CAITLIN’S SONG (Carson Chronicles) by John A Heldt-a review

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About the book: Release Date May 2, 2019

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.

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REVIEW: CAITLIN’S SONG is the fourth instalment in John A Heldt’s adult, historical, time-travel series focusing on the Carson siblings-Adam, Natalie, Greg, Cody and Caitlin. CAITLIN’S SONG can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty although I recommend reading the series in order for backstory and cohesion.

SOME BACKGROUND: The Carson Chronicles focuses on the Carson siblings, a family of time travellers, as they search for their missing parents Tim and Caroline Carson. Months earlier, the siblings discovered their parents had disappeared but an itinerary of places and timelines found the family on a journey of their own. Starting in 2017, the siblings travelled back in time to 1889, 1918, the tumultuous era of 1943-44, and presently in 1962 where the Cuban Missile Crisis is about to unfold.

Told from several third person perspectives CAITLIN’S SONG follows the Carson siblings to 1962, an unplanned time jump from 1942 that follows in the wake of potential disaster and a near death experience, but a time jump that brings the siblings up close and personal with family members they met in the past. Struggling to settle into life in 1962, Cody and Caitlin would enrol in college, where Caitlin will fall in love with a young man who is willing to give up everything he knows to experience life in the future; while Greg and his wife Patricia anticipate a new addition to the Carson brood.

Meanwhile Tim and Caroline Carson jump to 1972 where life as they know is about to unravel. Hoping to change history, our couple jumps back to 1941 in an effort to prevent disaster from destroying their family, and the people they love.

CAITLIN’S SONG is a complex, clever and engaging story of fictionalized history wherein the Carson family re-examines and experiences life they could have never imagined. John A Heldt journeys into the past as the close-knit Carson family battles between the present and a time not so long ago; the future and the unknown. Whispered secrets threaten the outcome of the Cuban Missile Crisis, as one family must consider whether to go back to the future, or travel in time to the past. CAITLIN’S SONG begins slowly as the sibling settle into 1962 but picks up steam as their lives begin to merge with a time period that threatened the peace and harmony of a struggling world.

Reading Order and Previous Reviews
River Rising
The Memory Tree
Indian Paintbrush
Caitlin’s Song

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

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 I’m a married father of two grown daughters and a son and, as of August 15, the grandfather of a delightful little girl named Stella. Before turning to novel writing in 2011, I worked as a sports writer and editor for several newspapers in Oregon and Washington, where I was born and raised, and several more years as a reference librarian in Montana. I love traveling around the western United States, watching sports, cooking, and experiencing the great outdoors. I currently make my home in the Las Vegas, Nevada, area.