Review by Melissa: Kaitlin's Tale

Kaitlin's Tale by Christine Amsden
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Release Date: May 16th, 2016 (ebook), July 15th, 2016



Book Description:

Kaitlin Mayer is on the run from the father of her baby – a
vampire who wants her to join him in deadly eternity. Terrified for her young son, she seeks sanctuary with the Hunters Guild.

Yet they have their own plans for her son, and her hopes of
safety are soon shattered.

When she runs into Matthew Blair, an old nemesis with an
agenda of his own, she dares to hope for a new escape. But
Matthew is a telepath, and Kaitlin's past is full of dark secrets

she never intended to reveal.

*Companion to the Cassie Scot Series

♥ ♥ ♥

I'm really excited that Christine Amsden is traveling outside of her original Cassie Scot stories in favor of shedding some more light on characters who were previously only in the background. It's interesting to see the same conflicts and events going on through different perspectives, and Amsden is great at making sure everything weaves together nicely.

"Kaitlin's Tale" is actually Amsden's second time branching off from her original series. I had read the previous book, "Madison's Song", and enjoyed it, so i knew that "Kaitlin's Tale" was also going to be enjoyable for me. And thankfully I was correct. Like Amsden's other books, I found this one hard to put down and read the whole thing in one weekend.

Like other books by Amsden, this one was told through multiple points of view. Not every author can pull off this technique, but Amsden does a great job of characterization so each POV has his or her own voice. Each character was different- whether it was their speech, actions, motivations, or thoughts themselves, and that went a long way to making this format a success.

Even though it's Kaitlin's story (or "Tale", as one might say), it took me a fair while to connect with her character. At the beginning she just seemed like this woman who was in a bad situation of her own making, but didn't do anything to take charge and fix things. However, as the story went on, Kaitlin grew as a character (as any well written protagonist should), and it wasn't long before i was totally on her side.

Although she's branched out from her Cassie stories, Amsden still writes within that same world. Issues that were brought up in other books are still playing out, and I like being able to see everything from a different character's perspective. In Cassie's story, and underground magical unification movement was introduced, and we get even further into it through Kaitlin. There's also references to "Madison's Song" and some of the actions and outcomes that happened there.

While I may like some more than others, there has not been a book by Amsden that I haven't enjoyed and "Kaitlin's Tale" is no exception. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in delving into the world of witches, mind mages, vampires, werewolves, and vampire hunters.

♥ ♥ ♥

Author Bio:

Christine Amsden has been writing fantasy and science fiction for as long as she can remember. She loves to write and it is her dream that others will be inspired by this love and by her stories. Speculative fiction is fun, magical, and imaginative but great speculative fiction is about real people defining themselves through extraordinary situations. Christine writes primarily about people and relationships, and it is in this way that she strives to make science fiction and fantasy meaningful for everyone.

At the age of 16, Christine was diagnosed with Stargardt’s Disease, which scars the retina and causes a loss of central vision. She is now legally blind, but has not let this slow her down or get in the way of her dreams.

Christine currently lives in the Kansas City area with her husband, Austin, who has been her biggest fan and the key to her success. In addition to being a writer, she's a freelance editor, mom, and foster mom.

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