The Childe (The Childe Series, #1) [Kindle Edition]

C.A. Kunz (Author), Hollie Westring (Editor), Stephanie Kunz (Illustrator), Robert Kunz (Illustrator), Lisa Surphlis (Illustrator)

Book Description

Cat Colvin
Average teenager?
Or something else entirely?

Cat Colvin is pretty much your typical run-of-the-mill teenager. Sure, she's taller than most girls, has a mane of fiery red hair that's impossible to tame, is left-handed, and her eyes are two different colors, but that's where the differences end . . . unless you include the minor detail of her slow transformation into a Childe.

High school can definitely be challenging, and for Cat it's no different. This is especially true when she's faced with the daunting task of trying to hide her budding Childe traits as they begin to reveal themselves at the most inopportune times. To make matters worse, her family is oddly dead set against Ryan, the boy she grows to like. But everyone has their secrets: is Ryan really what he seems to be, and what is Cat's family not telling her?

The Childe is the first book in this coming-of-age fantasy series which follows Cat's life through the twists and turns toward finding out whom and what she really is. Come and take the plunge with Cat into a world filled with mystery, biting humor, and the paranormal.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This series opener is a great paranormal story with a dash of mystery that will keep readers guessing...it is a thrilling, unputdownable story." -RT Book Reviews

"A unique coming of age story and of facing one's paranormal calling, "The Childe" is a charming read that will resonate well with many young adult readers and those dealing with being 'weird'." -Carl Logan, The Midwest Book Review

"All in all, The Childe was a good read, and the authors are to be congratulated for capturing a potential portion of the teenage vampire market!" -Readers Favorite "Book Reviews and Award Contest"

Gold Medal (First Place): 2011 Readers Favorite Award Contest - Young Adult Fantasy Category.

About the Author

A total love of all things supernatural is what inspired this fifty-four year young mom and her twenty-six year old son to put this story on paper.
 
Carol Kunz was born in New Ferry, England. Her interest in the supernatural was first sparked upon meeting a ghost at the age of eight. As a teenager, she was always fascinated by the mythology behind vampires, werewolves and witches. Being an avid reader, Carol finds it easy to spend several hours wrapped up in a great fantasy novel.
 
Adam Kunz was born in Newport News, Virginia. Growing up, he was a huge fan of creature features and books about things that go bump in the night. When he is not busy writing, Adam enjoys his job at a certain theme park in Orlando, Florida as a décor consultant. This job brings him face to face with all sorts of nightmarish creatures, especially when he decorates the haunted houses for the park's annual Halloween event.
 
Carol and Adam currently reside forty-five minutes away from each other in the sunny state of Florida. The Childe is their debut novel.

Product Details

• File Size: 672 KB
• Print Length: 411 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0615435742
• Publisher: C.A. Kunz; 2 edition (March 17, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004SOZC16
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #152,372 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars An Intriguing Paranormal Debut January 17, 2012

By Mundie Moms/Mundie Kids

Format:Paperback

An intriguing paranormal debut that meshes together mystery, romance, and adds a unique spin to a the vampire world.

I really enjoyed getting to meet Cat, and her good group of friends. They were just fun characters to meet, and I liked that many of them came across as genuine, though I'm sure a few of them may surprise me in the sequel. I liked that each of the characters introduced into the story, good or bad, seem to have a purpose in the story. A few of them added to the story's over all mystery, and I wanted to figure out how they were tied to the tiny town's hidden secrets. I of course loved meeting Ryan, and the chemistry between he and Cat. I liked that Ryan always managed to keep his cool in any sort of situation, especially around Isaac when it was obvious that he was holding back when they were around each other. Even though I wanted to despise Isaac, I found hard to do so, because I felt like I some what understood why he acted the way he did.

While I enjoyed the entertaining plot, getting to know the various characters and the paranormal elements that make up this debut book, I felt the story's pacing hindered my ability to like the book more than I excepted to. The pacing was great for the first and last part of the book, but I sadly lost my excitement with the story line through out the middle part of the book. For me I start to lose interest if there's a lot of build up and then nothing happens for awhile and I felt that's what happened in the middle of The Childe's story line. Luckily the characters kept me engaged with the story during this time and I was pleasantly surprised with how the story picks up more at the end.

This is a clean cut book with a lot of interesting paranormal elements, myths and a fascinating history. I love the story's setting and the interesting web of characters that are introduced through out the course of the book. I'm looking forward to finding out how all these character's connect and what their rules will be in Cat's life as the series continues. This book is targeted more to younger YA readers, and it's one I would even recommend to tweens who enjoy reading YA paranormal books. I can't wait to read the sequel. I have a feeling that book will be a lot more action packed and pick up right where The Childe ended. I want to add that there is a big difference between reading the first copy of the book that C.A. Kunz sent me compared to the second copy, which is much more polished and cleaned up editing wise.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A bewitching and exciting debut January 13, 2012

By Fiktshun

Format:Paperback

Cat Colvin started off her freshman year at Astoria High filled with excitement to finally be attending school with her lifelong friends and to no longer be forced into going to private school. But the thrill of starting over quickly fades.

Right from the start things go wrong.

Cat makes an enemy of the dangerous and hot-tempered Isaac, gets the attention of Kirsten, a girl looking only to befriend her to get closer to her brother, draws the animosity of Mr. Crawley, a math teacher with a chip on his shoulder, and ends up needing to be tutored by a boy who makes her pulse race.

All in all a less than stellar first year. And if that weren't bad enough, she's pretty sure she'll have to add "going crazy" to the list, because seeing things and hearing voices can't mean anything but that.

***

The Childe is the incredibly bewitching, exciting and original story of a girl with a dark past and uncertain future. A girl with unknown allies and enemies. A girl who knows nothing about who she is, where she comes from or what dangers await.

This twisty-turny, tension-filled story is a mystery that will keep readers guessing as to just what a Childe is and what it all means for the main character, Cat Colvin. While many questions are answered by the story's end, not all mysteries are solved, leaving the door open for even more shocks and surprises in books to come.

Cat Colvin never thought of herself as different. Not too different, anyway. Aside from being taller than most girls her age, and paler, with a wild mane of red hair which earned her the nickname "Red Freak" by her brother Taylor and with eyes which once were the same color but now were mismatched. Aside from all that, she felt fairly normal.

Until she started having some pretty wild and unbelievably realistic dreams. Until she started seeing things. And reading minds. And fainting. Until then she had felt normal, at least, even if her outward appearance screamed otherwise.

But even if she didn't feel normal, she didn't need to let people in on her little secret. If she were going crazy, she'd much rather go crazy quietly.

Authors Carol and Adam Kunz have created a refreshingly different paranormal mystery with their debut novel, The Childe. Not your typical whodunit, the story these authors have written asks instead - who and what is a Childe? - and then proceeds to tease readers throughout with pieces to this puzzle that will be partially solved at the story's end.

And The Childe is not your typical paranormal story either. The authors take a different approach by only giving short glimpses into the paranormal world they created throughout the book rather than having it be the focus of the story, making this as much a mystery as it is Cat's story.

The authors have created a wonderfully diverse group of characters who each contribute something to the story and add yet another layer to the mystery.

The main character, Cat Colvin, is a fierce, brave and independent heroine. She is friendly and loyal and helpful, but is not so trusting as to be foolish. She is quick to stand up to a bully, but is not quite strong enough to reveal just what's happening to her.

Her family is incredibly protective, including her brother Taylor. Her friends are clever and funny and supportive and understanding and even a little bit odd. And her enemies are wicked and cruel and pushy and obnoxious. And then there's Ryan, who's mysterious and handsome and just as fiercely independent as Cat.

The Childe is an enchanting first book in this series, told from multiple point's of view - mainly Cat Colvin's - that combines a mystery with the paranormal into story that will leave readers anxiously anticipating the sequel.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The Case of the Missing Editor January 31, 2012

By Thornie

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

There are writers who are incredible storytellers and write fabulous book series. Their loyal fans greet a new book with great joy. It may be the writers cannot spell, are ignorant of the correct word to use, or punctuate incorrectly--but of this, we shall never be the wiser. This is because these writers have a special something the authors of The Childe do not; EDITORS.

If the authors of The Childe had editors, I am sorry to inform them that their editors failed the job. And yes, it matters. I really like this book, and the lousy editing ruined it.

This book has hundreds of punctuation errors. That is correct; hundreds.

The authors (and/or editors) do not know that spell-check just correctly spells an incorrect word for you; it does not replace a wrong word with the correct word.

I hope the authors get a real editor and fix the problems in this book, because it deserves to be read without hundreds of BEEPS in it, which is what happens in a reader's brain whenever there is a glaring error or a clinker in the story.

What's a clinker? Well, for example, totes. "Totes" are bags used to carry things. I'm totes sick of it. I hear it is totes in the next book, too. This is totes wrong. The powers of paranormal telepathy should have blasted the authors' brains with readers who are thinking, "Totes? What the....? This is stupid. Nobody in the history of man has ever used "totes" in this way. And all those hundreds of missing commas...why am I reading this book? I think I'll go for a walk."

I see the authors are now on book two (out of five planned books), and from the reviews it appears they still do not have an editor. This is sad, because the books deserve one. Please don't make the poor books (or the poor readers) suffer any longer.

--------

I thought this was a book written by talented children. Now that I have reached the end, I discover it was written by adults.

Adults can afford to hire real editors.

No, those people listed in the credits of the second book are not editors. HIRE AN EDITOR.

More About the Author

Carol Kunz was born in New Ferry, England. Her interest in the supernatural was first sparked upon meeting a ghost at the age of eight. As a teenager, she was always fascinated by the mythology behind vampires, werewolves and witches. Being an avid reader, Carol finds it easy to spend several hours wrapped up in a great fantasy novel.

Adam Kunz was born in Newport News, Virginia. Growing up, he was a huge fan of creature features and books about things that go bump in the night. When he is not busy writing, Adam enjoys his job at a certain theme park in Orlando, Florida as a décor consultant. This job brings him face to face with all sorts of nightmarish creatures, especially when he decorates the haunted houses for the park's annual Halloween event.

Carol and Adam currently reside forty-five minutes away from each other in the sunny state of Florida.