This was such an interesting read! I personally never read the original story of the Pied Piper -- I only know a little bit about it and definitely plan to read it after having read this amazingly written re-imagining. Melanie Dickerson is such an awesome writer. The way she weaves in the word of God in her books is simply amazing.

This story follows Katerina in Hamlin during the time that they are suffering from three horrifying things: 1) an outbreak of rats, 2) a mysterious beasts that attacks the people and 3) missing children. Katerina is not your typical "princess" as she is headstrong, hunts and fights back against evil. She does not bite her tongue for anyone. I love how much she cared for the people in her town. She was a very prideful character and cut off all men. She seemed very mean at first, but as the story went on and her story was revealed things began to make sense. I enjoyed her snarky remarks as well. She was amazing -- almost as "loud" as Mulan.

Steffan is also featured in the this story. He's the brother of Wolfgang from The Warrior Maiden. I didn't care for him much in that book, but this book is definitely his redemption. I adored him in this book. He is a very sweet guy that protects those he loves. He doesn't let women and children fend for themselves, he helps them whenever and however he can. He doesn't flaunt his power and authority, but he can be stuck up about his looks. Seeing more of his heart in this book made me really come to like him. That reunion with his parents towards the end was amazing.

The romance was everything! Slow-burn, angst and comical. You could see they were both attracted to one another immediately but it was more of Steffan chasing Katerina and her pushing him away. I adored their banter with one another. I enjoyed seeing them work together. They were the cutest thing ever...my second fav couple after Wolfgang and Mulan.

I could not stand the Hennek -- he annoyed me. He was an evil twisted man that treated those beneath him like trash. He was a horrible mayor, despicable man as a father and husband. He was simple pure evil. So concerned with money and wealth and not the hearts of the people. His idea of godly was so wrong. As for Hans, I was disappointed and hurt by his mindset and actions towards the end of the story. What he did was completely unforgivable, but he got what he deserved!

The whole outbreak with the rats was connected to the missing children. The whole beast situation shocked me when things are revealed about the beast and the "owner" -- I was just shocked the whole story and cracked up a lot from the silliness of Steffan and Katerina.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and can't wait for the next installment to this series.

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for the ARC!

I have to admit, I've never read any of the other books from the Hagenheim series. That being said, with The Piper's Pursuit the author makes it easy for new readers to jump in.

Despite me not knowing this was Christian fiction, I still found myself enjoying it despite being a bit wary towards religious fiction in general. The Piper's Pursuit is a loose retelling of the Pied Piper, a retelling I didn't know I wanted until I started this novel.

The two main characters, Katerina and Steffan, go through a lot of character development, and I felt that each thing that made them 'broken' were believable. I have a pet peeve when a character seems troubled or has something deep going on- but for the silliest of reasons! This was not the case. Katerina and Steffan hurt in ways that were so very human.

Anyway, the ending was very satisfying and all in all I really appreciate the women power vibe that comes from Melanie Dickerson's work. After reading The Piper's Pursuit I am more than inclined to check out the rest of Hagenheim.

***This will not be getting full marks due to the fact that It is Christian Fiction, which I was not made aware of when I requested this title***

3.8/5

The Piper’s Pursuit follows along the rest of Melanie Dickerson’s fairy tale retellings. It’s predictable, straightforward, and a little cheesy. But there are merits to the story and characters that some readers can benefit from.

Like The Warrior Maiden, The Piper’s Pursuit has a little bit more action than the previous books in the Hangheim series. Katerina is a hunter and Steffan a soldier, so the two of them head into the woods to find and fight the Beast of Hamlin. There is also a fair bit of running, hiding, escaping, and fighting in the latter half of the book as the danger unravels. This higher tension gives the story a little more edge than some of the previous books.

While the books are set during a time when women didn’t have a lot of rights or options, Melanie Dickerson always makes her female characters independent and strong. Katerina is no exception. She is determined to do whatever it takes to help her town, no matter what the men around her say or do. She doesn’t give into their desires but fights hard to protect herself and her mother against her abusive step-father.

Steffan’s story, however, is just as moving as Katerina’s. Drowning in guilt from his past as a soldier, Steffan is like the prodigal son and when he returns home, he learns the power of forgiveness. This is a Christian book so the forgiveness aspect ties in with God’s forgiveness. The character lean heavily on their faith throughout the book, but I never felt it was overwhelming or unrealistic.

The Piper’s Pursuit is supposed to be a retelling of the Pied Piper and while some aspects (missing children, piper, rats) were present in the story, I didn’t think it was that focused to be a retelling. It was more along the lines of a story inspired by the Pied Piper.

As always, I recommend Melanie Dickerson’s books for a younger audience itching to read YA books or anybody who wants a straightforward historical romance with a dash of fairy tale aesthetics and a PG rating.

This should come as no surprise - as Melanie Dickerson is one of my favorite authors and I have loved this entire series - I also loved this story and it is a nice addition to this fairy-tale retellings series. This one is a retelling of the Pied Piper's story - one that often gets overlooks by the more popular tales. This has everything that one looks for in a great story (fairytale retelling or not) - adventure, a dash of romance, and plenty of action with a few twists throw in.

Katerina Ludken doesn’t trust men. Living with an overbearing stepfather who frightens and manipulates her mother has taught her to mistrust men. Especially haughty and arrogant men. When a stranger rides into town and asks to see the mayor Katerina judges the young man in an instant—just another man like her stepfather. When the young man tries to flirt a little, Katerina knows she can’t trust him. Nor does she have time for silly flirtatioGerstenbergns.

Katerina’s beloved town of Hamlin has a mysterious rat invasion, a beast lurks outside the city gates, and more than 40 children have disappeared in the past year. She has mysteries to solve and a mother to protect. She has no time for idle flirtations.

Steffan Gerstenberg of Hagenheim has spent the past year repenting of his follies. Broke and not wanting to return home until he has performed a heroic deed, he ends up in the town of Hamlin. When he hears of a reward for killing the mysterious beast roaming in the forest outside the city, he thinks he has found his quest.

The jovial mayor offers his room and board while he hunts the beast. Steffan hopes to return home to his parents with good news attached to his name. Although he failed his quest to become a knight, he can still comport himself with chivalry.

What he sees and hears at the mayor’s house convinces him the situation will prove worthy of his time and skills. And the longer he stays, the more convinced he becomes that the mayor’s stepdaughter needs a knight at her side.

Dickerson once again peoples her pages with a strong female protagonist who proves that femininity doesn’t exclude strength—of person or character. Teenage girls will cheer for Katerina as she struggles to help her mother and outwit her domineering stepfather.
Teenage boys will also enjoy this book. Steffan provides a perfect role model for young men as he learns the difference between knighthood (the title) and true chivalry.

I love the way Melanie puts her spin on fairy tales and she has done another wonderful job with The Piper’s Pursuit! It was an interesting storyline about a town that has been plagued with problems. There is a mysterious beast attacking people, an abundance of rats have overtaken the streets, and children keep disappearing. It is up to Kat and Stefan to take care of all three problems. Kat and Stefan made a wonderful team and had great chemistry. I love that Kat wasn’t just a hopeless damsel in distress but was tough with a determined personality. Overall a very enjoyable read!

Melanie Dickerson has once again transported us away to a magical realm in The Piper’s Pursuit! In the Piper’s Pursuit, we meet Katerina and the people of Hamlin as both Katerina and Steffan battle their pasts and hopefully learn to trust and love again.
Melanie Dickerson weaves the tale flawlessly, interconnecting the past books with this present one with ease. While it may be a bit too intense for younger kids in scenes, this book is written for a young adult level of maturity, and I feel it does not overstep the bounds. I am mid-30’s and love this series!
If you like fairy tale retellings, this one is superb. God and Christian values are woven into this in a way that helps the reader apply scriptural truths to situations in a way that is not too preachy.
I received an advanced digital copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley. All opinions are my own, and I was not required to give a review.

Technically I would give this 4 1/2. The only reason for that is the beginning took me some time to get to. The main characters were interesting and very real. They had problems that we all struggled with in some form. The author brought in Gods forgiveness in such a way that it touched my heart and my spirit. This is only the second book that I have read in this series, but I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything with my lack of knowledge. I’m gonna read them all.

As far as a fairy-tale retelling go this book had a brilliant idea for a plot. But the way the story was put together it just didn’t stick the landing.
Others seems to really enjoy it, and I can agree that Steffan and Katerina was interesting characters. It's a shame we didn't get to see more of them than the "I'm taking no shit, I'm a badass female" and the somewhat guilt struken guy, gotta pay for all those sins... Both had potential but was just so simple in their characters. There was no depth to them.

The biggest letdown was the was the story itself. At first I found the story interesting and couldn't wait to spend the next 300-ish pages unraveling the mystery of the disappearing children of Hamlin. Except it became painfully obvious what was the cause of the children's disappearance not even 40 pages in. Sure the story could have continued on well even after that since knowing that caused the disappearance doesn't equals them actually founding them and defeating the wrong-doer. Except they do all of that and everything is basically solved not even 100 pages in. Yeah...
The next 200 pages is basically just boring fluff, there to stretch out a story that could have been a good 100 pages shorter. Instead it just drags on and on, not wanting to finish but not giving me anything proper to get the steam back in the story. It's not even a cat-and-mouse game at this point, it's just a character that comes back here and there to cause some trouble as a way to drag out the story a little bit more. The character just comes back and Oh, Boy what a twist! Not really...

'You aren't worthy because of what you've done, son. Because no one can ever do enough to be truly worthy. You're worthy because God gave His Son to make us worthy.'

I recall vividly my mama reading bible stories and fairy tales to my little brother and me as we were growing up. I have never stopped loving fairy tales. And Melanie Dickerson has a way of taking an old fairy tale, breathing new life into it and turning it into a wonderfully fresh and new fairy tale which honors God! I love her work.

I have always loved the Pied Piper of Hamlin story and she does wonders with this one! I was captivated from the very beginning and read it in one day. Highly recommended.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson Publishers through Net Galley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I received an ARC of this book in return for an honest review. This story is a retelling of the Pied Piper of Hamlin, in a YA romance format. It's also a Christian romance, which I hadn't realised when I picked it up. I'm not a big Inspie reader, but I've read a handful and enjoyed them, so this wouldn't normally be a dealbreaker for me.

I enjoyed the characterisation Katerina very much, and I thought the author's portrayal of an emotionally abusive family situation was well done - a little heavy-handed in places, but age-appropriate, especially if you are hoping to help young people to recognise unhealthy behaviour patterns. The pied piper elements of the story were also nicely worked, and Steffan and his family were lovely. The plot itself was clever but a little predictable, at least to me, but with both fairy tales and romances, it's more about the journey than the destination, so I didn't have an issue with this.

Unfortunately, the story was seriously flawed by the author's need to turn every emotional moment into a sermon. Every time the story started to gather momentum, we would have to pause to be reminded that we are all worthy of love because God has sent his son for us, and while I applaud the theology, I did not need it when I was wondering how the hero and heroine would get out of the silver mine. This is honestly a pity, because underneath all the religion, there was quite a delightful YA fairy tale retelling struggling to to get out.

Where have I been? This is the first book in the series that I have read and it was fantastic. I believe it could be a stand alone but I would like to go back and read the previous ones. Katerina and Steffan make a great team. They are both broken. Can they help each other? Where are the missing children?
Many thanks to Thomas Nelson Fiction and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Title: The Piper's Pursuit
Author: Melanie Dickerson
Release Date: 12.3.2019
Review Date: 11.6.2019

In the town of Hamlin in Germany, the rats have taken over and the children are going missing. A beast roams the woods and attacks unsuspecting villagers. Katerina believes it's her duty to watch over the people of her town by finding out what is going on. Enter Steffan, the son of the Duke of the region, to annoy the crap out of her, but also to help. Teaming up they manage to find out what has been happening. And of course they fall in love along the way.


Even though this is the tenth book in a series I think they can be read in any order, This is also the last one, I believe, so that was a bit sad for me, I've followed this series almost from the beginning. I do find the books in this series to be a bit repetitive and predictable but I still enjoy them.


I enjoyed the characters in this one. After reading the previous book in the series at the beginning of the year I was very excited to read about the character of Steffan and finding out the next step in his journey. I knew I would cry over his redemption arc and I was right. I did find Katerina to be trying too hard to be one of those "strong female characters" but still liked her. Overall I really recommend this series.

I jumped at the opportunity to read Melanie Dickerson's soon to be published book The Piper's Pursuit and I was not disappointed. I enjoy this series as there are strong characters, a clear delineation between good and evil, and they are Christian but not preachy.

Several aspects of this book stand out. Often times, this genre tends to have strong female leads which I greatly enjoy, but sometimes the male characters are less than impressive. The Piper's Pursuit has equally strong male and female characters. This is important as it shows the wonderful things that happen when a relationship is seen as a partnership instead of just one person being the leader. The second aspect was that Dickerson did a marvelous job of depicting the hypocrisy of the town mayor who went out of his way to appear "Christian" but was actually anything but. This really helped to emphasize the idea that appearances can be deceiving.

Melanie Dickerson writes for the YA crowd, but her books are enjoyable for all readers who enjoy a good, clean story that includes a lesson. I recommend them for moms and their junior high-early high school age daughters to read together or as read alouds for middle school students,

A plague of rats. A giant beast outside the village walls. A host of missing children. And one young woman determined to save her people.

In 1424 Hamlin, Katerina faces threats from all sides. An outbreak of rats has overtaken the village, a mysterious beast is on a killing rampage of the village’s children, and Katerina’s evil stepfather is a dark presence inside the walls of her own home.
This may be an OK read for the YA set that it was written for but I did not care for the book.
There is a great deal of violence and I just couldn't get into this book.
I gave it 3 of 5 stars for story line and characterization. That is actually a cumulative rating.
The plot is the saving Grace for this book.
I received a complimentary copy of this book to read.
This in no way affected my opinion of this book which I read and reviewed voluntarily.

Oh how I adored this book! I managed to read it in two sittings -- it ate up one entire evening, in fact -- because I simply HAD to know how it ended.

I am an avid fairy tale fantasy reader, and Melanie's titles have intrigued me for a while. I was concerned that stepping in on book #10 would leave me confused, but the story was easily appreciated as a standalone work. I could tell that there were references to other stories, but that did not detract in any way.

This story was beautifully Christian and the weaving together of the Prodigal Son parable with the Pied Piper fairy tale was masterfully done and entirely original. The characters are both engaging and realistic, with as many weaknesses as strengths. Steffan and Katerina are well matched, and I loved watching their romance build as Katerina learned to trust him. Steffan's calm spirit is beautiful, and that says so much after all the darkness lurking in his past. His backstory gives hope to anyone struggling with past, seemingly insurmountable, ugliness.

There was a fair amount of violence throughout the novel, but in a "Star Wars" way. You are fully aware that battles happen, and that injuries result from those exchanges, but she does not go into gratuitous detail. Language, of course, is a non-issue -- and chaste kisses are as close to blush factor as we get. One character struggles with emotional fallout from repeated inappropriate advances made at her during her young adulthood, but again - little detail is included and the author navigates the situation with care. Still, there could be a slight trigger factor for readers with similar experiences.

I plan to re-read this wonderful book, but only after devouring the other nine! Can't wait to dive further into Hagenheim and meet more of Melanie's characters.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

For those of you who've not been following my reviews very closely: This has been the year of me reading fairytale retellings. And of course I saw the books of Dickerson on lists a few times before. So, when I had the chance to read this book through Netgalley I didn't hesitate. Especially because I haven't read that many retellings of the Piper of Hamelin yet.

And I really have to keep myself from going to an online bookstore to order the first book in the Hagenheim series. This book is the tenth in the collection, but I can assure you that it can be perfectly read as a standalone. I might have gotten a few spoilers here and there for the previous books, but the story, plot and characters also stand very well on their own.

The writing style of the book is quite pleasant. It was an easy and fast read and Dickerson doesn't lose herself in endless descriptions, but that doesn't mean the book is rushed. She takes the time to introduce us to the story and the characters and therefore she also gives the reader a chance to bond with the characters, just like they take the time to bond with each other. There is some instant attraction, but not so much instant love.

Both Kat and Steffan come with their own history and issues. Kat is strong and fierce, but not just because she wants and longs to be, but also because circumstances have forced her to learn how to take care of herself. Steffan did a lot of terrible things in his life and is carrying a lot of guilt on his shoulders. Kat is afraid that she is not capable of loving someone anymore. Steffan is afraid his sins can't be forgiven and he doesn't deserve to be loved.

The elements of the Hamelin tale are used recognisably and yet in a very original and refreshing way. Although I know the Hamelin story quite well, this story managed to surprise me and Dickerson came up with some nice twists on this beloved tale. The fairytale really sets out some marks, but it's not the entire plot.

And I also really loved all the prayers Kat and Steffan sent to God. I loved how they didn't just wait for him to solve their problems, but how they wished for his help to solve their problems themselves. They wished for courage, for a little bit of luck and for a happily ever after, but they were the ones working for it and earning it. And that, in my opinion, is how it should be.

I will for sure read the other nine books in this series too, at some point. Because I'm sure, after reading this tale, that I will love them all.

Katerina is hunting the beast that is killing people in her village when she stumbles on a little girl who she thinks has been missing. Heading back to town with the girl, she discovers who she belongs to at the same time Steffan comes through the gate looking for the mayor’s house. She doesn’t tell him who she is, but does take him there. This begins the adventure of Steffan trying to gain her trust and both of them trying to figure out what is going on in Hamlin. A wonderful story that draws you right in and is hard to put down. The mystery of the rats, and the missing children, along with getting to know Katerina and Steffan, seeing Duke Wilhelm and Rose are all part of this story’s intrigue. A great addition to this series of stories featuring Hagenheim’s leading family.
A complimentary copy was provided by Thomas Nelson via Net Galley. A review was not required and all thoughts are my own.

There were so many elements to this title that I enjoyed, but the story was too long... In an effort to add layers to the reimagined fairy tale, the storyline became bogged down in seemingly unnecessary rabbit trails. I have enjoyed this series, but The Piper's Pursuit didn't quite hit the mark for me. Some great aspects, but more that clouded over my interest and I trudged through or skimmed certain chapters.

My thanks to the author and publisher for providing a complimentary copy of this title via NetGalley. Opinions expressed are my own.

Melanie Dickerson takes on a journey to 1424 Hamlin in a retelling of The Pied Piper. In true Dickerson form Melanie recreates medieval Germany with vivid descriptions of everyday life. Her characters are realistic and quite interesting. She is very creative with her plots using elements of the original tale but adding her own twist. I always look forward to a fascinating read and I am never disappointed. So grab a mug of mulled cider and settle in for a visit with the Haggenheim family.

I was given a copy of this book by NetGalley.com with no expectations. All thoughts are my own.