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Windchaser (Phantom Island #1)

by Krissi Dallas (Goodreads Author)

4.32 of 5 stars 4.32 · rating details · 71 ratings · 21 reviews

High school senior Whitnee has spent six years rebuilding her identity after her father's mysterious disappearance left her with more questions than answers. With her two best friends, Morgan and Caleb, she returns as a mentor to the summer camp of her childhood. Nestled in the Texas hill country, Camp Fusion is everything Whitnee remembers—except for the haunting visions...more

Paperback, 288 pages

Published December 13th 2011 by Tate Publishing (first published April 20th 2009)

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Mar 25, 2010 LeNore rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My church book group picked this book because Krissi Dallas is a Burleson woman and we wanted to support the home town girl. It is YA Fantasy, which is my favorite genre. My one ciriticism is that it didn't follow the 300 printed words per page format. There were a lot more words and I think it puts people off from reading it. I thought it was occasionally didactic in places. It had a lot of romance,relationship stuff in it (nothing that a middle school student couldn't read, Krissi is the wife...more

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Feb 13, 2012 Amber Stokes rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

On the hunt for a highly imaginative, highly engaging book? Then Windchaser is an adventure you won't want to miss! The cover, the description, and a friend's praise of the book made me eager to give the book a try, and I'm so very glad I did!

The story begins at Camp Fusion, the quintessential summer camp that shines in all its youthful promise. Whitnee, Morgan, and Caleb, three inseparable friends who met at Camp Fusion years ago, return to the place of renewal in order to help middle-school ca...more On the hunt for a highly imaginative, highly engaging book? Then Windchaser is an adventure you won't want to miss! The cover, the description, and a friend's praise of the book made me eager to give the book a try, and I'm so very glad I did!

The story begins at Camp Fusion, the quintessential summer camp that shines in all its youthful promise. Whitnee, Morgan, and Caleb, three inseparable friends who met at Camp Fusion years ago, return to the place of renewal in order to help middle-school campers dealing with difficult issues on their journey to healing.

The trouble is, instead of healing, campers and counselors alike seem to be finding nothing but confusion and heartache. Young love goes awry, tender feelings are bruised by rejection, and - to top it all off - Whitnee is seeing things on the forbidden side of the river that are dredging up haunting memories and a dangerous curiosity. And that curiosity leads the three friends and two campers through a portal into a world full of strange legends and powers - and people who may or may not be trustworthy.

The White Island is a place where people have unique gifts and personalities - beautiful and necessary offerings to share with all of the others living on the island. But Windchaser is only the beginning...giving a small glimpse and tantalizing readers with a small taste of this exotic, enchanting, and quite mysterious land. Be forewarned - Windchaser and Windfall (the second book in the "Phantom Island" series) ought to be read together, as they complement each other and share one continuous story.

While it's difficult to keep Windchaser and Windfall separate, Windchaser still has a lot to offer on its own, including raw emotion, an exciting pace, and a study on understanding. First impressions are not necessarily correct impressions, and joining others on a journey can go a long way in learning more about them.

Through all of the challenges, Whitnee and her friends learn just how difficult it can be to face the past, the future, and especially the present - and how important it is to seek the truth and truly live. If you enjoy meaningful, romantic, and enjoyable young adult/fantasy books, I highly recommend Windchaser!

*With special thanks to the author for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for my honest opinion.*(less)

1 like · like · see review

May 07, 2013 JennRenee rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: released-audible, series-to-start, yab-festival, challenge-2013-spring-read

Review:

This book has been on my TBR for a very long time and I finally made a spot for it right before the author comes to town. I was pleasantly pleased by this book. I was creative, original, and very enjoyable. I loved it from the beginning to the end, never a dull moment, and full of surprises. This was a story of magic and mystery.

Long Story Short:

Whitnee lost her father 6 years ago, he just disappeared and she still doesn't know if he is dead or living up somewhere without her and her mot...more

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May 07, 2013 Ashlea Daune rated it 4 of 5 stars

The story was one that was unusual but had a familiar feel of sci/fi fantasy with the alternate world aspect. I enjoyed the world building of the island that most of the story took place on. I think the author did a wonderful job of describing and making the island real. The magical powers that pertain to the Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water were fun to read about as well.
The writing style was fun but also kept well with the feel of the story. The book was very fast paced and I wasn’t able to put i...more

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Jan 09, 2013 F.J.R. Titchenell rated it 3 of 5 stars

I looked up Windchaser after reading Dallas’s great story, “Pink Snow,” from the Winter Wonders anthology. For the review sites where ratings are given in stars, I’d just like to say that if I could add an extra half star to the three, I would for this one. I was really on the fence rating-wise by the time I got to the end, but I felt three came closest to summing up the experience as a whole.

The basics: Whitnee, Morgan, and Caleb, three best friends and former campers from Camp Fusion, a summer...more I looked up Windchaser after reading Dallas’s great story, “Pink Snow,” from the Winter Wonders anthology. For the review sites where ratings are given in stars, I’d just like to say that if I could add an extra half star to the three, I would for this one. I was really on the fence rating-wise by the time I got to the end, but I felt three came closest to summing up the experience as a whole.

The basics: Whitnee, Morgan, and Caleb, three best friends and former campers from Camp Fusion, a summer program for troubled youth, return as counselors, hoping to offer the same help they once received. Camp Fusion has a reputation for emotional healing but also for mysterious disappearances, and while the three struggle to deal with the old and new issues the place brings to the surface, they accidentally teleport themselves, along with a couple of the campers under their supervision, to the magical Phantom Island. The islanders, including our heroes’ handsome emissary, Gabriel, are welcoming but cryptic, especially when Whitnee begins to develop the elemental superpowers usually exhibited only by the natives.

The downside: If Windchaser were on the screen instead of the page, it wouldn’t be a movie, it would be a long TV pilot episode. There’s absolutely none of the pretence first installments usually have of being potential standalones. Even as a clear introduction to a series, the pacing is odd. Phantom Island itself doesn’t appear until halfway through the book. Until then, the characters focus on their drama with each other, mostly Whitnee and Caleb’s will-they-or-won’t-they romance and Whitnee’s unresolved issues over her father’s disappearance, which sent her to Camp Fusion as a camper in the first place. Not much else happens. Once they do get to the island, almost all focus shifts to getting to know the fantasy world. The characters also all have a habit of discussing their feelings in blunt, matter-of-fact psychobabble, which makes some sense, to be fair, since they did all meet in a therapy camp, but still feels a little eerily detached at times.

The upside: While reading Windchaser is a little like eating a fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt without being allowed to stir it first, it’s still possible to tell that both the fruit and the yogurt, the fantasy and the character drama, are high quality, and where the two do meet, it’s special. In one scene in particular, the counselors discuss whether the secrets of the island might give reason to hope that Whitnee’s father is still alive, forgetting that one of the campers in the room has yet to accept the verifiable death of his own father. The collision of the fantasy intrigue with the very real-world portrayal of the grief process is heartbreaking. Also on the real-world side, Caleb is a vivid and lovable romantic interest, and pacing aside, his relationship with Whitnee is very believable. On the fantasy side, the island villages are beautifully described, and the Gabriel/Whitnee tension (particularly the moment when he helps her harness the element of Fire) is appropriately steamy.

For better and worse, Windchaser feels incomplete. The end comes right when the story’s really getting rolling, which is both frustrating and intriguing. As a sucker for a good triangle and a good low fantasy, this pilot, for all its problems, has drawn me in, making the sequel, Windfall, a definite to-read.

(This review and others originally posted on www.facebook.com/FJRTitchenell)(less)

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Krissi Dallas Thank you for the review and for taking the time to read the book! :) I'm glad you want to move on to Windfall because Windchaser and Windfall were al...more
Jan 10, 2013 07:53pm

F.J.R. Titchenell Krissi wrote: "Thank you for the review and for taking the time to read the book! :) I'm glad you want to move on to Windfall because Windchaser and W...more
Jan 11, 2013 08:17am

Mar 18, 2013 Yvonne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Really enjoyed reading this first book in a series. Had an opportunity to hear the author speak at Montgomery County Book Festival in Conroe, Texas. Ms Dallas is a wonderful voice in the YA Fantasy genre. She has three well developed characters in Whitnee, Morgan and Caleb who are mentors at a summer camp for troubled teens. Camp Fusion, a camp that helped them when they were younger and dealing with heartbreaking events in their young lives. Events lead Whitnee to be pulled into exploring a for...more

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Feb 15, 2013 Rachel rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I really wanted to love this book. I actually got to meet the author, Krissi Dallas, at a young adult literature festival my school was putting on. Her book sounded interesting, so I picked it up in the library a few weeks later.

Before I really get into it, let me say I'm a fan of the amazing book Storm, by Brigid Kemmerer, which is also about people with elemental powers. So I may have had unrealistic expectations, because that book is fantastic.

The book begins on the drive to Camp Fusion, wher...more

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Dec 08, 2011 Courtney (Fuzzy.Coffee.Books) rated it 5 of 5 stars

What I Liked: 1) The characters. The main characters of Whitnee, Morgan, and Caleb are all well-rounded and unique characters with fully explored histories. The first thing that strikes me about Miz Dallas's writing is how real her characters become. They don't just come into being when you open the first page, they are living, breathing people with histories, quirks, personalities, and lives. It doesn't take long to start to view them as your friends, rather than characters in a book. 2) Camp F...more What I Liked: 1) The characters. The main characters of Whitnee, Morgan, and Caleb are all well-rounded and unique characters with fully explored histories. The first thing that strikes me about Miz Dallas's writing is how real her characters become. They don't just come into being when you open the first page, they are living, breathing people with histories, quirks, personalities, and lives. It doesn't take long to start to view them as your friends, rather than characters in a book. 2) Camp Fusion. The story begins at Camp Fusion, a camp for adolescents who are struggling to deal with life-changing events with the help of their mentors. Whitnee, Morgan and Caleb met at the camp years before as campers and have now returned as mentors. The big sister in me is just raw when I read about the struggles the campers are dealing with, but at the same time I recognize the necessity of it all. A reminder that life isn't always roses, it certainly adds a level of reality to the story. 3) Humor. It's clear that Miz Dallas's sense of humor and mine are similar, because I lolled throughout the book. It's really a great mixture of the serious and the humorous. 4) The introduction of new characters. Towards the middle of the book, once you've gotten used to the relationships of Whitnee, Caleb, Morgan, Amelia, and Kevin, we're thrown another character who seems to throw everyone off balance for a while. More than a while, actually, everyone seems to be wary of him for the rest of the book. He has a mysterious quality about him that makes him very appealing to me. And Whitnee. Heh. Plus, he's a hot island boy. Who doesn't like that? 5) The Island. Referred to as Phantom Island, or the White Island. Bear with me, because I am going to have a hard time explaining what it is I like about this setting so much. My initial thought upon arriving there (a good, 150 pages into the book) is that it's like coming home. I don't live on an island, or any kind of tropical setting, but there is something about this place that Miz Dallas has created that is comforting and exciting all at the same time. There are different parts of the Island, and though we only get to explore one part of it (well, two, if you count the beach) in this book, I'm looking forward to more exploring in the rest of the series. In all honesty, if I could choose any setting from any book I've ever read, to live in, I'd want to live on the White Island. Or, I'd want to be from the White Island, and have their life source gifts. Which leads me into my next like...6) The tribes. On the Island, the people live in one of four tribes, the Aerodorians (Wind), the Geodorians (Earth), the Pyradorians (Fire) and the Hydrodorians (Water). There are many intricate details that go into these tribes, who they are, what they can do, etc. but I don't want to reveal anymore about them until you've read the book. I will tell you that I've taken Miz Dallas's test to see which tribe I belong to, and I'm a Pyra. The details really make the story great. 7) The balance between reality and fantasy. As an avid reader, I think I spend a great deal of my life balancing it somewhere between reality (work, bills, etc.) and fantasy (pretty much any book I read). Windchaser emulates that balance that I think a lot of people seek out in their lives.

What I Didn't Like: Nothing. Well, okay, this isn't really a dislike, more of a disclaimer. This book demands your focus. As I said, there are a lot of details, and a lot of things going on. One of Miz Dallas's many talents as an author is that she manages to keep things from spiraling out of control, but maintain a fastpaced story. Make sure that when you sit down to read it, you are committing to it. It's not a multi-tasking read.

Overall thoughts: Windchaser is one of my favorite books of the year. I'd live on the White Island if I could, and would definitely want to be friends with Whitnee and her companions. You know those books that you are sad when they're over? That's Windchaser for me. I didn't want to leave the Island, and I didn't want to leave my friends. Between the awesome setting and the oh-so-real characters, Windchaser is the perfect balance of reality and fantasy mixed together to form a creative and unique story that will delight many readers! Make sure you add it to your TBR list, and watch for my review of Phantom Island book 2, Windfall!

See this and other fun reviews at Fuzzy.Coffee.Books!(less)

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May 02, 2013 Kara rated it 5 of 5 stars

Whoa, what a great story/ride!! Love how the first part talks about three best friends who meet at Camp Fusion; Whitnee, Morgan and Caleb. They each have suffered a death in the family at a young age and were sent to Camp Fusion to deal with that grief, get counseling, get assigned to a mentor who is like a camp leader that listens and spends one-on-one time with them, and meet other campers who are experiencing the same or similar losses. Does this camp really exist (without the time travel par...more

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Nov 08, 2012 Jennifer Wardrip rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: trt-posted-reviews, trt-gold-star-award-winner

Reviewed by Marta Morrison for TeensReadToo.com

I just finished reading probably one of the best books that I have read in the last few years.

Whitnee's father mysteriously disappeared six years ago. Whitnee and her mother have missed him and refuse to think he is dead.

The first summer after he went missing, Whitnee went to a summer camp, Camp Fusion, where there were counselors who dealt with emotional problems. There she met Morgan and Caleb, who become her two best friends. Now they are back at...more

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May 07, 2009 Jaclyn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anybody

Since I teach 7th grade, I love to read YAF. Sometimes this gets very stale, but Phantom Island: Wind was definitely a breath of fresh air. The writing was well-thought out, the plot was full of twist & turns and the main character was complicated without being annoying.

Whitnee Terradora has had a life full of complication since the mysterious disappearance of her father over 6 years ago. She returns to Camp Fusion, a camp for troubled kids, only this time as a counselor instead of a camper...more

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Feb 14, 2013 Ericka rated it 5 of 5 stars

I was honestly surprised by how much I liked this book. Krissi is an amazing writer and I really do hope this book gets more discovered, it definitely deserves it. The story was good, entertaining, and well written. I seriously felt like these characters were real. They weren't just imagined and thrown together, like many other books' characters. Definitely worth getting. :)

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Jun 05, 2012 Melanie rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book will hook you from the first page. If you liked Harry Potter, Twilight, The Hunger Games, or any books in those genres, you will LOVE the Phantom Island series. Krissi Dallas is a masterful author, pulling you into a world of magic, mystery, and action.

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Jun 28, 2012 Krissy rated it 5 of 5 stars

The best series I have ever read. Krissi has a way to get you totally involved in the story. The characters and the plot will leave you wanting to go to the island.

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Jan 20, 2013 Amber rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: best-books, teens

Loved it. Defiantly a books that needs to get its name out there. Once that happens, people will be swarming left and right to grasp a copy for themselves. :D

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Jan 29, 2012 Cory Oakes rated it 5 of 5 stars

Oh. My God. Sign me up to live on the island!! I can't wait to see what happens next in this series! This is a fantastic fantasy adventure, written by a talented author with a firm handle on all aspects of teen-dom. A marvelous debut and the first of a series that is sure to impress.

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Oct 13, 2011 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: series, debut-authors

A fabulous read -- incredibly creative and fun. I'm a Hydrodorian (Water tribe) all the way, baby!

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May 05, 2013 Sharon Bayliss rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: texas, yab-fest-2013

This was a fun, breezy read that teenagers would definitely enjoy.

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Aug 16, 2011 Maeghan Bush rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved this book.
I can't wait to read the new, revised edition when Phantom Island makes it's commercial publishing debut later this year : )
So much excitement : )

1 like · like · see review

Nov 27, 2010 Samantha rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I absolutely loved it! Krissi Dallas came to our school to talk about the book. I am glad she did because I would have never read it. I so can not wait for Water!

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Oct 10, 2009 Carrie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone

I am definitely hooked I can't wait until the next book Phantom Island Water comes out.

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May 23, 2013 Hazel marked it as to-buy

Shelves: 2012-release, series, young-adult

May 22, 2013 Bailey Bunker added it · review of another edition

May 22, 2013 Crystal marked it as to-read

May 19, 2013 Danielle (Ladybug Literature) marked it as to-read

May 19, 2013 Aurora marked it as to-read

May 19, 2013 Pisinat marked it as to-read

Shelves: wanted

May 19, 2013 Ula marked it as to-read

May 17, 2013 Karen Arrowood added it · review of another edition

Shelves: own, signed

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About Krissi Dallas

Krissi Dallas is a gray-eyed Aerodorian who lives in Texas with her husband, Sam, and their two wicked Yorkies, Elphaba and Luna. Krissi loves adventure, especially when teaching her seventh and eighth grade Advanced English and Language Arts students. Just to ensure that life doesn't get boring, she travels around the world whenever time and money permit and she stays involved in as many teenage...more

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Windchaser (Phantom Island #1)

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