Caitlin’s Song by John A Heldt

I was delighted to receive an email from author John Heldt asking me if I would like to review his latest book Caitlin’s Song. This is the fourth title in The Carson Chronicles series, which is a series  that I just can’t get enough of. I’ve really enjoyed the previous three titles and you may see my reviews of those here.
River Rising
The Memory Tree
Indian Paintbrush

To find out more about the author you may visit his website.

Here is the book blurb.

Love, courage, and commitment take center stage as the Carsons, a family of time travelers, continue their saga in the great American West.

For the Carson children, ages 19 to 29, an unplanned stop in 1962 is a chance to grow. Adam, Greg, and Natalie begin lives with new spouses in Boulder, Colorado, while twins Cody and Caitlin get their first taste of college. All plan to resume the search for their missing parents as soon as they can.

For Tim and Caroline Carson, a planned stop in the rendezvous year of 1972 is a nightmare. While reading about their children’s lives in 1962, they learn that one has crossed paths with a killer. Faced with limited options, they race back to the past to reroute history and prevent a series of murders.

In CAITLIN’S SONG, the fourth novel in the Carson Chronicles series, members of a modern family find romance, adventure, and terror as they seek answers and each other in four memorable eras of American history.

To put you in the picture, the time-travelling Carson family have been unsuccessfully trying to reunite with their parents Tim and Caroline in the previous books in 1889, 1918 and 1943. But they have picked up a few significant others en-route from different eras, who are adjusting remarkably well.

But due to a car chase under gunfire at the end of Indian Paintbrush, they entered the portal six hours early and have now ended up in 1962 instead of their planned destination of 1972. They know that they have no chance of finding their parents in 1962, so instead of doing a scattered search like in earlier books, they travel to Boulder, Colorado to settle for a 6 month stay until the winter solstice with Nick’s relatives.

Twins Caitlin and Cody enrol at the college in Boulder, where they both have a ball of a time with new friends and dating, helping Caitlin to come to terms with her bereavement back in 1943. Although why does the Cuban missile crisis not pan out like they all know from history. Has the timeline wobbled? And if so, why?

Meanwhile Tim and Caroline are searching the records and have spotted a news snippet on the car chase and worked out that their children have ended up in 1962 although they have no idea whereabouts. They hire a researcher to do a nationwide search and as they browse the results, first delighting in the news of Natalie’s marriage and Greg’s baby, but then shock, horror at the dreadful news article from December 1962 of a murder in Boulder.

Tim and Caroline’s new plans to hop to 1962 themselves are thwarted by loss of documents. Instead they travel back at the September solstice to 1941, where they hope to prevent a murderer being conceived. Will they be successful? How will things pan out?

Another fantastic story in this great series, which had me on the edge of my seat at times. I just couldn’t put it down. I’m always amazed by the level of detail that John manages to weave into these stories. He is painstaking in his research.

Caitlin’s Song is available on Amazon, currently priced at £3.01 in Kindle format. I was also pleased to see that all four titles are now available in paperback too, as that makes them accessible to a wider audience. Although I love it as part of a series, it also works well as a stand-alone read. I highly recommend this book and can’t wait for the next instalment to be published.

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.