Pathfinder's Way

The Broken Lands #1

by T.A. White

The Trateri are about to learn a vital lesson of the Broken Lands. Deep in the remote expanse where anything can happen, it pays to be on a pathfinder’s good side.

Nobody ventures beyond their village. Nobody sane that is. Monstrous creatures and deadly mysteries wait out here. Lucky for the people she serves, Shea’s not exactly sane. As a pathfinder, it’s her job to face what others fear and find the safest route through the wilderness. It’s not an easy job, but she’s the best at what she does.

When the people she serves betray her into servitude to the Trateri, a barbarian horde sweeping through the Lowlands intent on conquest, Shea relies on her wits and skill to escape, disguising herself as a boy to hide from the Warlord, a man as dangerous as he is compelling.

After being mistaken as a Trateri scout during her escape, Shea finds herself forced to choose between the life she led and the possibilities of a new one. Her decision might mean the difference between life or death. For danger looms on the horizon and a partnership with the Warlord may be the only thing preventing the destruction of everything she holds dear.

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Fantasy Romance, Enemies To Lovers, Adventure, Paranormal, High Fantasy

396 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 12, 2016

About the author

Writing is my first love. Even before I could read or put coherent sentences down on paper, I would beg the older kids to team up with me for the purpose of crafting ghost stories to share with our friends. This first writing partnership came to a tragic end when my coauthor decided to quit a day later, and I threw my cookies at her head. Today, I stick with solo writing, telling the stories that would otherwise keep me up at night.


Most days (and nights) are spent feeding my tea addiction while defending the computer keyboard from my feline companion, Loki, who would like to try her paw at typing.

Reviews

[Cece ❀Rants, Raves &Reviews❀ · Rating 5 out of 5]

ALL fUCKING HAiL My QuEEN ShEAA ! Presenting a heroine with a unique skill that she TRAINED hard for and excelled but had NOTHING to do with MAGIC of any sort!


Mah queen Shea. After reading several books with special snowflakes *sigh*, it was truly amazing when this book featured a kick-ass heroine. She didn't have some random gift or magical knowledge that fought against pUrE eViL!!
Nope!

She was a strong-ass woman and her strength came from her mind and experiences. strategic. logical. She flat-out called things how they were.


“The point was that she was right, and they were wrong. If they’d listened, everybody would still be alive. They didn’t, so they were dead. Not her problem. She’d done her job.”

Strong female lead with great descriptions about how she saw herself and how others saw her

So lets review the world-building. It wasn't specific on the general time period or what the cataclysm was, but it did establish the kind of society with the Lowlands and Highlands system. I personally thought it was a fascinating backdrop that I wished we had more insight into.. maybe later ?

I enjoyed all the weirdness of the beasts and the sinister feeling about the Highlands. To me this was the best part of the book that really stood out from other fantasy adventures



Shea was a strong character probably cuz of all the shit she had to put up with.

The village, she was assigned to, constantly asked for her help but hated when she spoke her mind WTF

"Zrakovi slammed his hand down on the table. “I won’t have my judgment questioned by a slip of a girl barely past her majority.”
“Then how about a Pathfinder with fifteen years’ experience who told you that heading to the Lowlands at this time without proper preparation and without a guide was too dangerous.”


OH SNAP

After saving the chief's fuckwad of a son, we meet the love interest: Fallon. He is one of the few that sees how amazing she is. But he is also a conquering alpha maleM. I adore dark fantasies- yummy barbarian beast mood and that is ABSOLUTELY what this book is, so just be aware of that going into this.

So he was was like


Then our clever heroine was like HAHAH NO


I was CaCkLiNg on the floor at how goddman funny these two were cuz Shea refused to used by any man *snaps queen* Oh he tried but she just escaped: went yeeting off cliffs and shit to escape while Fallon's stood there stupid, jaw dropping. Every scene was just made better by her quick wit, skills, and no-nonsense attitude.

A lot of these book was just Shea learning who her true allies and enemies are. Often, she would get betrayed. Take a sec to reflect like 'wow that was a real asshole move', then moves on to figure out how to escape.


Majority of the book focuses on when she is assigned to a new team, and I loved the dynamic of this group guys! She began to find the camaraderie and friendship she severely missed within the villages

“You don’t talk to people.”
“I talk. I talk all the time.”
“No, you don’t,” he said, shaking his head. “You make statements and then act all butt hurt when people don’t do what they’re told.”



I love how there was romance but it wasn't the focal point of the entire book. Author focused more on her adventures within this crazy monster filled world with her scout group. And the monster book idea? fuckingggg brilliant showed Shea finding her place and being respected for her ideas after being ignored for so long.



However.... now the cons *sniffle sniffle*

The ending was just so abrupt and left a lot of questions that reflecting I realized I knew more about the characters then the entire world they lived in ....

-The mist, which was mentioned so SEVERAL times, never even made an appearance in the book *wut*
- I would have liked to experience Fallon being a good leader
-maybe an attempt into the Highlands for some info about it and its sinister nature compared to Lowlands
- did we learning aNyThiNg about the Pathfinder's Guild ??!?

I mean she was raised to do this job since she was 10 and you telling me all those years she didn't make a single friend or mentor who might...I dunno check up on her and learn about what was going on ??

come on son

It just felt too much like Shea settling down and abandoning her own, which was EMOTIONLESS for us too cuz fuck we don't know anything about her society really

SO WHERES THE SECOND BOOK CUZ I NEED MY QUESTIONS ANSWERED LIKE YESTERDAY



But I wouldn't feel this way if the entire book hadn't been amazing enough to raise these questions and make me want more sooo

Definitely Recommend checking out if you adore strong heroine and alpha males that are just trying to keep up with her

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wavering between two and three stars with this so I guess I'll just go with 2.5.

I started out really liking this quite a bit. It was interesting to me to read about a heroine with a unique skill that she trained hard for and excelled at that had nothing at all to do with magic of any sort.

I enjoyed all the weirdness of the beasts and the sinister feeling about the Highlands To me this was the best part of the book. Too bad that so much of it took place in the lowlands.

Shea is a pathfinder, one who is assigned to a specific highland village, where it is her job to guide members of said village through the treacherous beast-filled lands to other villages so that they might trade for goods, etc... During one particular trip, she is asked to go all the way to the lowlands to rescue a few members of her village who have been gone for too long and feared as being held against their will. It is during this rescue attempt that Shea first encounters Fallon, a warlord from some outlying region who is attempting to conquer and unite the lowlands moving all of his starving people there so they might have a chance to thrive. Fallon has been captured by the crazies in the village and is slated for execution until Shea turns up and rescues him.

Naturally this sucked me right in, I love it when the woman does the rescuing. That is until, in typical controlling alpha fashion he starts throwing around words like MINE, MINE, MINE. Ughhh, really?

But then surprise, surprise; slippery Shea outmaneuvers him and gets away. I was pretty happy about that.

Months pass and Shea goes on with her life, until the elders in her village sell her out and she and her companions find themselves betrayed and offered to the warlord and his army as a tithe. Once again she finds herself held captive by Fallon and his men and once again she escapes. This time though, she hides herself right under his nose disguised as a boy, and a case of mistaken identity finds her serving in his army as a novice scout, where she excells, as she's right in her element.

This always bothers me. I find it hard to believe anyone could be fooled. I will say that the author did make a genuine attempt to sell it however. As it turns out, those closest to her were not fooled, they simply decided not to give her up, and distance prevented Fallon from finding out. The best part of the book for me were the events that took place while Shea was on scouting trips with her new team. This made up a sizeable portion of the book and kept me reading.

I was thoroughly entertained and enjoying myself until about 80% in, when it occurred to me that I absolutely despised Fallon. This was disappointing because I found him intriguing at the start. I questioned the necessity of actually conquering these lands solely for the benefit of his people. I didn't get any sort of proof that he actually needed to dominate or collect a tithe from them. The land was so sparsely populated and the villages so remote and scattered that it seemed as if they could have just settled the empty spots. The only villages that the reader gets to experience are filled with such despicable people that you can't help but to side with Fallon, however; that wasn't enough for me. I had trouble believing that every village in the Lowlands was filled with cult-like maniacs. It all felt like the greed and ego of a bully. When he finally discovers Shea, he is a complete dick to her. He's demeaning and verbally abusive. He offers her the oh so coveted position of being his Tolroi (a mistress) or as a member of his personal guard. Not as a scout which she is really good at and happens to enjoy. As it turns out, a tolroi is actually a partner, someone who will share his life and his rule, but for me it was just too little, too late. There is also the author's attempt to paint him in a more positive light, while also vilifying the people of the Highlands just as it was done to the people of the Lowlands. This was all done in the telling, not the showing and so I wasn't convinced.

It felt like the ending was abrupt. There were too many loose ends. What happened to Dane and the other members of her village after they escaped? We aren't even told whether they lived or died. The mist which was mentioned so many times never even made an appearance in the book and I was actually really looking forward to that. I would have liked to experience Fallon being a good leader and wouldn't have minded an attempt into the Highlands if for no other reason than to demonstrate Shea's skills as a pathfinder. This just felt too much like Shea settling down and accepting her role as the little woman.

[Golda · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is disgusting. I know that sounds harsh, but hear me out. The description of the world is descent, given the atmosphere of uncertainty that the author is trying to project. The descriptions of the topography and the experiences of the pathfinders/scouts are spot on. The characters were likable, even endearing if you allowed yourself to forget about your first encounters with them... It’s not a poorly written book, I was set to give it a solid 3 stars and had my trigger happy finger ready to buy the next one until about 85% in, because I just can’t anymore. I just can’t.

Fallon, the warlord and love interest of our main girl, Shea, is a disgusting pig of a man and I cannot let unsuspecting readers continue on this journey without knowing what they are getting in to. To an extent, all of the male characters in this book are pigs. They amend their ways once they see Shea’s value, but that doesn’t change their initial treatment of her, and they NEVER apologize or admit they were wrong; they just pretend it never happened.

Like I said, I was willing to forgive this, because they were likable for the most part, after their initial encounters. I found that if I left off reading for a few days, my anger at them would subside enough to allow me to keep going with the story. If you can manage to forget the initial circumstances of EVERY DAMN INTRODUCTION to a new character, you can easily fool yourself into thinking they are worthy companions of our hero, as they are usually quite chummy after getting to know her, and past transgressions are NEVER addressed or acknowledged. But I am sorry, I have to draw the line at Fallon.

He knows her worth from the beginning, and still treats her like a subhuman piece of garbage. He respects her mind and her ability, but not enough to let her make her own decisions. And the final straw for me, at 85% in...?



*******************SPOILERS***********************


He treats her like his fucking slave girl after they have sex. I don’t care if it was consensual. There is a level of respect that needs to be observed afterwards (and during) the act, especially considering his /great regard and admiration/ of her mental faculties. This is just not okay, and I am done. I like a good beauty and the beast, Stockholm-esq love story as much as the next girl, but this is too base for me. I hate his character; but strangely don’t hate Shea, which is why I was angry enough to write this review. The girl deserves better, and so do potential readers.




Also, WTF was up with homeboy’s guard watching them have sex??? That is not normal!

[Lucie V. · Rating 5 out of 5]

✅ Strong and skilled main character
✅ Great secondary characters
✅ Hate-to-love
✅ Captor/captive (kinda)
✅ Woman disguised as a man
✅ World-building
✅ Plot
✅ Action
✅(🆗) Romance
🆗 Some smut

4.5 stars

_______________________

Third read: Still as enjoyable, even though I remembered most of it.

_______________________


Wow. I was not expecting to like this book so much! I thought the story would be similar to Warprize, maybe with a little twist, but Pathfinder's Way was a nice surprise.

Shea is an average-looking girl, with no friends or family. Her defining trait is being a Pathfinder, which means that she knows how to navigate the lands, she knows about the dangerous beasts roaming the woods and how to survive them, and she is the one you want with you whenever you are out of the village. She has real skills and ought to be respected for them, but instead, she is cast out because she's a woman and of course, everyone in the village thinks they know better than her. When she ends up being betrayed by her people, she must try her best to survive the Trateri, the barbarian horde she ends up stuck with, when she is given as a tithe to appease them.

“The point was that she was right, and they were wrong. If they’d listened, everybody would still be alive. They didn’t, so they were dead. Not her problem. She’d done her job.”

Shea is an outcast in the village where she works. Nobody trusts her because she is young and a woman, and nobody listens to her, which makes for a very frustrating and lonely life. That is until she is sent out on a mission to save two members of her village, ends up also saving a mysterious man from a death sentence, and then has to escape from him because he decides that he wants to keep her. Of course, she somehow ends up in his presence again some months later, but this is where the surprising part began for me. I thought that this book would be more about adapting to life with the Trateri army, and discovering that they are not as bad as she thought they were and the usual “captive in the army” plot, but it is more about survival through cleverness and finding your path where you least expect it. Shea will not just sit down and let people tell her how to live her life. She found a way to hide from the War leader and to fight for the freedom she wanted. It was also not what I would describe as a romance story, it was more about Shea finding her place in the world and finding people who saw her for what she was and respected her for her skills and knowledge instead of staying stuck in her miserable life in her village.

“Not very pretty." The old man looked her up and down and then cocked his head. "Kind of scrawny too."
Shea stared back at him with the blankest expression she could muster. He'd have to do better than that if he wanted to offend her. She'd never put much stock in her looks. They were always just there. Like the sun or the sky. Neither helping nor hindering. Her strength, speed, and capability were infinitely more important. She disagreed, however, with his assessment of scrawny. Scrawny implied she was just skin and bones. It was weakness, and Shea wasn't weak.

Shea is strong and skilled, and she shines because of the skills that she worked hard to develop, and her pragmatic logic, not simply because she is a special snowflake. Her character feels mature and is also considered an adult at 25, and it was refreshing to have a female lead think critically instead of being impulsive and letting her emotions drive her every decision. I really love Shea, and I like that she is also flawed, and people pointed it out to her many times, forcing her to think about it and do some introspection.

“Then they’re fools. Women are some of the most vicious fighters I’ve ever seen and can be just as capable as any man.”
“Makes sense. In nature, the female is likely to be the meaner one of the species, especially when it comes to the young,” Shea said.”

The world-building is well-done and well-developed throughout the book. It's the usual fantasy setting, and it has a system of Lowlands and Highlands that I wish we knew more about. There are also some weird and creepy beasts roaming the woods and the Lowlands, and I like the more sinister vibe it gave to some parts of the book. It also helped to show how skilled and knowledgeable Shea was because she knew all about those creatures and tried to teach others to help them survive.

That was pretty much another way to say kidnapping. There wasn’t a lot of places a relationship could go from there.

Fallon… I have mixed feelings about him. I can get behind a romance with a powerful, protective alpha warrior, but his character needs to be well-written, and I am just not sure yet about him. I do like that he and Shea challenge each other, and that Shea does not dissolve into a puddle of need and messy feelings whenever he is around, but despite their many interactions, Fallon still lacks some depth for me to really like him. He is mostly a possessive and controlling warrior for now…

The romance is a slow-burn hate-to-love on Shea's side, and an instantaneous crush for Fallon. He falls in love with Shea from the moment he meets her and sees how fierce, brave, and driven she is. It does border on obsession at first, but that's because of his alpha male conqueror side. The downside of it is that for now I still find him to be a little too controlling (or trying to be at least). Despite his rougher side, he can be sweet and caring when it comes to Shea but is not afraid to call her out on her mistakes and shits, and I really liked seeing their relationship develop, but I also liked the fact that the romance was not the main focus of the book. That being said, when the romance finally took more space in the plot, I thought that it was a little too sudden and almost insta-love. Let’s just say that the foundations were there and they were good, but the last part of the relationship building leading to Shea accepting that she had feelings for Fallon and admitting it to him was rushed.

I enjoyed reading this book, I just couldn't put it down. It's full of action, Shea is an awesome main character and I am also a sucker for badass female leads that are more mature than and not driven by their hormones and well-developed hate-to-love relationships with a strong and protective love interest that has the potential to become more likable and relatable in the future books.

I do have many unanswered questions though, mostly about the Pathfinder’s guild and the mist, and I hope we will know more about those in the next book. I also find that the ending of this book was a tad sudden, but it also leaves me wanting more, and being eager to read the next book.


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[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

I mean dang. How can you take and interesting premise with a competent heroine, and just give her little to no agency in her own damn story?



I mean here we have our h, Shea, who is a Pathfinder- meaning she's one hell of a survivalist. She had trained a good portion of her life to be able to traverse basically any part of the wilderness, is a cartographer, can read maps with ease, knows all about the dangers of the beasts infecting the land (how to dispatch or run from them) knows about the people in the surrounding villages, and has some fight training.
Not to mention she's is a bad ass strategist.

Cool right? Nope.
Not according to basically everyone is this book. They treat her like she's the biggest fucking idiot every chance they get. I know for some of the characters it's meant to show their ignorance, but almost all of the male characters (except Clark) call her some form of stupid constantly.

The characters chastise and blame her for everything, and it gets real old real fast- mostly because she sits there and takes it, but even when she does speak up for herself she gets criticized even more. I mean...



Throughout the story she gets little to no choice in her own life decisions. The only things she really gets to do for herself is escape Fallon- twice. The rest of the time...

• She wants to leave because she has noticed the village acting strange? -No, I'm mission leader.
• She likes the scouts, and wants to stay there? -No, now your my personal guard.
• Don't want to be my woman? -Okay spend weeks being beaten and tested.
• Don't want to be with the Trateri?- To bad you have to- now breath in this venom.
• Finally decide you want to make a home here? Fine, but only if you sleep with me and be my Tolroi.
• Not ready for commitment and kids? To bad, I'm warlord and have already decided.



And don't get me started on the "romance"- I couldn't stand Fallon. He was actually kind of gross and predatory to me. Oh and don't forget about his intense homicidal anger issues.

“Our people have a long standing tradition of seeing a potential partner and then claiming them whether they want to be claimed or not.”

“I suggest you enjoy your run while you can. In the end, you will still be mine, and you will give me what I want.”

Whatever you entitled psycho. Also, after she gave into his advances I just found Shea's decisions to be all over the place- and her loyalties are just as confusing.

“I will never understand bloodshed of this scale. I abhor it with every fiber of my being.” He started to turn from her, and she grabbed the front of his shirt. “No, I don’t understand, but I don’t have to. I will not agree with it; I can’t. It goes against the very bedrock of my being, but I will trust you. And I will not judge you."

okay....so you don't cosign mass murder but you're totally cool with passively watching it happen because this guy is....what?
Good in bed? Super schmexy? Leaving you no choice?



I mean why does he even want the beast infested Lowlands anyway!? How many clans can there possibly be considering the settlements are so few and far between that it seems like there is plenty of land to be had anyways.

Oh man, I'm over this ranty rant.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a pleasant surprise! Usually I'm not a fan of the whole trope of 'girl disguises herself as a boy', but this was well done and relatively believable. I liked that Shea is competent but not without personal faults. Also, not everyone loves her, in fact most people don't trust her. The romance aspects of the story are there but happily doesn't completely overpower the story, this is mainly about how Shea grows as a person. I’d even say the eventual romance is sadly the weakest part of the story (with the villains coming in second place). Luckily the rest of the story and characters makes up for it. I'll read the next one in this series.

[Tandie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book totally sucked me into its world. The scouting and pathfinder skillz were cool. I liked how strong and independent MC Shea was. She’s tricksy and escapes from big bad warlord Fallon. It had one of my favorite tropes, girl disguised as a boy.

Around 65-70% (I’m kind of guessing), the jig is up. Fallon discovers that the woman he’s been searching for has been hiding in plain sight. He makes this discovery after the heroine has saved his life TWICE. He’s been an alpha a-hole for most of the story, but we see glimpses of his humanity. So, I expected that he’d redeem himself. NOPE.

Warlord is way pissed off that Shea defied him and made him look bad. He gives her commands and ultimatums, threatens to beat and whip her for disobedience, gives her demeaning jobs even though she’s been rewarded with the honor of being one of his personal guards, and treats her like crap in front of his men.

The worst part? The heroine eventually gives in to the lusty feels between them (there was zero sexual tension) and POOF, all her moxy is gone. She doesn’t even care about how bad the Warlord of Wankers treats her. There’s no character growth.

They defeat some bad guys, Wank admits that Shea is everything to him, Heroine states she must be treated as his equal, and they all live happily ever after.

Phhhhhhhhhhttttttt!

[Lia Carstairs · Rating 4 out of 5]

  “But she knew better than anybody, home wasn't a place; it's a state of mind."
"It's the people you're with. And for her, those people were all here.”

Shea has got to be one of the most amazing female protagonists I've ever seen.🥰


But Fallon . . . ehhhh he's way too possessive/controlling so as of now, I don't like him at all.😒 Who knows? Maybe he'll change in the next book? altho I rlly can't imagine that lol.


AHhhh I haven't been this invested in a book in so long!!! The world T.A. created is wow, just spectacular.🤯 In this world, it's broken up into the Lowlands & Highlands. There wasn't as much information on the Highlands since most of the book took place in the Lowlands, but hopefully more will be revealed about that area in the next book....?

And then there's all the different types of deadly beasts that lurk in the forest between villages, like giant poisonous spider-like creatures called spinners and shadow beetles that are also giant creepy beetles . . . ooh haha just realized that most of these creatures are basically just humongous versions of insects. *shudder*

Anyways, 25 year old Shea is a pathfinder—someone who's been trained their whole life to work as basically a guide for those who want to travel through the scary forest (that has all those deadly beasts). AND unlike other typical ya novels, Shea doesn't have some special power that makes her different from other girls. She actually trained and worked super hard from birth to be as cunning as she is right now.🔥 Love this girl sm.💖


So how it works is that a pathfinder is assigned to a village to help and Shea lucked out when getting stuck with those fools villagers.
The people there are absolute JERKS and I don't know how Shea was able to have the self-control not to lead them into a nest of spinners, bc I know I wouldn't have been able to—whether it's a pathfinders duty or not. LIKE PAUL I NEVER THOUGHT I'D HATE A GUY NAMED PAUL SO MUCH.👿


After going on a rescue mission to save one of the leader's son from execution in a Lowland village, Shea also happens to save two other strangers also about to be executed. And what does she get in return? Well, one of those men, Fallon, decides that he all of a sudden owns her saying the exact words, "you're mine now." Hence trying to abduct her.


Like wth?!?! Who says that?? oh wait, the alpha controlling freaks do Ahahaha but I love how Shea totally outsmarted him, and was able to escape easily. Of course, the Fallon sees this as a challenge and continues to look for her even after 7 months of the encounter. talk about obsessed

After being betrayed by the villagers they trusted, she and the rest of her team are captured by Fallon's group of men, the Trateri. Buuut once again she's able to slip out of their grasp and omg watching her outsmart them all was just too good.😂🤣

I got major Mulan vibes in this book, with the way she escaped climbing a pole, cutting off her hair to disguise herself as a boy, and during her journey having two hilarious companions reminding me of Yao, Ling, and Chien Po xD.

(Ahh that scene was hilarious xD)

But with disguising herself as a boy, on her way escaping, she gets mistaken for a new recruit as a scout and taken on a mission right away. She plans to escape during said mission, but things happen and eventually the guys in her team start to grow on her and . . . she begins to care for them all. (RIP plans to escape💀)

Although who couldn't love Eamon and Buck??? They were such amazing friends to Shea (going by the name 'Shane' as a boy). With never having friends before, Shea of course couldn't people well, especially with those pathetic and evil villagers you call humans who treated her terribly.

I love that Eamon was able to point out her flaws and even though it wasn't exactly in the nicest way possible, you could easily tell he cared a lot about his little scout. And Buck was the same way xD. The banters between the 3 on their missions was definitely my favourite.😆🥰

Especially watching the evil move Shea would pull on the others.😈😂


I was totally absorbed and loving the first 70% of the book, but (AND I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M SAYING THIS) I would've actually loved this more and given it 5 stars if there was no romance at all.😕 I know, I know. There has to be something wrong with me. I'm always a sucker for romance in books, but with this . . . I was seriously not on board with it.😬

BECAUSE I HATE FALLON. Like the guy was a controlling alpha warlord in the beginning and it was funny seeing him be in awe/struck silent with what Shea would do, but I still not a fan of him at all. And I couldn't believe that Shea actually turned out being in love with the guy who both threatened and kidnapped her!!!

Stockholm syndrome, anyone?🤔


AHHh just nope nope. I can't. It was absolutely revolting seeing the romance between them (if you could even call it that). AND HE STILL TRIES TO CONTROL HER!!! WTH???? That seriously just ruined a part of the book for me and if it wasn't for the first 70% being fantastic, I would've given this 2/3 stars bc of how disgusted I was of it. Especially with Shea's personality, I'd never think she'd actually like him, better yet love him.🤢


Sure he's honorable and not cruel, but like his nature . . . just no.
If Fallon does not go through some major character development/become less a controlling freak, that is . . . I don't even know what to say.🤦‍♀️

But yeah, other than those questionable choices made at the end of the novel, this was bloody amazing!!!😍 I hope the sequel is just as good, altho I'm also scared to read it based on some uhhh mixed reviews.😅

(4.5⭐)

[Nicole · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am trying to find negative reviews for this book. It’s not easy. Have I read by mistake a draft? This book surely reads like one. A first try to write a novel (and an unsuccessful one). How are we just ok with a love interest who will “claim” another person regardless of their consent? Someone who will conquer just for power? A MC who is supposed to be strong yet gets continuously mistreated? Even when people underestimate her and are proven wrong..

I was lured by the interesting premise and the first chapter was interesting. Until we got to meet Fallon and I was perplexed then. This is the beloved MC? I wanted to drop the book at 15% but I figured it would be unfair to rate it 1 star then. But now it’s well deserved.

What a waste of time. More thoughts to come.

[Brittain *Needs a Nap and a Drink* · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think that I can sing this book's praises enough to fully do it justice but hot damn I'm going to try my best!



One of the most problematic things I see in literature today is when a character falls in love and instantly loses everything that makes them interesting. They become wrapped up in whomever they are attached to and their personality just fades into the background. And holy shit this book does not do this at all!

But let me back up a bit and start at the beginning.

Shea is a pathfinder, one of the few people in the Highlands that can safely navigate between villages. Her village relies on her for trade and communication with the outside world. However, despite them being reliant on her, the villagers treat Shea like shit. They have tossed her in the nastiest house in the village and blame every mistake on her, even if she had absolutely nothing to do with it. So when she gets sent on a mission to save some idiots from another town, she does so recognizing that she will get nothing in return for the rescue.

"She got the kind of feeling she sometimes got when life was about to kick her in the teeth. The kind where all the rules got thrown out, and her world was set on its head."

When she gets there though, she also saves a charismatic man with eyes the color of whiskey who is instantly captivated by her.

This is not an insta-love story though.

Her village betrays Shea and she finds herself a captive of a barbarian culture where she is mistaken for a scout. This culture is rough and violent but they treat her skills with respect and she realizes that she is much more free there, despite her captivity, than when she was in the Highlands. Disguised as a boy, Shea becomes comfortable in this society where women and men are treated equally. And when the powerful Warlord enters the story, Shea finds it harder and harder to run away.

Okay, back to the fangirling.

Shea has wonderful skills that were learned through hard work and persistence. Nothing was given to her. She worked hard for years to get where she was and she takes intense pride in her work. Furthermore, she is strong and opinionated which is something that ruffles feathers but she is more often than not correct with her deductions and decisions. What makes her interesting is that she does mess up. Shea messes up in grand ways and she is belligerent with her commanding officers. They keep her around only because she is good at what she does.

"One day she was going to get control of herself and stop doing stupid shit to save ungrateful idiots."

They are not holding onto her because she is a girl. They don't baby her. She proves that she is strong enough for the job.

"Her squad leader said she won’t shut up if she thinks she’s in the right. Said he’s never seen someone do quiet insubordination so well."

What is even better is that her character is steady. Falling in love, getting promoted, being nearly killed...it doesn't change her personality on a fundamental level. Sure, she may be more cautious but she stays stubborn and sticks to her guns. Her man is not able to push her over at all and she recognizes that she is not where she is because she is female and has a body but because her man respects her as a human being first.



This book also has great world building going on. My only nitpicking bit is that I wish that there had been more. This book could have been another 200 pages and I still would have been captivated. I wish that there had been more descriptions of what was going on in the world and in the camp. All we got was a little slice of life which was functional for this book but I wanted more!

I was entranced throughout this book. It is so hard to find a good female character in a book that stays in character throughout. Also, the love story, while it was present, was not the defining moment in this book. It was a lovely and exciting addition but it wasn't the centerpoint like it is in so many other books. You know that Shea could have easily made it out without a man but she made her choices based on her feelings. Everything that she does has purpose and intent and I am just so thrilled to have found this book!

[Lyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Abysmal. The sexual and relationship politics is revolting. I know that psychological and emotional abuse is sadly common in romance novels but this takes it to another level. Physical assault, sexual assault, emotional and psychological abuse, alienation and manipulation; I couldn’t finish this book. I got nearly to the end—I like to make a point of at least finishing books even if I don’t like them—but I got to the scene where they “confess their feelings” and I had to stop. She stays because she’s desperately lonely because he has alienated her from all outside support, and because she has nowhere else to go: those are the tactics that real life abusers use on their victims to make them stay.
This book made me beyond angry, it made me depressed.

[Giorgia Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favourite series! The world building is great, the plot is better, the main character’s growth is just *chef’s kiss* what else can I ask for?.. oh yeah, there's romance too.

I marathoned through all 3 books without stopping. Then I went through withdrawals and kept re-reading parts. Fallon and Shea are up there with other great fictional couples. Their dynamic was great from the start and only developed once both of them started understanding each other and respecting their individual cultures and personalities.

[Mindy Lou's Book Review · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure I would have ever stumbled upon this gem if it wasn't for seeing this being recommended and compared to another book I loved. I actually don't think it's similar to that book because this was just too unique on it's own.

As far as I know, there are only 3 books in the series. It's good to know that because the romance part of this was very slow. So slow that the hero and heroine weren't even in the same vicinity for some of this book. For some of the other part they were...well let me just say, they might as well have not been in the same vicinity. I'm vague only because I don't want to give away all Shae's secrets.

Don't let that deter you. Even though the romance was very slow in this first book, there is much to keep your attention. Shae was a unique heroine and had me completely consumed in this book. I really enjoy strong, smart heroines and you get that with Shae. She's very cunning and that really had me riveted to this story.

Fallon is just as good of a reason to love this book. He's a warlord and head of his clan. He is also very smart and cunning. He's trying to find a better way for his and the other clans to co-exist. Not everyone wants that change and attempts on his life has proven that. What I really loved about Fallon was that he is pretty obsessed with Shae and has proven that he will have her against all odds.

As much as I was looking forward to him and Shae finally getting together, my love for Fallon was in jeopardy of falling with his treatment of her. I didn't like how he treated her when she denied him. I realize why he did it, and ultimately it was to push her in the right direction, it just seemed harsh.

The disrespect Shae has had to deal with from the very beginning was getting to be too much when it got to the point where Fallon came in. I think I was just over her bad treatment at that point, so that doesn't exactly fall all on Fallons shoulders.

This was a very creative world building with fascinating characters. Book 1 did not end on a cliffhanger but you can also tell it's not the end of their story. Since we finally see them at the point I wanted to see them at the end, I'm excited to move onto book 2 to witness the next level of Fallon and Shae's relationship.

[Suz · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story started out quite well and I liked the MC a lot - in the beginning.

Then the romance kicked in and I went from "oh no" to "not lovin' this" to "this is gross." I am just not a fan of the kidnap-her-and-abuse-her-until-she-loves-you trope. My memory is too long and few things can redeem someone who starts that way to my mind. Also, once a woman "falls" for a guy that does that to her then it doesn't matter how well she was written I immediately see her as stupid and that rarely ever goes away.

I won't be pursuing this series.

[Mei · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started this book thinking it will be a high fantasy novel, but instead I've read a post-apocalyptic one!

I was expecting some kind of magic, but there's absolutely no magic abilities here! Instead we have a young (not so much since she's 29) woman with a very specialized set of skills.

Shea is a pathfinder. Pathfinders are a guild members who are trained to find a safe way from one place to another. The guild is a very powerful one that controls the Highlands, a region of this new and very dangerous Earth, keeping the clans there in check-mate supplying one pathfinder to each village and if that village loose him or kill him there will be no other sent there, thus the village, becoming isolated, will die...


Actually it is never stated that this is Earth, but I supposed it because there are fire-arms and devices of mass destruction, monsters that are mutated animals (the red-backs reminded me of hyenas), badlands where nothing grows... In my mind this was Earth after a nuclear war.

Unfortunately for Shea, her village arranged to have her sold to an invading army and that's how she ends in Fallons hands...

I don't want to spoil the story, but I'll tell you that I enjoyed more the first part of the book where Shea pretends to be a man, a scout, in order to run away from Fallon. But, besides being a highly competent pathfinder/scout, she's a loner and the friendship she finds between the scouts is very appealing. So she remains and helps them. In this part abound difficult and dangerous situations and it's very good!

In the second part is when Shea is revealed as female Fallon is looking for and their dancing around each other begins. This part reads too much like romance even if it shows us how both Fallon and Shea react when their convinctions are put to test.

All in all and interesting book! Now perfect but still good! On to the next!

[Mareeva · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Okay wow. This book was hands down great. I can't believe I almost dnfed. When I started reading it, I was loving the heroine (Ill get to that in a sec) and the plot was very interesting but unfortunately, I was in a very shitty mood and for some reason out of it. So I almost didn’t finish it, but I am so glad I did.


Here is what I loved about Shea (heroine):
- She is a certified badass
- Very mature and a has a no-nonsense attitude
- Hella intelligent
- logical, has good common sense
- Worked hard for the skills she has
- Doesn’t steep as low as the men who underestimate and insult her by insulting back. (Although sometimes she has a very classy come back that puts a person right in their place)
- A Random one but one I appreciated nonetheless. She isn’t described as drop dead gorgeous repeatedly by everyone, as many fantasy books with female leads tend to do. She was described as pretty several times but also as average. She herself doesn’t seem to give a single shit about her appearance. I will admit, I usually like the female lead to be attractive and to many that might sound a little shallow, but I read to dive into a completely foreign life and become a completely different person, that yea I'll confess I would like to be prettier than myself. But in this case, it was a relief Shea was average like many of us because it just makes her more real.

There are about a million other things I love about Shea that I could list forever. Unfortunately, my fingers can’t take that much typing.
What else is there to need anyways?


The author did a very good job at creating characters you could feel strongly about, cause the rest of em you either LOVED or HATED. The only character I was a little confused about is Fallon. I couldn't seem to necessarily feel either with him.
He does some questionable things that also...kind of....maybe don't bother me as much as they should…


HOWEVER

He won me over at the end there, after he actually gave her a choice to go back to her home the highlands. No that wasn’t the thing that won me over (Although it was a very cute moment)

but this quote did:

“Arching one eyebrow, he told her, “You should also know, should you choose to return to your Highlands, that once I have dealt with the traitors in my midst, I will march my army into the heart of those lands and not stop until I have you again.”
After a stunned moment, Shea threw her head back and laughed. “You are a warlord.”

The plot itself was amazing as I've already expressed. I was up until 5 am yesterday, quite literally feasting on my nails from anticipation. It took a damn while for Shane to finally be revealed as Shea. But even though I was dying for the big secret to finally be revealed, I feel the author did it at a perfect time.

Basically me when Fallon looked right AT HER and didn't recognise her


The world building was immaculate. Miss White did an excellent job of creating the beasts in the most authentic way. I could genuinely believe those creatures might be real somewhere out there.


Another thing I loved, is there aren’t long and vivid descriptions of how Shea or Fallon think of each other all day long after that one meeting, or some other cliche bull like that. It's kinda unfortunate I even have to mention it, but almost every fantasy romance I've read recently had this.
There are physical descriptions of course, but they were written in a way that actually didn’t make me cringe. I am usually not a fan of long descriptions that include “Looking at him once spread heat to my core” or “I saw him only for a total of 2.5 seconds, but I've already never met a person quite like him out of all the 7 billion fucking people on this planet” (If you know, you know.)

But do not mistake my last statement for a lack of romance. There was romance, especially towards the end of the book. The majority of the story is about Shea's adventures with the scout team. But when there is romance, you could clearly see the chemistry between Shea and Fallon. I wouldn't say they are cute, not in the traditional sense but in their own way they are. Fallon has many gentle moments where he expresses how he feels towards Shea but he also doesn't treat her like she is beneath him. He knows she can take on just as much as any other man, personal guard or scout and he treats her as such.

Overall my final thoughts on the book:


-----------
UPDATE 03.2021:
Why oh why did I not continue this? ONCE AGAIN I'm revisiting the first book before I finish the series cause gotta learn some discipline up in this bih.

[Denisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been looking for you for ages!


This was a very unexpected read. I expected to like it, but not to absolutely LOVE it!

Where do I even start? This series is perfect!

Amazing world-builder? CHECK
Great, inspiring, complex characters? CHECK
Wonderful, hard-to-stop-reading, full-of-action plot? CHECK
Perfect writing style? CHECK
Unexpected & surprising? CHECK
It even has a bit of romance, but not so much as to be called a romance book.
This list could go on and on and on


I really have nothing bad to say about this series. The books get better and better, and after a while, this became one of my favorite series.
The only thing I would have liked, well, I wanted it to be a bit longer.
It's a trilogy, basically. Yes, the story continues, but with different characters, so it will not be the same. I'll read it later, right now I have to feel sad after leaving these characters.


The series is unexpected, incredible, and just so, so good!
Give it a try and you will be surprised

[Celestine · Rating 5 out of 5]

"No man enjoyed rejection and that doubled for a warlord used to taking what he wanted."
If you love a confident, strong, independent, smart, yet flawed heroine, then you are going to love the person doing the rejecting in this story, the bold and fearless scout, Shea. This book takes a considerable amount of time setting up Shea's character and amply illustrates her intelligence, intuition and bravery. Most of the interaction between Shea and Warlord Fallon comes in the last third of the book, and I didn't mind the wait one bit.

Author T.A. White has set up a world that will enthrall and engross you at the same time it confuses and confounds. I have finished two out of what I believe is a 3-part series, and I am still no closer to understanding what has happened in this world. Some great calamity took an advanced civilization from technology and abundance to scarcity and damage. Some portions of the world are unlivable, and the conflict among humans of the Outlands, the Highlands and the Lowlands is to manage and share resources in a dangerous time and place. However, they all universally agree that they must avoid the Badlands. Is this Earth in a distant future? Is it another world? How many generations have passed since the collapse? Are the creatures paranormal or are they manipulated from some horrid radiation? These answers plague me at the same time I am thrilled with every scary encounter between the humans and the many beasts that inhabit the world.

The deprivation has given rise to two powerful factions. One is the Pathfinders, a guild of guides who know the creatures of this world best and have access to maps and other types of knowledge, and who maintain links between isolated communities of humans. The other faction is the conquering army from the Outlands, where disease and starvation are nearly epidemic, and they are pushing into the relative riches of the Lowlands in order to save their people. In a sense, they remind me of the invasions of the Huns or the Visigoths.

This complicated world is the backdrop for the story of Shea, an extremely talented but isolated Pathfinder, and Fallon, the general of the clans invading the Lowlands. Shea's talent, ingenuity and sheer guts brings her to the attention of Fallon, and he is the sort to appreciate such things. And want such things. And work hard to possess such things. Luckily, pathfinder Shea is immensely capable of hiding from an invading army in the most unlikely of places. There is a long digression in exactly how she manages to evade Fallon, and it is an epic adventure tale. While Shea manages to save the day on many occasions, it is also worth noting that her own personal flaws, such as pride, reticence and lack of trust, manage to cause problems as well. There is great buddy-story action throughout the novel. In addition, hints of familiar epic fantasies will tickle at the edges of the framework, but White manages to make them her own.

Eventually, though, Shea is caught, but that is not the end of the chase for Fallon since she tells him, "I'm a scout, not a bedmate." Luckily, this is just the beginning taste of what will become an epic love story.

In the final analysis, I very, very much enjoyed this book, and rapidly downloaded the second installment, which I might have liked even more. I am anxiously awaiting the third. The over-arching plot is hanging in the beyond, but the immediate crises with specific villains conclude at the end of each book. The love story contains adult situations.

Book source: Purchased

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

The world building was interesting and it was cruising at a 3.5 * until the reveal.

Honestly this was like the pov of a creepy kidnapping stalker. Her choices didn't matter, her opinions didn't matter, her skills became irrelevant as she was pushed into a role she didn't want. AARG makes my skin crawl and rage burn in my heart that THIS is someone's idea of a romance.
This is someone I'd do my damndest to get my friends and family AWAY from.

Based on the snippet of a different series the author provided at the end ... he/she likes putting the heroine in no choice situations and would probably have her end up with someone I would classify as an abuser. ><

[Mara · Rating 4 out of 5]

And I keep rereading it...

An author to keep an eye on. Lovely fantasy, with a good heroine, plot and world building (not strong, but good enough).
For those who loves very few angst, still mantaining good characterization.

Some editing mistakes.

[Minni Mouse · Rating 2 out of 5]

I swear I have keyword tags out there for magic words like "warlord" and "enemies-turned-lovers," so when Pathfinder's Way hit both those keywords and was likened to Warprize I was like:



Well. Can't win them all, I suppose.

THE GOOD
Our main character isn't a damsel in distress. Rather, she's the one continually saving the men or leading the village. She's physically strong, bold and decisive, and clever.

THE BAD
1) The writing was extremely out of place with what I'm assuming was supposed to be a no-later-than-19-century timeframe. The narrative and dialogue consistently slipped into modern day speech cadences or phrases like "bite the bullet" or "shoot the shit" to the point where it completely destroyed whatever believable world-building we were going for.

2) The plot wasn't for me.

3) Our main male character, Fallon, wasn't for me either.

4) Medicore character development.

THE VERDICT
At this point, I think I've exhausted my "warlord-enemies-turned-lovers" luck. I'll have to come to terms with the fact that there'll never be another Warprize, Golden Dynasty, or even The Night Bird.

[Bt · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was TERRIBLE. HORRIBLE. ZERO STARS. Let me make a list of some things that our supposed romantic hero does in this book (get ready to BARF):

-Mass murders hundreds if not thousands of people
-Burns villages to the ground unless they can pay him not to
-Threatens to torture/kill all the heroine's friends if she won't do what he wants
-Thinks about raping the heroine
-Says that men in his family always capture women and make them be their mistresses, partially because it "adds spice to the relationship"
-Subjects the heroine to "trials" which involve his men whipping her, beating her bloody, and putting her in a magic, drugged fire
-Kidnaps the heroine multiple times (including right after she saved his life)
-Gets into the heroine's bed while she's asleep and his prisoner, and then starts kissing and threatening her
-Enslaves/conscripts people and sends them to the front lines of his army to die

This is NOT COOL, NOT SEXY, and NOT ROMANTIC. It's just disgusting and horrifying. And he does not repent of any of it. But somehow, in the end, our heroine, who is normally smart and capable and awesome, loses all her senses and decides he's the guy for her. ARGH!!! BARF, BARF, BARF.

I was really enjoying this book at the beginning. It was about a really cool Pathfinder girl who guides people through dangerous forests and helps save them from giant beasts that are trying to kill them. It started out so awesome! And she's sarcastic and fun and really good at what she does, and she saves everyone. It was great!

But then, for some reason, she starts getting weird Stockholm syndrome and convinces herself that all the people being mass murdered deserve to be mass murdered. So it's ok if she helps the murderers a little.

I kept thinking she was going to come to her senses and do something to change things. And after all the horrible stuff the hero did, I kept waiting for her to TAKE HIM DOWN. I mean, he didn't even have a personality other than "radiating power" and being crazy possessive and having "whiskey colored eyes" (and eye color is not even a personality trait!). But NOPE! Even though he ultimately wants to kill her people and take over their land, she admits she has always wanted his beautiful body and agrees to be his mistress! (oh, and I was told there was no sex in this book, but there is definitely explicit sex ):

This book was horrible. How did this even get published?!

[Carvanz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book came highly recommended, and even though I hate trilogies, I dug in. And I am so glad I have the best book buddy ever!

While this doesn’t have a lot of romance in it, it has enough to keep me going when that part of the story lagged. It also wasn’t difficult because Shea was one serious kick butt heroine. She was smart and totally capable of taking care of herself in a land that is dangerous even for the most trained warriors. But it isn’t her skills to do battle, of which she has little, that make her strong, it’s her ability to think ahead and strategize as to the best course of action. She amazed me with her insights.





Fallon, the warlord of the Trateri, was everything I hunger for in a hero. From the first moment he meets Shea he claims her as his own.

”You’re not going to let me go are you?” she asked with a sinking feeling.
His eyes held hers as he shook his head once. “No.”
“I saved you and your man.”
“For which I’m grateful, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re mine now.”

When she escapes from him, he finds her even more intriguing and then sets out to have his whole army on the lookout for her. Months pass and he is still obsessed with her, determined to keep her once he finds her again.

What follows is a thrilling story as Shea disguises herself as a male and is caught up in Fallon’s army. Acting as scout, and using her innate abilities, she helps to save her team from the beasts that rule the lands they travel through. But when she ends up actively saving the Warlord himself, her disguise suddenly becomes very flimsy indeed.

“You are a constantly evolving puzzle. It drives me mad, and for someone like me, who can guess an opponent’s move before they even make it, that is more attractive than a fragile thing like appearance could ever be. You ask why you. How could it be any but you?”





This has so many incredible scenes of action in a world that was clearly defined for the reader without bogging the story down. Each amazing battle against strange beasts was carefully crafted in a way to draw me in without being wordy to where I wanted to skim.

The last 25% of the story has Shea and Fallon on the same pages and let me say, it was awesome! Together, they had some serious chemistry that absolutely sizzled across the pages.





The secondary characters are just as important to the story and many of them I can’t wait to read more about. I’m hoping to have all my heart’s desires for this hero and heroine, as well as every one of these characters, met as I continue on in the series.

Mainly heroine POV with some of hero
Safe no ow/om drama; h is not virgin; H is not made out to be manwhore; uncertain as to whether he’s been with others during the months separated – a tiny thought from h leads me think he has In all these months, Shea had never heard even a whisper of him forcing someone to his bed. Oh there were plenty of women in it. Just, they were all there voluntarily. Even some Lowland girls. So the rumors went.
Triggers violence

[Katyana · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a lot about this book that I liked, but I really struggled with Fallon. Nothing in this book, until the veeeeeerry end, sold whatever feelings Shea had for him. He treats her like his slave - one that he's going to abuse until she agrees to become his whore. It was so off-putting that I nearly quit at several points.

I don't particularly like him or his people - with the exception of Shea's friends - nor their casual cruelty. But the last 10% was solid, to me, and marked a bit of a turning point. So I'm going to read on and see where it goes.

****3.5****

Re-read Dec 2023
This series is a favorite, though I struggle a bit with the first book. This is fantasy romance, barbarian style - warlord/alpha MMC that begins by bulldozing the FMC quite a bit. The FMC is a very 3-dimensional badass, complete with flaws. She's used to expecting the worst from people, and has a long history of it (alluded to in this first book, but we get more detail later).

There are a lot of series that start out this way that I struggle with, but adore once we're over that first hurdle. Books where it is hard for me to justify because the guy is pretty toxic at first. There are two things that make it tolerable for me:

1 - it's fiction, so I can forgive stuff I wouldn't IRL as long as they don't cross any unforgivable lines (like, rape = immediate DNF for me)

2 - making some allowances for his culture. Fallon (the MMC) is a warlord in a culture of nomadic tribal people, which are organized into clans. The clans often war with each other, and so their "marriage" tradition (in quotes because they call it something else, but it amounts to the same thing - a beloved equal partner) is kidnapping your chosen mate from their clan and slowly winning their trust and loyalty. To be fair, that's not uncommon in highlander books either - it's kind of a common trope in clan-type medieval style books. And if you look at it from that perspective, Fallon's actions become a bit more understandable. He never hurts her - it isn't about hurting her, and in fact because the point is to win the trust of their chosen partner, the abduction is the beginning of a slow wooing and abuse would utterly undercut that. So I can live with it when that needle is carefully thread, as it is here.

Anyway, YMMV of course, but this series is a favorite for me.

[Kati · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is in the vein of Warprize and The Golden Dynasty but with it's own unique world and characters. It captured me rather early on and the adventure was so absorbing it was hard to step away from it and go back into the real world! The main and secondary characters were very well done, the setting was vivid and the story fast paced. I'm delighted to have found this author and look forward to more books from her.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for the second time and although my rating still stants, some of my opinion has changed because of course :D
Last time I did not buy Fallon as a romantic love interest, this time around I did not understand Shae as a romantic heroine. My view of Fallon definitely improved and while I still loved Shea's competence at her job (I am a sucker for competence porn with female leads, I don't need to be held by the hand and see people learn, I want to read about awesome ladies who are GREAT at what they do already), the rest of her personality left me pretty cold. I don't think that I was that much more enthused about her last time either, it was just that I have more issues with Fallon than with Shea in 2016. Ah well, at least now I have the second book in the series and we will see how this continues.

--
Original review

Pathfinder's Way has an interesting setup, I just wish parts of the story had been better executed. This is a romance with.. very little actual romance, just the beginning of something that could develop into a more tender connection than whatever grew during the course of the story.

The pacing is a bit confusing - after their first meeting, the hero and heroine spend the majority of the story apart and we get to see her excel at her job as a scout.. all while pretending to be a boy in the army of the hero, whom she is actively trying to avoid. Oh yeah, and as he is the warlord it is actually his army and he is trying to invade her lands.

I did enjoy reading about Shea's scouting adventures, it was gratifying to read about a female lead being good at her thing (without drifting into Mary Sue territory). However, the story went downhill for me after the big gender reveal and the will-they-wont-they until the oh-I-guess-I-actually-can-imagine-having-feelings-for-you. It was neither an engaging romance and Fallon just completely failed to engage me as a romantic interest. The ending also was terribly abrupt, wtf. Basically, the first part could have been four stars with a few improvements - the setting was original and I loved the heroine being capable at her job. I enjoyed the hero pursuing *her* and confessing his intentions (however primitively worded due to manly warlord constructions) first. And yet.. the second part or rather the last third just felt unfinished and unsatisfying to me, and thus my rating is three stars.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Firebird Chronicles this is not and I know I shouldn't compare because these series could not be more different it however does pain me to say that I didn't completely like this book. I'll start off however with what I liked.

1.) The writing style is original and captivating.
2.) The premise of the book and how it is setup with all the Beasts that there are and how the Lowlands, Highlands and Badlands were split.
3.) Fallon and his clans.

What I didn't like

And this is a major one which outweighs the rest of the positive points.

1.) Shea, the heroine of the book. I liked her as a Pathfinder however I didn#t quite get her reasons for staying. Yes, she began to feel as if she belonged but still she is put between a rock and a hard place and the only option was to capitulate. That was her whole plan. Nope didn't work for me.

You win some you loose some. Just because I didn't like it doesn't mean you won't.

[Abcdbooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read rules of redemption and really liked it so I read this one. Most of the book is great. Shea and her friends are developed in a unique way. There’s a guy who wants her but she’s not interested so she does her own thing. The last quarter of the book was very disappointing however. Ended up being a DNF. Essentially the male interest blackmails her into becoming his girlfriend/fuck buddy??!! He’s controlling and basically tries to break her of her refusal to sleep with him by ordering her around and threatening her friends. In the end she’s cool with it despite spending the ENTIRE book hiding from him..... seemed like a drastic shift in character to me. I’m tired of reading about interesting women who give up everything they enjoy to be with a controlling and frankly gross dude.

[Renegade ♥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 1/2 stars

[Ira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic story!
Review will be on book#3, after I finished read Shea’s and Fallon’s trilogy.

❤️❤️❤️