Touch of Fate

by Christine Amsden

Marianne can predict the future but is powerless to alter its course. After a lifetime spent coming to terms with an ability that has cost her much, including her marriage, Marianne moves halfway across the country to make a fresh start and salvage her relationship with her daughter, who has inherited her terrible ability. Once there, Marianne is drawn to a group of women who share her ability. She starts to find meaning and purpose--until she finds one of them murdered. In the wake of the murder, Marianne is once again caught up in predictions she is powerless to change. Complicating matters, she finds herself falling in love with the handsome Detective Derek Richards--a man who, her daughter predicts, will become an intimate part of her future. Time is running out for Marianne. She must learn the truth--about herself, about her power, and about the murderer--before she becomes the next victim.

Genres: Paranormal, Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Romance, Suspense

248 pages, Paperback

Published November 15, 2007

About the author

Christine Amsden has been writing science fiction and fantasy for as long as she can remember. She loves to write and it is her dream that others will be inspired by this love and by her stories. Speculative fiction is fun, magical, and imaginative but great speculative fiction is about real people defining themselves through extraordinary situations. Christine writes primarily about people and it is in this way that she strives to make science fiction and fantasy meaningful for everyone.

Christine currently lives in the Kansas City area with her husband, Austin, who has been her biggest fan and the key to her success. They have two beautiful children.

Reviews

[Katy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book Info: Genre: Urban Fantasy/Mystery/Thriller
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: Fans of thrillers/suspense w/ a paranormal twist, and a touch of romance.
Trigger Warnings: Murder, violence

My Thoughts: I was initially hesitant about accepting this book, as it is rated as paranormal romance and I’m just not a huge fan, but the author assured me the romance is secondary to the plot of the story, so I decided to take a chance. I’m glad I did, as I enjoyed the story immensely, and I particularly liked the ideas it gave about fate and taking control of our own future.

I saw one reviewer who complained that the book was mostly the main character “moping.” I had to say... How would you react if you could predict often horrible upcoming events, but not do a bit to change things? If you knew people were going to die, or accidents were going to happen, but you couldn’t stop them? You wouldn’t exactly be a shiny, happy bluebird on someone’s shoulder, would you?

Amsden does a really good job with characters. She creates characters that are unique and memorable without being cliché. I’d love to discuss some of the things I read, but that would be spoiler-y, so I’ll just say—if you like thrillers with a paranormal twist and just a dash of romance, then you will love this book. I recommend it.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis: Marianne can predict the future but is powerless to alter its course. After a lifetime spent coming to terms with an ability that has cost her much, including her marriage, Marianne moves halfway across the country to make a fresh start and salvage her relationship with her daughter, who has inherited her terrible ability. Once there, Marianne is drawn to a group of women who share her ability. She starts to find meaning and purpose—until she finds one of them murdered. In the wake of the murder, Marianne is once again caught up in predictions she is powerless to change. Complicating matters, she finds herself falling in love with the handsome Detective Derek Richards—a man who, her daughter predicts, will become an intimate part of her future. Time is running out for Marianne. She must learn the truth—about herself, about her power, and about the murderer—before she becomes the next victim.

[Tana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Touch of Fate by Christine Amsden

This book has everything I look for in a novel, mystery, romance, drama and adventure and of course a handsome police detective. Touch of Fate is a paranormal read and the author Christine Amsden has done a great job writing this story it’s easy to read, words flowed nicely and kept me interest all throughout the book.

The main character Marianne who we find out has a special gift, of course we say gift but in reality sometimes to Marianne seeing the future is more of a curse. Marianne’s life has not been easy she has had many losses, and struggles with depression her most recent loss is finding out her husband was having an affair and dealing with the outcome of him leaving and moving on with another woman.

Marianne’s grandmother always told her that she may get the signs but there is nothing she can do to change the future or the events that will unfold. Marianne has learnt the hard way that her grandmother’s words are very true.

We are also introduced to Marianne’s daughter Gabrielle who has also been given her mother’s gift but is still fairly new at this point. Gabrielle and her friend want to go to a party on Friday and this leads to Marianne getting signs that her daughters best friend is in danger and will die in a car accident. When Gabrielle sees that her mother is having signs she wants to know what is going on Gabrielle pleads with her mom to help her save her best friends, ignoring her grandmother’s warning they set out to stop this event from happening.

The outcome of this changes things, their lives seem to fall apart, Marianne finds herself looking at a map trying to find a place to start over. Drawn to St.Louis she sells her house and she take steps to move on and start a new life with Gabrielle.

In St.Louis, Marianne makes friends with a group of women who share her ability to see the future, things seem to going well and she actually feels like she has things under control. But as her life seems to settle down her daughter is spiralling out of control, Gabrielle seems to enjoy warning people of things that will happen of course the outcome of this is not good.

Marianne’s new friend Jean is murdered in the parking garage and we meet handsome Detective Derek Richards who is investigating the murder. He knows things are not adding up and starts to questions the group of women to find out exactly what is going on. During the investigation Derek starts to have feeling towards Marianne and they both seem to show interest in one another. The romance here starts to blossom and Marianne comes clean about her abilities and what she thinks is going on.

Touch of Fate is written in third person and it’s great to see what each character is thinking and planning to do, Christine did a great job in keeping the reader’s connected to each character. I would recommend this book to anyone of my friends who enjoy paranormal, murder mystery and romance novels.

[ILoveBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has it all: mystery, romance, intrigue, drama, and adventure. To have to know the future but be powerless to stop it is a horrible power. The main character, Marianne, lives with this power everyday...as does her daughter. This power acts as a catalyst for the novel; Marianne's marriage is ruined and she leaves to establish a relationship with her daughter, who also inherited this ability. After this, the action really takes off. Marianne becomes involved with a group of women who attempt to help her understand and control her ability; the ante is upped, however, when one of the women is murdered. Marianne connects to the handsome detective and their romance blossoms from there. The reader will like the main character, Marianne. The plot line is unique to this novel. The book contains many exciting, detailed scenes. The romance addes a little flare to the book. This novel is terrific for young adults/adults who enjoy romance mixed with a little mysterious magic.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

RATING: 4.5)TOUCH OF FATE by Christine Amsden is an engaging,and exciting paranormal thriller/
mystery/romance. First edition Oct. 2006.It is written with depth and details.The characters will capture your heart as you ride along with them on a roller coaster ride of adventure,mystery,murder,psychic powers,friendships,romance, intrigue,drama,and the blossom of love. Marianne has psychic power into future events but is powerless to change anything in the future.Her daughter also has this same power.Marianne is a divorcee.When her daughter's best friend is killed in a car accident,and Marianne learns her ex-husband is to marry his lover,who happens to be pregnant she moves herself and her daughter half way across the country to start a new life.She finds new friends,a group of women who share her abilities.Marianne with the help of her new friends learns to control and understand her ability. When murder occurs,Marianne finds herself attracted to the handsome detective,Derek. Together they must find a killer before Marianne becomes a victim herself. Love blossoms between Marianne and Derek as they work to find a murderer becomes time runs out. This is a fast paced,action packed, adventure filled,roller coaster ride with an engaging plot and a list of characters that will keep you turning pages.It is a story that not only paranormal readers will enjoy but also mystery,suspense,thriller and romance readers will enjoy also. With romance,love,new friendships,and a little magic you can't go wrong with "Touch of Faith". A must read.This book was received for the purpose of review from the author and details can be found at Twilight Times Books and My Book Addiction and More.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

What Niffeneger did for time travel in Time Traveler’s Wife, Christine Amsden does for fortune-telling in her novel, Touch of Fate. Imagining a world where people really can see glimpses of the future, Touch of Fate explores what might happen if they were just ordinary people, from all sorts of walks of life. But prediction brings questions not just of predictability, but also immutability. What if the future they see really can’t be changed?

Marianne would love to change her prediction of the death of a daughter’s friend. Marianne’s daughter would kind of like that too. But death is death, and as both their lives fall apart, Marianne finds herself drawn to start a new life in St. Louis—drawn by fate? Drawn by the touch of fate perhaps? Soon she finds she’s not alone in her strange life, but when one of her new friends witnesses a murder, and her daughter get in trouble for announcing predictions in unlikely places, Marianne might wish she were alone. Luckily there are open-minded people who just might try to believe her, and Marianne’s journey to acceptance includes accepting herself and others.

A novel that combines mystery, detective work, lives gone wrong and lives beginning to go right, with well-drawn touches of both fate and faith, this really is an intriguing and enjoyable read.



Disclosure: I received a free ecopy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest review.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great story! There was a point where I just couldn't close the book (metaphorically, as I read the e-book version). It was a very enjoyable read, and an interesting take on the subject of fate and predictions.

[Jenn Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Touch of Fate is a paranormal story about a woman named Marianne who has an extraordinary gift – a gift of foretelling the future. When she can’t change the course of events, she feels powerless and as though it runs her life. After moving to St. Louis because of the signs, she meets a group of women who share her gift. When one of the women in the circle gets killed, a good friend, she tries to do all she can to help catch the killer.

The story grabs you from the first sentence and pulls you in. The main conflict in the story is with Marianne. She has a special ability but feels she can’t do anything to stop events from happening, although she tries to on some occasions. The plot was quite clear and the pace was just right to keep your interest in the main character and the supporting characters she meets in St. Louis. Touch of Fate moves along from one event to the next without any downtime. The subplots gave as much information required and only focused on the main characters of the story, using the minor characters as emphasis.

The characters came to life and practically jumped off the page. Marianne Waters, Detective Derek Richards, Suzanne and Jean had qualities that any reader could relate to while reading the story. They were well-written, with a history which made them stand out. The dialogue was good and kept in step with the story.

The setting was the present day and time, and didn’t deal with aspects that were unbelievable. Since foretelling is not out of the ordinary, whether it’s from reading cards, palms or the zodiac, figuring out future incidents is not something that we couldn’t grasp. Christine Amsden takes a phenomenon and makes it into a very interesting story. The timing and order of the events were consistent, leaving the reader anxious to see how the detective was going to solve the case.

Touch of Fate is written in third person but you are able to delve into all of their minds, giving you a peek as to what they were all about. This amazing, easy to read book, will keep you mesmerized from page to page. Don’t let the label of paranormal turn you away. It is far from a book about ghosts or goblins, but a story of a brave woman trying to live with a gift she doesn’t understand it to be a blessing or a curse and feels the need to keep silent.

Christine Amsden makes the storyline seem real; putting the character in a situation that we can all relate to in all walks of life. The title catches your attention, the descriptive back over brings you in but the story keeps you at the edge of your seat.

[Kelsie · Rating 1 out of 5]

First off I want to say that I won this book in a goodreads first reads giveaway.

Now I want to start by saying that I rarely if ever start a book and do not finish it. I know it sounds weird but its like I have some strange obligation to the book to finish it no matter how horrible it is. I highly doubt I'm hurting the book's feelings but I still feel the need to finish it anyways.

When I clicked on this giveaway, the first thing I saw was PARANORMAL ROMANCE and I was like "OMG YESSS!!" So after entering you can only imagine how excited I was to find out I won. I obviously started reading it immediately after I got it in the mail!

Touch of Fate by Christine Amsden is basically about a fortune teller who can see, or rather feel, what is going to happen. And at first I was like "Heyy that's kinda cool!!" until I realized that she just spent most of her time mopping around until she found out that her daughter inherited her so called gift. The whole first part of the story is told from the mother's point of view, which isn't all that bad except for the fact that I found her incredibly boring and slightly annoying. I had to force myself to keep reading thinking it would get a little bit better. But that wasn't even the part that really got me. The real deal breaker was all of the religious crap that started piling up. It was totally fine when they started saying how God gave them these "predictions." But then the crazy train crashed into a GIANT pile of bull shit and I just couldn't do it anymore! So not only do they believe that God is giving them these predictions for people he wants dead....but he actually wants them to kill these people? SERIOUSLY ??? Needless to say, this is one of, if not the ONLY! book that I just could not finish.

I feel like some type of out cast for giving this book a bad rating. After reading all the other one's, it seems like I'm the only person who didn't enjoy it. I'm just saying this book was definitely not for me. But by all means, read it for yourself. Maybe you will enjoy it more than I did.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

“No matter what you do,
Nor how hard you try,
The signs will come.”

Marianne’s granny used to recite this to her when she was a little girl and it ended with “But futures can’t be changed by you or I.” Seeing the future was Marianne’s curse. She inherited the ability from her granny and recently Gabrielle, Marianne’s teenage daughter was having predictions too.

Marianne and Gabrielle move to St. Louis where Marianne meets a group of women that also have visions and see the future. The women were diverse in their outlook about their abilities. Jean felt that even though she could not change what she saw in her visions, she could help justice be served by being at the right place at the right time and helping where she could. Gabrielle, Marianne’s daughter, felt she should tell people what she saw to help them prevent bad things or know good things were coming. Suzanne felt that her predictions were The Word of God. Unfortunately the Word she hears tells her to kill people unbeknownst to the others in the group.

First Vanessa Shaw, CEO of the hospital is murdered in a parking lot. Her husband is suspect. Then Jean is killed in the parking lot of the hospital where she is a physician and Marianne volunteers. They have several suspects but no real leads. Derek, the officer assigned to the case looks into both murders and doesn’t feel things are adding up. He and Marianne are attracted to each other but he’s not too sure about her ‘predictions’.

I found Touch of Fate a bit predictable. The characters were interesting and diverse. Each of the women in the group looks at their gift/curse from a different perspective. There weren’t any surprises once the plot was established though so reading was a bit slow. On one hand the scheme of the story held no intrigue but then if in reality it is possible to see into the future - is it possible to change it - or are things meant to be and the outcome cannot be changed?

[Desert Rose Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Roses for a wonderful story!

This story truly touched me. I have enjoyed Christine Amsden's writing for several years, and this is possibly one of the best books I've read from her so far.

She created a complete world in this book, and being pulled into the lives of these characters was effortless and intriguing. Each woman introduced was deep and rich, with personal struggles and relatable problems. Their struggles were laid out well, and their frustration was palpable.

I wouldn't want to handle the situations they each found themselves in. Dealing with premonitions is difficult, and this book shows the struggle quite effectively, bringing a supernatural gift into the real world, in one interesting book. It's messy, frightening, confusing, and complicated , with a good dose of reality.

Detective Derek introduced a spark of romance and excitement, rounding out the suspense and drama perfectly. The mother/daughter relationship was also fantastic, and personally, I wanted to smack her ex husband in the back of the head most of the book.

This novel had me feeling personally connected to each character, and I truly feel as though I experienced something wonderful with this book. I would recommend this to anyone who is at all curious or interested - you won't be disappointed.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a nice, suspenseful story. I enjoyed reading it. Although we already know who the bad guy is toward the beginning of the novel, we are led through a suspense-filled story on how the rest of characters find out who it is - someone they never would have expected. Several of the main character are able to tell the future on certain events - they take little pieces or signs and put the puzzle together to determine what will happen in the future. Because of this ability, some feel like they should try to stop things but another thinks that goes against God's plan.

there was also a little romance in the book!

The only critiques I can think of is 1) the book is written in the third person, but a couple times, first person is used which stood out to me; and 2) I'm not sure if the cover really fits with the story. I was expecting something different based on the cover.

I recommend this book to fans of mystery and suspense.

[Staci · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading Touch of Fate as it seemed to cover a bit of every genre of literature. The writing style of Christine Armsden was easy like Sunday morning...hehe...just flowed real well...making it fun to read a paranormal thriller! I am giving it a 4 star and passing on to my daughter to read as well!

My rating system is as follows:

5 stars - Excellent, Worth Every Penny, Made It Into My Personal Library!
4 stars - Great book, but not a classic.
3 stars - Good overall, generally well written.
2 stars - Would not recommend based on personal criteria.
1 star - Difficult to read, hard to finish, or didn't finish. Wouldn't recommend purchasing or reading.

In accordance with the new FTC Guidelines for blogging and endorsements, you should assume that every book I review was provided to me by the publisher, media group or the author for free and no financial payments were received, unless specified otherwise.

[Jennifer Wolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Touch of Fate was a very hard book for me to get into!! There was a large religious aspect from the fortune-telling that I honestly didn't expect., and wasn't sure what to think of.
At the beginning, I thought the characters were unbelievable, but as the book went on I came to understand and care for them - even with their eccentricities!

[Moni · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually read this book when it was first released; I have a signed copy of the book as I worked with the author's husband. This book was a definite page turner and when it ended I was begging for more. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes a good thriller; a good paranormal book; or just looking for something new to read!

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really good paranormal thriller with a wee bit of romance. I really liked this. The characters were likable except for the characters you weren't supposed to like. It didn't read as far-fetched either. I'll definitely check out her other book.

[Patty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looks and sounds awesome!!!!