Pathways by Camille Peters Book Review

Note: I received a complimentary copy of this book, but the thoughts, opinions, etc. are entirely my own.

Note: Hi, when I review books, or anything really, I’m big on discussing what works and what doesn’t work. That often involves spoilers, and seriously I do mean SPOILERS. If you’re not cool with that, that’s totally fine. I have a spoiler-free review that you can read here on Goodreads. But if you’re cool with spoilers, then let’s sit back and chat about this book.

A Brief Summary

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 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 “Princess and the Pea” and “Rumplestiltskin”

What works

• I liked Pathways, it was a cute fairy-tale read. I like that ‘Princess and the Pea’ was one of the two fairy tales that inspired this story. It was one of the first things that attracted me to this book, 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 not having more didn’t pull me from the story.
• Let’s talk about the Forest. Practically its own character, the Forest was one of my favorite aspects of the entire book. I was getting some ‘Ocean’ from Moana vibes, as far as the personality of the Forest went. Plus I would totally love to live next to such an amazingly enchanted forest and be on good terms with it. A forest with the ability to move paths to mysterious places unknown? Sign me up.
• 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, right on the line 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.

What may or may not work

• When Eileen first meets the ‘mysterious stranger’, aka the love interest for the story, he’s a stranger, she’s scared, doesn’t move, he has a sword, she says “Please don’t hurt me”, he makes a couple more comments, there’s an accidental nick of his knife, and then BAM! Banter between our two leads. Now, I love banter, and this was definitely a rom-com movie level type of banter.
  • My problem, however, was that it was too perfect. Eileen seemed to have jumped from scared to full command of her vocabulary in a heartbeat, and it all seemed too logical, not quite enough of an emotional reaction to start the banter.
• I was not a fan of the ending of the book. I’m picky about endings, so this is definitely a personal nitpicky thing. But why is it in the ‘might’ work versus a flat out ‘doesn’t work’ category? 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.
  • I was pretty surprised when I got pretty close to the ending (since I was reading my copy as a PDF, I hadn’t paid attention to where I was in the book) because I had expected more. For the most part, all my questions were answered by the end BUT that leads to my biggest issue from this story.
  • I literally blinked and missed the revelation of what happened to Eileen’s dad. For what was the MAIN FOCUS, the MAIN MOTIVATION to Eileen’s character, the revelation of what happened to Eileen’s dad was reduced to ONE SENTENCE. He got sick and died (slightly more eloquent in the book, but basically this). And we as the readers find out about it as second-hand knowledge rather than in a scene where Eileen is present.

Honorable Mentions

• “A wound you inflicted,” I snapped. “You don’t appreciate it when your prey bites back? Perhaps you thought you’d caught a sheep when, in reality, I’m a fierce cobra.” (I just get a kick that of all the animals that Eileen could have chosen, it’s a cobra.)

Side Questions

• Did no one, mainly Eileen, think to send word to Eileen’s mother? Would it have detracted from the story a bit, maybe, but Eileen mentions very early on how her mother worries if she’s gone. But still, nothing.

Would I Read This Book Again?

• Yeah, I think I would. It was definitely a cotton candy book (aka a light read) and I was able to read through it quickly. Plus, I love fairy-tale retellings. But since this is part of a series, I will probably wait until more of the books come out so that I can binge read them.