In Chasing Amanda, bestselling author Melissa Foster blends emotion, plot twists, decades old secrets and paranormal insight into a captivating tale of suspense.

Over the Christmas-New Year’s break I had the chance to catch up on a little reading.  I had wanted to read Chasing Amanda ever since I read Foster’s Come Back To Me some months ago. I have to admit that I cheated.  I read the first third of Chasing Amanda on the Kindle app on my new Nexus 7 e-reader, a device I really love.  Then, faced with a ten-hour drive in the solitude of my car, I reverted to my Kindle device, turned on the “read text” option and listened to the rest of the book.

I haven’t often listened to books and only do it when I am on the road. Chasing Amanda was a good choice for the experience, if not for the safety of the motoring public in general.

Chasing Amanda is one of those books that keeps you guessing as you go along.  “I think he did it. No, wait. I think she did it.”  That sort of thing.  I love a book that presents a puzzle, a maze of possibilities.

I won’t giveaway any of the secrets that fill the book’s pages.  The basic story is Molly Tanner’s involvement in the disappearance of a young girl abducted from a playground. Molly brings her own demons with her and encounters new ones as she seeks to unravel the mystery of the girl’s kidnapping in time to save her life.  The tension innate in the situation, a setting where everyone understands that each minute that ticks off the clock makes a successful rescue less likely, fuels the suspense.

Molly Tanner is the type of hero a reader can identify with and root for.  She is as full of self-doubt as she is of her commitment to find the lost girl, regardless of the price she has to pay on a personal level.

The paranormal component of the story centers around Molly’s ability to perceive things others can’t. Hers is a sixth sense, motherly intuition on steroids. It is the sort of thing that can drive a person crazy, perhaps a blessing, maybe a curse. To whom much is given, much shall be required.

There are some creepy people in Chasing Amanda. Foster portrays them not as devils, but as human beings, persons who may be  more than meets the eye.  As she peels away the layers and drills deep into her characters, Foster reminds us that things are seldom as they appear.

Melissa Foster has carved out a unique niche among Indie writers. Not only can she tell a great story, but she has devoted herself to helping other authors. Through her flagship site World Literary Cafe and her author development program Fostering Success she is building a great community of and for readers and writers.

Melissa Foster is the real deal, and so is her fascinating novel of suspense, Chasing Amanda.(click here to go to the book on Amazon.)

(Stephen Woodfin is an attorney and author. Click here to visit his Amazon Author Page.)