This review is longer than most I write, and I make no apologies for that.
Although it is a review for Camp Lake, the final in the Carson Chronicles series by John A Heldt, for a large part I’d like to focus on the series.
In the first book of the series, River Rising, Adam Carson, the eldest of five siblings discovers his parents are time travellers lost in the past. He also discovers information that will help him and his family to travel back to the 1880s to rescue their parents. His brothers and sisters have no hesitation in agreeing to join him.
The following four books The Memory Tree, Indian Paintbrush, Caitlin’s Song and Camp Lake chronicle their attempts, over two years and five time periods, to meet up with their parents.
Each book is consistently entertaining and demonstrate Heldt’s ability for detailed research and realistic characters.
The main characters in the series are the Carson family (Adam, Greg, Natalie, Caitlin and Cody as well as their parents Tim and Caroline.
All characters are well developed. Although the experiences throughout their journey have changed them, they remain likeable and are portrayed consistently throughout the series. They have become like an extension of the reader’s own family.
Since starting their journey, Adam, Greg, Natalie and Caitlin have partners from other times. Adam and Greg have also both become fathers.
The family members experience love and heartbreak; accidents, disasters and battles yet never lose hope. They are a family united and supportive.
Heldt’s skilful and consistent style makes you part of every emotion – sadness, humorous moments, love, and heartbreak. You celebrate their victories fighting alongside in their battles.
While the author includes ‘catch up paragraphs’ in each book, I believe the reader will enjoy the series more if read in order. In each book the chapters are written from a different character’s point of view.
Now for Camp Lake. John A Heldt’s stories just keep getting better. In this, the fifth and final book in the series, the siblings have arrived in 1983. It’s also the year their parents, Tim and Caroline, first met and their last chance to make contact and so all can return to the present time.
Adam and Greg, and their wives, remain in the Arizona home base, Natalie and her husband explore leads in other locations.
Cody and Caitlin, and her boyfriend from 1962, Dennis get jobs as counsellors at the “Camp Lake” summer camp in Maine. They are surprised when they get put with their teenage parents to share a cabin. Will the situation change the timeline? What happens if this time they don’t fall in love? There are some worrying and some amusing times in camp.
Following all their efforts to reunite will they finally succeed? It’s been and emotional ride with a family I came to know and love.
Although I am glad their journey has come to an end I will miss sharing their adventures, romantic moments and urging them on when in danger. I was happy with the way the book ended but it came all too soon. That’s my fault because I couldn’t read slower or put the book down.
My rating 5*
Precis
Phoenix, Spring 1983. For the Carsons, five siblings from the present day, it has come down to this. Find the parents they have chased through time for more than two years or go home and resume their lives without them.
While Adam and Greg remain in Arizona and Natalie searches the country for leads, Cody and Caitlin travel to a summer camp in Maine, where their mother and father met as counsellors. The twins, now 19, hope to intercept the older versions of their parents even as they work beside the younger ones.
All of the Carsons prepare for a reunion that seems inevitable. Then tragedy strikes one family member and seductive strangers pull two others in unhelpful directions as a summer of promise turns into one of uncertainty and sacrifice.
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Birds and Angels is a short story based on the story Chasing Blue Sky featuring pit bull puppy Toby. (see my review https://pambookreviews.blogspot.com/2018/12/chasing-blue-sky-by-will-lowrey.html)
