"Chasing Amanda" ~ Award Winning Suspense Novel

Published by:  Solstice Publishing

Available:  Amazon and other bookstores

Book Summary:

Nine years ago, Molly Tanner witnessed a young girl’s abduction in the busy city of Philadelphia, shifting her occasional clairvoyance into overdrive. Two days later, the girl’s body was found, and Molly’s life fell apart. Consumed by guilt for not acting upon her visions, and on the brink of losing her family, Molly escaped the torturous reminders in the city, fleeing to the safety of the close-knit rural community of Boyds, Maryland.

Molly’s life is back on track, her son has begun college, and she and her husband have finally rekindled their relationship. Their fresh start is shattered when a seven-year-old girl disappears from a local park near Molly’s home. Unable to turn her back on another child and troubled by memories of the past, Molly sets out to find her, jeopardizing the marriage she’d fought so hard to hold together. While unearthing clues and struggling to decipher her visions, Molly discovers another side of Boyds, where the residents--and the land itself--hold potentially lethal secrets, and exposes another side of her husband, one that threatens to tear them apart.

A Little Bit About the Author:

"Melissa Foster is a wonderful connector of readers and books, a friend of authors, and a tireless advocate for women. She is the real deal." Author Jennie Shortridge

 She is the founder of the Women’s Nest, a social and support community for women, and is currently collaborating in the film production of Megan’s Way. Melissa hosts an annual Aspiring Authors contest for children, she's written a column featured in Women Business Owners Magazine, and has painted and donated several murals to The Hospital for Sick Children in Washington, DC. Melissa is currently working on her next novel, and lives in Maryland with her family. Melissa's interests include her family, reading, writing, painting, friends, helping women see the positive side of life, and visiting Cape Cod.

The Dame Reviews :

Without cracking open a page, I knew "Chasing Amanda" was going to be a great book.  I had recently read Melissa Foster's "Megan's Way" and was so wrapped up in her writing style, that I knew she wouldn't disappoint.  She didn't, in fact, I found it difficult to decide which book I loved more!

"Chasing Amanda" is a book about regret, redemption, "gifts", the balancing of family and doing what's right, and so much more.  Melissa is a master storyteller who can lead us masterfully from the horrors of a child's abduction to the resolution of another's with the finesse of a writer whose work is far beyond her years.  She will have you drawn in like a lamb and have your emotions twisting inside of you before you know what's hit you!


Characterization is key in this novel and it is achieved to such a fine point that each person is "living" and breathing in our minds.  My favorite, of course, is Molly who has to live with seeing and not helping with a child's abduction.  Molly's paranormal gift of "seeing and knowing" help her in her journey to understand many things, but it also makes some things in life more complex.  As we are drawn into the complexities, and we're given different perspectives through the stories of different people that Melissa sets up, we struggle to sort out who the real villain is! 


Ms Foster's ability to keep the ending a secret from the reader is a lot of the powerfulness of her novel.  The suspense will kill you!  In a good way...  One of the fascinating elements of the novel is Molly's relationship to the small town she finds herself in.  We can understand this small town mentality...the secretive ways that so many townspeople hold dear...and the barriers to newcomers they put up.  To live with the resistance of these people lends a tension to the story that works.


Melissa is at the top of her game in writing this suspense thriller.  It's great fun to read, engrossing and exciting with many characters that will grab you and claim your attention.  The element of not knowing who the "bad guy" is until Molly finds out in the end, is wonderful because it keeps us working on the mystery.


There are lots of women mystery/suspense writers, not so many with the element of paranormal...and not so many who come close to writing as well as Melissa Foster.  "Chasing Amanda" has already won several awards for best women's novel, suspense/thriller, paranormal. You better check it out, soon!


5 stars for a great book and an author with a great future!


Deborah/TheBookishDame


*I received a complimentary copy of this book for a review, without monetary compensation.  My opinions are my honest ones and my own.

"Megan's Way" A Novel of Love, Choices on Dying and Life After Death by Melissa Foster

See all the information on Melissa's Giveaway and Summer Blog Tour on her website at:
http://www.melissafoster.com

 

Book Notes: 

"Megan's Way is a fine and fascinating read that many will find hope in." Midwest Book Review

The Megan's Way film will be entered in the Sundance Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, South By Southwest Festival (SXSW In Austin Texas), Amsterdam Film Festival, as well as New York, LA , and Miami (just to name a few). This is a "Fest-Best" type of film and expected to make a major impact on festivals world wide.

My Review:

I first want to share with my readers the personal perspective I bring to this review of "Megan's Way."  Some 29 years ago I was widowed as a young woman with three children under the ages of 9. My precious young husband died of melanoma that had metastasized to major organs: we had several months to prepare for his death.  This came after the original cancer of 11 years in the first year of our marriage.  So, I'm someone well acquainted with cancer's toll on a person and those who love them.  I read this book with that intimate awareness.

Melissa Foster has written a true-to-life rendering of the process of dying.  From the earliest stages of the person's acknowledgement of impending death, to their release of loved ones, their body and spirit; to the angst and responses of those who live with and love them, Ms Foster paints a portrait of the struggles and survivals.  She understands the pain of those left behind and the awareness of those who have to do the leaving.

Through her very beautiful and tender portrayals, we come to know Megan and her intimate friends as if they were family.  We get a clear and close up understanding of Megan's loving and tumultuous relationship with her teen aged daughter, Olivia.  And, we are given unique insights into Megan's personality, thoughts, fears and death and dying processes from her own perspective, as well as from the perspectives of her friends and daughter.  Ms Foster is spot on in her every detail of this experience with death, in my experience.

I found Melissa's writing, however, to be somewhat stilted in her efforts to get across all the points of the process, and then the major theme of the choices we have about our own death and dying.  There is something lost in the flow of a story as the book progresses when it starts to be overtaken by a series of details on these numerous processes and points of dying, rather than having it more balanced within a storyline.  This, however, does not take very much from the book or enjoyment of it in total, since I think it's worthy on many other levels.

While Megan considers her options of ceasing any other chemo or "prolonging" measures, and as she also contemplates the virtues of taking into her own hands the method and timing of her death, we are allowed to witness her conflicts.  This option to choose is one that many come face-to-face with.  Ms Foster gives us a balanced and open view of a woman who looks boldly into the face of death, weighs her options and takes into loving consideration the daughter she will leave behind.

The complexity of "Megan's Way" made this novel one that I loved reading. Certainly, it rang true to me in so many ways.  It also touched my heart with its attempts to bring readers into a center of meaning and choices that will be an evitability in most of our lives.

The intertwined tale of friends and surrogate family lends itself to be a realistic possibility in light of the "secrets" that people tend to hold close in relationships.  While one is living, the secret is easily kept and the "family" can pretend to overlook and rationalize...but once a foundational/pivotal person is going to be removed--the structure that holds it all together is jeopardized and must be delicately "readjusted."  This is an element I'm also familiar with, personally, and one I thought Ms Foster handled elegantly.

I recommend your choosing to read "Megan's Way" before it's made into the movie for the Sundance Film Festival. It's going to have a great impact!  And, it's a very enjoyable read on the order of a Jodi Picoult novel.

Strongly urge you to read more about Melissa Foster and her outreach programs, her newest book "Chasing Amy," and other books, and her social community for women called "The Women's Nest."   http://www.melissafoster.com/

4.5 stars from TheBookishDame