Books for Christian Girls: "The Piper's Pursuit" by Melanie Dickerson

About this book:

“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. Katerina is determined to hunt and kill the Beast of Hamlin herself before more lives are lost.
When Steffan, the handsome but brash duke's son, comes to town seeking glory and reward, Katerina decides he might be the ally she's been looking for—even though the only gentle thing about him seems to be the sweet music he plays on his pipe. But there's more to Steffan than she suspects, and she finds herself drawn to him despite her misgivings.
Together Katerina and Steffan must stop the enemy from stealing the children of Hamlin. But their interference might create an even worse fate for the entire village. Melanie Dickerson delivers another exciting fairy-tale journey of intrigue and romance in this reimagining of the classic Pied Piper story.”

Series: Book #10 in the “Hagenheim” series. {Reviews of #1 Here, #2 Here, #3 Here, #4 Here, #5 Here!, #6 Here!, #7 Here!, #8 Here!, and #9 Here!} {You do not have to read this series in order to understand them, but I highly recommend that you do read them in order.}

Spiritual Content- Prayers & Thanking God; Talks about God, Jesus, trust, & guilt; ‘H’s are capitalized when referring to God; Katerina has a strong faith, but Steffan hasn’t talked to God in a while; Mentions of God; Mentions of prayers & praying; Mentions of churches, priests, confessions, & sins; Mentions of monks & vows of a religious order; Mentions of miracles;

*Note: Mentions of wondering if a demon spirit is a culprit; A few mentions of a women being accused of witchcraft.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: two forms of ‘shut up’ and four forms of ‘stupid’; A bit of sarcasm; Fighting, being slapped, being attacked by people and animals, killing (dangerous/evil) men, killing wolves, injuries, pain, & blood/bleeding (border-line semi-detailed // detailed); Steffan is recovering from being addicted to alcohol & tries hard to stay to his commitment of not drinking (which he does); All about hunting a beast, weapons and preparing to kill the beast, attacks and deaths from the beast, gruesome injuries/bodies/deaths, children that are assumed to be dead/missing/kidnapped, plagues of rats & being attacked/bitten by them, (semi-detailed); *Major Spoiler* None of the children were actually killed by the beast, but they were kidnapped and being forced to mine silver under the orders of the villain *End of Spoiler*; Mentions of evil people planning to kill & being okay with killing children for the sake of their plans (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of a father beating his son to death; Mentions of battles, fighting, & killing; Mentions of threats of killing & beatings; Mentions of alcohol, drinking & drunks; Mentions of lies & liars; Mentions of hatred; Mentions of rumors; Mentions of jealousy; Mentions of hunting & killing animals; A few mentions of training two wolves to hate people by beating them; A few mentions of betrayal; A couple mentions of jealousy; A couple mentions of a dog abuser (the dog is rescued).

Sexual Content- Three hand/knuckles kiss (one up to semi-detailed), a cheek kiss, a forehead kiss, five barely-above-not-detailed kisses, and three semi-detailed kisses; Remembering kisses & touches (barely-above-not-detailed); Touches, Embraces, & Shivers (barely-above-not-detailed); Noticing & Nearness (barely-above-not-detailed); Winks & Blushes; *Spoiler* Katerina recalls when she was 13 and her stepfather tried to come into her room to kiss and touch her (she pulled a knife on him the next night) and all of his guards after that leering at her, brushing against her, and making lewd comments *End of Spoiler*; Mentions of men wanting to have their way with Katerina (they do not); Mentions of men trying to touch women without their permission; Mentions of kisses, kissing, & wanting to kiss; Mentions of jealousy; A few mentions of men being carousers & seducing women; A few mentions of flirting; A couple mentions of a man not touching any woman without their permission; A couple mentions of blushes; A mention of a man meeting a woman in the woods that is not his wife; A mention of an engaged woman being caught with another man; A mention of an illegitimate son; Love, falling in love, & the emotions;

*Note: A mention of wanting to knee a(n icky) man in the groin.

-Katerina Ludken, age 19

-Steffan
P.O.V. switches between them
302 pages

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Pre Teens-

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My personal Rating-

The Piped Piper isn’t necessarily a story I know many details about, but it is one that I know the overall plot of, so I was curious about how “The Piper’s Pursuit” would better introduce me to this classic tale.

I will say that this was not my favorite Melanie Dickerson book, but I can easily say that it was really nice to see Steffan come back around and be a good guy. I’ve been waiting for that for a while now, but especially after reading “The Warrior’s Maiden”.

I think overall I have mixed feelings on this book due to different aspects, such as:

I saw a lot of reviewers before and after this this novel talk about that it was/it seemed darker because of the plotline of a beast apparently killing a village’s children. I, as well, was concerned about that before picking up the book. After reading it though and knowing what really happened (see Major Spoiler in Negative Content section), I would say it’s about the same—if not a little bit less—as two of the first books in this series: “The Healer’s Apprentice” (which dealt more with demons/spirits) and “The Fairest Beauty” (which is a Snow White retelling and features the main girl nearly being killed). Everyone is triggered by different things though, so you could be fine with those two books and not so much on this one or vice versa. Personally, I wouldn’t say that this book is filled with gory details or such. There are a few mentions that were a little much in my eyes, but it truly was only a few parts.

Now, that aside, let’s discuss our main characters.

While I really liked both Steffan and Katerina (one of my favorite girl names), I never really got into their romance/feelings towards each other. I thought they were good for each other and liked them together, but for some reason they didn’t make me fangirl like past couples in this series. Both of them were good and definitely not one-dimensional. I wish there hadn’t been as many thoughts about kissing/kisses as there was after the first half, but I do appreciate that it wasn’t *quite* an insta-love plotline.

The villain is an absolute twerp, but we all knew that and saw that coming, yes? We are supposed to dislike him and it was an easy job to do so.

So, yes, these are my thoughts on this tenth book of the “Hagenheim” series. It’s hard to believe that this series is coming to an end with the next book (and I’m already counting on tearing up at the end), but it’s been such a fun series overall with all of the different fairytale retellings.

See y’all on Friday with a new review!