Eileen has never been interested in love. Ever since her father’s abandonment, she’s vowed to never experience such pain again. But the enchanted forest has different ideas. When the continuously shifting pathways lead her to a mysterious stranger, Eileen finds her promise to fiercely guard her heart increasingly difficult to keep.One night when she becomes lost in a storm, the enchanted forest’s … enchanted forest’s pathways lead her to the castle, home to the kingdom’s Dark Prince, where Eileen finds herself entangled in what many consider an opportunity but which Eileen believes to be a curse: competing for the Dark Prince’s hand through a series of tests that judge one’s royal worth. Eileen is neither royal nor interested in becoming a princess. But the mysterious stranger she met in the woods has his own reasons for helping her succeed, although the cost of his assistance may be too high: that of Eileen’s heart, the one thing she’s vowed never to give.
Inspired by “The Princess and the Pea” and “Rumpelstiltskin”
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Wonderful book! I was leery of trying it as it seems everything is a retold fairy tale lately but this one is unique and maybe inspired by a fairy tale, but really breathes a life of its own. Eileen is not your typical MC, she is a strong independent woman who lets everyone know it, especially Aiden. I really like how their first encounter goes completely wrong and they have to start from a negative place, go up an insurmountable mountain to a mutual understood friendship. I really like how Eileen doesn’t want to be a princess but tries anyway, doesn’t want to be picked, is concerned for her mother. Great qualities to have.
A great fairy tale retelling!
This isn’t my normal genre and I usually pass up ya novels. I still enjoyed this story. I liked the idea of the magical forset and added a nice touch to the story. The author did well with intergrating a bit of whimsical magic to the story. One thing that gave me pause was sometimes a word or phrase here or there felt too modern. I would be reading and it would throw me off but I thought well if this is primarily for a ya audience maybe that’s okay. I let it slide and choose to ignore it. I liked the h & H. They both had growth and grew together. I believed their romance. Overall it was a nice story and good for a light relaxing read.
I love a good young adult novel. And the author gets bonus points if they include something to do with a fairy tale. I did like this one, but the first half or so was really hard for me to get into. It just seemed to start really slow plot wise.
I liked Eileen. She’s a young girl who lives by an enchanted forest. Eileen spends a lot of time in the forest sketching. She also spends time with her friend Rosie reading love stories. But Eileen never plans to marry. Her heart was broken by her father leaving as a child and she’s vowed never to marry. I loved the way Rosie bakes magical things. The scene where these two bake their enchanted cakes was one of my favorites.
I loved the way the forest in this one is almost as developed as any of the other characters. It leads Eileen from one place to another on paths designed just for her. One day it leads her to a man.
Aiden appears to try to hurt Eileen. But he extracts a promise that she must visit with him three times. During those times, Eileen comes to care for him.
This is where the plot got really interesting for me. The forest leads Eileen to a castle, where she’s mistaken for a princess wanting to compete for the princes hand in marriage. The only one there who knows Eileen is Aiden. And he helps her as best as he can. But the question is, does Eileen really want to marry the prince?
I loved the second half of this one. It made me want to read the next one by this author.
Very cute, entertaining story. The descriptions were beautiful and I fell in love with this Kingdom. The themes were very well developed and thought provoking. The characters were a lot of fun, although somewhat immature (for my adult perspective)–but I do expect that a little in the Young Adult genre. At times it was repetitive, but I felt overall that helped show the characters’ depth and growth as they learned throughout the book. I look forward to more in this series!
This is a fantasy romance, and that’s a Romance with a capital R–with all the things that go with that genre. I usually try to help the books I review find their audiences, so besides that, I’ll say that if you enjoy reading a tale where a pretty commoner gradually falls in love with a dashing nobleman, you’ll like this. It’s well done if you like that sort of tale–I spent a fair amount of time smiling while I read it. The ending came as no surprise, but they often don’t with romances.
Eileen looks at the neighboring forest as a friend, with good cause. It shows her beautiful spots to sketch and opens shortcuts for her when she really needs to get home in a hurry. But then one day it leads her to man, a handsome stranger she’s never met. Her friend Rosie would be excited about meeting a mysterious stranger, but not Eileen–ever since her father left, she has no intention of trusting another man. Ever.
But the man, Aidan, turns out to have a friendship with the forest as well, and he takes a shine to Eileen right away. When Eileen runs off and leaves her sketchbook behind, Aidan saves it from the rainstorm that followed. But in exchange, he claims a forfeit. Eileen must meet him three times to spend a day with him. After that, they can go their separate ways.
The only problem is, it’s getting harder for Eileen to decide to keep all men away, not if that includes Aidan…
The Forest was her home, it was her haven. But what happens when it takes her to a place where she could be put in prison? What ever will she do, when she finds herself in impossible positions, pretending to be someone she is not?
Pathways is Camille Peter’s book in her new series, The Kingdom Chronicles. It was a good book that left you wanting more. This book introduces you to so many characters that you immediately feel a connection to and hope to learn about. I am so glad that I took the chance on this book.
Elaine has loved the Forest for as long as she could remember. It has been her heaven. But one day her heaven is taken from her, she finds someone in her Forest and he upsets her whole life. She finds not only her Forest taken from her, but she also loses something important to her. She vows never to go back into the forest, but she finds herself one again going back to the Forest embarking on a great adventure.
The forest has always obeyed Aiden and that’s the way he likes it, but one day he finds someone lurking in his forest that changes everything. Against all odds, he finds himself falling for her, but there are too many obstacles standing in the way for them to be together. He is going to have to fight hard for a chance to be with the one he loves.
I really liked Elaine. She was put in such a strange situation, yet she handled it well. She was so strong and yet so needy at the same time. She felt like she was real. It was sweet to see Aiden fall in love with Elaine and how he changed for her. He wasn’t perfect, but he loved her.
This was a great book. I loved meeting some of the characters for the next books, they were cool and I can’t wait to read their books. I am so glad that I took the chance on this book. I am so excited, I found a great new series. I can’t wait to read the other books in this series.
This book was very entertaining . A great read filled with sweet romance
-I received a complimentary copy. All opinions, thoughts, etc. are entirely my own.-
I’m a big fan of fairy-tale retellings, so between that and the gorgeous cover, I was already looking forward to reading this. Now on to the review.
I liked Pathways, it was a cute fairy-tale read. I would have liked to have read a little more about the princess test that Eileen goes through later in the book (mainly I wanted to see how the author retold the twenty mattresses vs. the pea scene), but that didn’t pull me from the story. From the very first chapter, the author wasted no time in establishing what Eileen’s motivation is or in setting the scene for the major plotline of the book which made for a super smooth read-through. The dialogue was good, hovering between contemporary and fantasy, and though there were a couple of character quirks (mainly from the two lead characters) that didn’t quite work for me, the story kept moving forward so there wasn’t much time to worry about those things.
The pace of the book worked really well up until the end. I was not a fan of the ending of the book. I’m super picky about endings, so this is definitely a personal nitpicky thing. Yes, it is a happy ending and everything gets resolved (which is a plus) BUT it gets resolved too quickly. It was as if the author was running out of pages and needed to end the story. For me, I would have liked the story to have gone on a little bit longer so that the ending was more deserved.
All that being said, it was a good, light read, one that I was able to finish in one sitting on a Friday night which made for a good start to my weekend.
Forests have always been magical in my imagination. This book brings the magic and majesty of forests to life for me.
Eileen lives next to a magical forest that takes her to beautiful and exciting places. The forest loves her and protects her. The forest brings her to what it knows will bring her joy, when it took her to Aiden she felt betrayed, not knowing that the forest really was looking out for her and helping her.
Eileen’s heart was shattered when her father left on a trip and never returned. She didn’t want to let anyone in because she was afraid that they would eventually leave her and break her heart again. As the forest leads her to Aiden again and again, the wall she built begins to chip, opening up the possibility for a “happily ever after”.
I really liked this book. It has the fairy-tale storyline that has always appealed to me. I loved the characters. Her friend Rosie was fun and playful, adding joy and hope to Eileen’s life. Then there were the Prince and Princesses who became her friends at the castle. All through her journey in the book she had a wonderful support system who helped her through her trials.
Aiden, what to say about Aiden? He has secrets, but underneath all of the mystery surrounding him, he is a good person. I really liked where Camille Peters took this story. I loved the HEA, and I look forward to reading books of hers in the future.
Source: I received a complimentary copy. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
Pathways is loosely based on Rumpelstiltskin and The Princess and The Pea. In the story, Eileen is a peasant girl whose father has been missing for years. This makes her mother overly protective of her in spite of the fact that Eileen is 19. Since her father was last seen heading for the forest, Eileen’s mother is especially wary of Eileen spending time there. But the enchanted forest calls to Eileen, and she tells her mother that the forest has never led her astray. You see, in the enchanted forest, the pathways change. You never know where you’ll end up.
As you can imagine, one day the forest leads Eileen to a place she’s never been…and she’s not alone. The pathways have never led her to another person. Well, this person happens to be drawn to the forest as well, and it seems that the forest knows what is best for these two.
This was a cute story for younger teens and tweens. It is a very clean love story, and it’s paced in a way that will keep them reading. I enjoyed the story and the characters, though this book is definitely meant for younger readers. It’s just a simple story for them to read and escape from the real world for awhile.
I wanted to give this 4 stars. My quibble is the heavy-handedness of the religious myth allegory and often of the characters themselves. Just because one person 100 years ago is “bad” or “good,” why is it so simplistically assumed all their descendants are the same? I would have liked more sense of people rather than idealized, personified themes. Despite this, I did like the h and h: they had integrity and courage. They had enough personality to often counter their clearly destined roles. I mean, really, she goes into the quest knowing she will succeed? No tension there ….
An interesting idea, to set a gender-reversed Sleeping Beauty in a loosely Native American/Appalachian pioneer world.