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eb00kie 's review for:
Pathfinder's Way
by T.A. White
Friendly advice: wait until she gets unmasked as a chick. Literally, someone throws everyone out of the room. Take your cue. Close the book, open the Table of Contents and skip to Chapter 23. You're welcome.
This book has three parts.
1) Pre-imbecile, there's a really entertaining book. 4 Stars
2) Post-imbecile, it's Mr. Put-You-On-My-Shoulder. 1 Star
3) Post-going steady, it's finally going back to the good stuff - worldbuilding and characters and adventures 3 Stars
If it's not clear, Part 3 starts at chapter 23. The quality jumps so sharply from one section to the next it's really easy to point out. I almost DNF'd this. Now I'm just really curious whether someone else wrote part 2. Or parts 1 and 3. Must have been the editor.
I don't get it. How does it start from a smart, competent protagonist climbing the ranks with genuine character development and ends with her agreeing to stay with Tarzan's missing link cousin? Coercion is not my cup of tea and relationship-wise, her acceptance makes zero sense. The first time, she was basically high and the feelz got her. Charming standards,
Afterwards, it boiled down to a clearly stated choice:
A) Be my mistress-with-benefits #SpoilerAlert
B) Leave your friends and the society you proved yourself to and go back to your people, who are misogynistic and intermittently backstabbing
So boring. He gives no shits about her skills or her job, and for all his supposed intelligence, he's a grade-A moron. Gets stabbed in the back and basically goes "Ok, who did this?!" and then keeps looking cool while having betrayal-related near-death experiences.
That, my friends, is an imbecile.
I'll give the book this, they make it really clear that at least if he were killed, it would leave a vacuum of power that his army would take advantage of to lay waste to the lowlands--
SEE? This is what I'm talking about. Delightful worldbuilding, atrocious romance.
So when it goes back to the adventure and the killing, I can almost consider it a palate cleanser for the poor quality shit I read in the middle.