more pirate ships would be involved. The traveling itself was more figurative than literal, but we don't even see pirate Finn that often. This all sounds very complicated if you haven't read the book, in a nutshell, there is a trace mention of pirates and ships. Judging by the ending, I'd assume they'd play a larger role in a sequel.

Other than that, Traveler was a fun read that brought together dreams and alternate dimensions rather nicely.

Also posted on Wonderland Novels!… (meer)

Traveler is the story of Jessa, a girl who is having very vivid dreams of a boy that she doesn't even know. When she finally sees him one day in real life, she isn't quite sure how to react -- especially because moments later, he saves her from certain death. It turns out that the boy, Finn, is from an alternate reality and can travel through mirrors. He's come to tell Jessa that she can do the same ... and that Jessas in other realities are being killed. Whether he can save her in this world depends on if she can trust him and figure out who is out to get her and why.

This book is part of Feiwel and Friends' Swoon Reads crowdsourced imprint. I'm glad that DeLano finally got her chance to be published because this was a compelling story. I loved the idea of travelling to parallel universes by trading places with the "you" in that place. The peril in the story seemed real, the mystery was complex, and the characters with disabilities or struggles were portrayed honestly but with sensitivity. I especially appreciated that a variety of kids were shown who were on the autism spectrum because it is indeed a spectrum. I did have a bit of trouble siding with Jessa because she was all over the place and not always in a tolerable way. Also, there was no indication until the very last moments that this was going to be the start of a series and it had very little closure. It seemed like the middle of one big story instead of the end of the first chapter of that tale, if you know what I mean. I'm not sure if I will look for the next book in the series but I did enjoy reading this one overall.

http://webereading.com/2017/02/new-releases-traveler-and-freya.html… (meer)