Camp Lake by John A. Heldt

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from the Author. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Camp Lake

by John A. Heldt

Series: Carson Chronicles #5
Series Rating:
on September 30, 2019
Pages: 524
Format: Kindle
Goodreads
BookBub
Get Your Copy at: Amazon
Also in this series: River Rising , The Memory Tree, Indian Paintbrush , Caitlin's Song

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 counselors. 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.
Filled with humor, romance, and heartbreak, CAMP LAKE, the poignant conclusion of the Carson Chronicles series, follows the lives of several spirited adults as they confront choices and change the era of big hair, space shuttles, and video arcades.

Camp Lake by John A. Heldt is the end of my first completed series of Mr. Heldts. We follow the Carson siblings in the final stretch of their time traveling tour to find their parents.

Will Adam, Greg, Natalie, Cody, and Caitlin Carson, with their significant others, find Tim and Caroline Carson?

Adam and Bridget

Adam is the oldest of the Carson clan and one that isn’t all that active in this book. He is holding down the fort with his wife, Bridget, their daughter in Phoenix, Arizona. Adam and Bridget are doing well with the time-traveling even with a fussy infant.

Greg and Patricia

Greg is the second oldest of the Carson clan, and another on that really isn’t active in this book either. Instead of jet setting across the world, Greg is in Phoenix with Adam and his family, helping his wife with their son and niece. He is taking the husband and fatherly duties well, and he cares for his family.

Natalie and Nick

Natalie, the third oldest and first daughter of the Carson clan, is more involved in this book. Nick and Natalie are the ones taking their honeymoon first to visit Colorado to see if Nick’s relatives left anything and then off to find Natalie’s parents wherever they may be. They found out so much throughout the book and kind of helped the family get back together faster. Or at least they tried. Natalie is starting to become a great wife already in the few short chapters that we have, with her being the focal point.

Caitlin and Dennis

Caitlin and Dennis, the young couple that started their romance in 1962, are continuing it in 1983 and beyond. These two are so adorable when they are together. Dennis being the musician and wanting to do everything in his power to make their summer together happen. Caitlin into doing more than what she bargained on doing. The young couple did a lot and are having fun making memories and just being together.

Cody

Now Cody. The black sheep of the family who couldn’t bring any of his three love interests with him to the future since Emma. Cody, just like Caitlin and Dennis, are camp counselors and ended up fixing how their parents met after a little mishap. Along with their summer romance that continued into the next school year. Cody, like before, falls for a girl but is having a harder time letting this one go. I won’t tell you if it sticks this time.

Five Stars

The Carson family adventure in 1983 is the conclusion that everyone following them must-read.

Camp Lake by John A. Heldt is a fantastic book that is hilarious, charming, and sad to read at certain parts. The final book of the Carson Chronicles had some lofty expectations to fill for me, and it met every one of them. The Carson Chronicles is the third series I started of Mr. Heldts but the first that I completed. I am rating it five stars and recommend it to everyone. Mr. Heldt has a marvelous way of weaving the past, present, and future, combined with how the Carsons time traveled in this series is spectacular.

Be on the lookout for Mr. Heldt’s new series coming sometime around April; the first book is called The Lane Betrayal.

Other Books in the Series

River Rising

by John A. Heldt
Series: Carson Chronicles #1
Published by Amazon on September 20, 2017
Genres: Time Travel, Romance, Historical
Pages: 661
Format: Kindle
Buy on Amazon
My Review

Weeks after his parents disappear on a hike, Arizona engineer Adam Carson, 27, searches for answers. Then he discovers a secret web site and learns that his mother and father are time travelers stuck in the past. Armed with the information he needs to find them, Adam convinces his younger siblings to join him on a rescue mission to the 1880s.

While Greg, the adventurous middle brother, follows leads in the Wild West, Adam, journalist Natalie, and high school seniors Cody and Caitlin do the same in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Like the residents of the bustling steel community, all are unaware of a flood that will destroy the city on May 31, 1889.

In RIVER RISING, the first novel in the five-book Carson Chronicles series, five young adults find love, danger, and adventure as they experience America in the age of bustle dresses, gunslingers, and robber barons.

The Memory Tree

by John A. Heldt
Series: Carson Chronicles #2
Published by Amazon on April 30, 2018
Genres: Time Travel, Romance, Historical
Pages: 659
Format: Kindle
Buy on Amazon
My Review

Days after barely escaping 1889 with their lives, the Carsons, siblings from the present day, resume their search for their missing parents in 1918. While Adam and his pregnant wife, Bridget, settle in Minnesota, unaware of a wildfire that will kill hundreds, Greg seeks clues in his great-grandparents’ Mexico, where he finds love, danger, and enemies. At the same time, Natalie, the ambitious journalist, follows a trail to World War I France, and teen twins Cody and Caitlin rekindle a friendship with an old Pennsylvania friend haunted by her past. In THE MEMORY TREE, the sweeping sequel to RIVER RISING, several time travelers find answers and meaning as they continue the adventure of a lifetime in the age of doughboys, silent movies, and Model T’s.

Indian Paintbrush

by John A. Heldt
Series: Carson Chronicles #3
Published by Amazon on November 26, 2018
Genres: Time Travel, Romance, Historical
Pages: 659
Format: Kindle
Buy on Amazon
My Review

Arizona, December 1943. After surviving perilous six-month journeys to 1889 and 1918, the Carsons, five siblings from the present day, seek a respite in their home state. While Adam and Greg settle down with their Progressive Era brides, Natalie and Caitlin start romances with wartime aviators and Cody befriends a Japanese family in an internment camp. The time travelers regroup, bury some ghosts, and continue their search for their missing parents. Then old problems return, new ones emerge, and a peaceful hiatus becomes a race for survival. In INDIAN PAINTBRUSH, the sequel to RIVER RISING and THE MEMORY TREE, several young adults find love and adventure as they navigate the home front during the height of World War II.

Caitlin’s Song

by John A. Heldt
Series: Carson Chronicles #4
Published by Amazon on May 2, 2019
Genres: Time Travel, Romance, Historical
Pages: 530
Format: Kindle
Buy on Amazon
  My Review

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.

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Camp Lake by John A. Heldt. I will miss the Carson family.

Until the next time,

Happy Reading!

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• 2020 Goodreads Reading Challenge

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