The Piper’s Pursuit

By Melanie Dickerson, Pub Date 12/3/2019

3 Stars. Best enjoyed when you want a light fairy tale with a chaste romance.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson Publishing and Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Piper’s Pursuit takes place in Hamlin in 1424. The city has been overtaken by rats and a beast stalks the forest outside the city gates, snatching children who wander too far from their parents. Katerina, the step daughter of the less than honorable Bürgermeister, will do anything to save her city. When the Duke’s son, Stefan, strolls into the city, Katerina is less than impressed. However, a partnership quickly forms between the two as sinister plots and plans begin to reveal themselves. It will take all their cunning and faith to save Hamlin and its people from the hands of evil that have enclosed themselves around them.

I enjoy Dickerson’s writings for a multitude of reasons. They almost always contain fairy tale element, and I’m a sucker for retellings, and the heroines are often dealing with some trauma or abuse that has happened in their life, and I love to see survivors rise. The Piper’s Pursuit contains all of this and more. There is personal sacrifice, atonement, a heartwarming romance, and young woman who would do anything to save her town from the beasts that have threatened it, regardless of who they may be.

K

Katerina and Stefan were both battling their own demons throughout the book. Some were ghosts of the past, a fight for redemption, while yet others were clear and present. I love these kinds of stories, where one must overcome something to gain something more, and learn to forgive in order to rise from the chains of the past. All of the characters were well fleshed out, and the setting felt very real, although I would have enjoyed a more in depth description of the town itself.

The twists and turns were often predictable, but it really didn’t even matter. The ride was still amazing and fun and you just 100% want things to turn out okay for the main characters. I was so there for it.