Indian Paintbrush by John A Heldt

When you’re really enjoying a book series and eagerly awaiting the next title to be written, it is always a delight to discover that the new book is ready. One series that this applies to for me, is The Carson Chronicles by John Heldt. So I was very happy when John emailed me to say that the next story Indian Paintbrush had been published and would I like to review it. Of course I said yes please. To find out more about the author you may visit his website.

Here is the book blurb.

Arizona, December 1943. After surviving perilous six-month journeys to 1889 and 1918, the Carsons, five siblings from the present day, seek a respite in their home state. While Adam and Greg settle down with their Progressive Era brides, Natalie and Caitlin start romances with wartime aviators and Cody befriends a Japanese family in an internment camp. The time travelers regroup, bury some ghosts, and continue their search for their missing parents. Then old problems return, new ones emerge, and a peaceful hiatus becomes a race for survival. In INDIAN PAINTBRUSH, the sequel to RIVER RISING and THE MEMORY TREE, several young adults find love and adventure as they navigate the home front during the height of World War II.

Indian Paintbrush is the third book in the series – The Carson Chronicles. You may see my reviews of the first two titles River Rising and The Memory Tree here and here. Both fantastic books so I had high expectations for this one too.

The story begins as the time-travelling Carson family step through a portal in Arizona in 1918 on the December solstice. These portals only open on the solstices and they had to get their timing correct to the minute to end up at the planned December 1943 in the same location destination. Get it wrong and they might emerge through a different portal like the one in Pennsylvania or even worse on a different date.

They are trying to reunite with their missing time-travelling parents, Tim and Caroline and then return safely back to modern day. Tim and Caroline left behind a travel itinerary which features December 1943 as the third destination. Can they get lucky this time, having failed to find them in 1889 and 1918 in the previous two books?

Equally Tim and Caroline know from clues that their family are on their trail but luck hasn’t been on their side previously. And things seem to get off to a shaky start this time when Tim and Caroline end up at September 1943 instead of December, on a different timeline. Oops. Can they travel again to March 1944 to get onto the correct timeline?

Meanwhile can their sons avoid being drafted into the army during WW2 and will there be repercussions from events back in 1889 and 1918? We meet up with characters who have aged 25 years since the last book whilst the Carsons are only a year older since the series began. Although they have gained two brides along the way. And in this book, their numbers are swelled by a new baby. Of course, there are more romantic relationships forged for those still single. How will those pan out?

Once again John has delivered a brilliant story in this series, which also works well as a stand-alone read. He continues to weave fact into the tales, having researched his subject matter excellently, even throwing a few celebrities into the mix. And the title is integral to the story too. For those of us like me from the UK who haven’t heard of an Indian Paintbrush, it is a flower native to America.

Indian Paintbrush is available on Amazon, currently priced at £3.85 in Kindle format. I loved this book and of course, it had some fantastic twists. A brilliant read which once again lived up to my high expectations of a John Heldt novel, And as always, I highly recommend this author. Once again I have to begin another long wait, this time for book 4 in this series.

And you may be interested to see my reviews of some of John Heldt’s other titles.
The Mine
Indiana Belle
Hannah’s Moon

Visit Yet Another Blogging Mummy on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Disclosure.  This post is a review of an e-book I was sent for free.  All opinions are my own.