I will be completely honest and say I enjoyed the first half of the book, so I'll start with the positive before I get to the portion of the novel that ruined it for me.

The concept of this novel was pretty interesting. I went into this novel without any background knowledge so I admit at first I thought this book was about to turn into a sci-fi novel about time travel, but I'm glad that wasn't the case here. I enjoyed getting to know Zac and Ella and all the history and flashbacks.

I was fully getting into this novel when this concept (*SLIGHT SPOILER*) of a girl throwing her life away for a guy was introduced. This actually made me do a double take and I felt like this novel could have worked out so well if it wasn't for this misogynistic concept. Why should girls have nothing else to value except for some guy who's meant to save them? This was clearly very infuriating for me and I really couldn't enjoy the book at this point, but of course, the plot moves on and the rest of the book wasn't all too bad.

Ultimately I decided to give this novel 2.5 stars because I thought this book had potential, but it ruined itself. While sometimes the first book in a series is a flop and the rest of the series can help pick things up, I don't think I'll be able to finish the rest of this series.

DNF'd this book. I did not feel compelled to finish this book at all. Trigger warning for mentions of rape as well as it felt like a rip off of other famous YA novels, re-written to make a novel.

***This ARC was provided by BHC Press in exchange for an honest review***

This review and others can be found on my blog, Black Forest Basilisks.

Execution: ⭐
Enjoyment: ⭐

Key Descriptors: YA, YA romance, fantasy, self-insert romance

Premise: Ella, daughter of multimillionaire hotel-owning parents, meets a mysterious boy and immediately falls in love. Mysterious Boy keeps making excuses not to be with her, thus making her love him even more. You see, Ella is supposed to be on a ~life path~ that doesn’t include Mysterious Boy.

Review: WARNING: This book was a real trip. Long rant-review incoming.

This is actually the worst book I’ve ever read. Literally, the worst book. I’ve read and enjoyed some trash in my time, but the only reason I kept going with The Path Keeper was to see just how far this train wreck could take me. This book is essentially what you’d get if you took Twilight, removed everything about it that was even remotely interesting, and THEN you added in a dose of super fun sexual assault and a variety of other utterly tasteless spices to the whole hot mess. Almost every decision Bella, whoops, I mean ELLA, made me want to (╯°□°）╯︵ 📘 The Path Keeper out the window.

The first portion of this review will contain only the most minor of spoilers, none of which will reveal the over-arching plot or any of the big “reveals,” for you poor souls who are still thinking about reading this book. Spoilers will, however, abound in the second half for anyone who’d like to experience The Path Keeper in full without actually having to subject yourselves to reading it.

This book is aggressively mediocre and bland right up until it turns into a hot mess trying to deal with extremely sensitive topics (suicide, sexual abuse, etc) in utterly tone-deaf ways. Then it becomes mediocre and bland again for the ending. The premise isn’t even touched on in the first half of the book – there’s supposed to be some sort of time mythology going on in the background, hinted at by some WWII scenes that feel shoe-horned int, but the first 44% of the book doesn’t explain any portion of the premise at all.

At least in Twilight, Bella is smart enough to very quickly realize something is up with Edward. She recognizes that he’s strange and odd right away. Ella is pretty much just utterly oblivious to anything supernatural happening. She’s supposed to be in college – you’d think she’d have just a tab bit more awareness. Ella continuously makes utterly stupid decisions throughout the whole of The Path Keeper.

In the latter half of the book, once the plot actually starts happening, things do actually start to pick up! Unfortunately, every plot point is completely based on Ella doing yet MORE stupid things! If you don’t like topics such as girls committing suicide over boys, sexual assault, et cetera, you really shouldn’t read this book. Ella gets either full-on or almost sexually assaulted around three different times, but it somehow “okay” because Mysterious Time Boy comes to the rescue! It’s romantic, mmmmkay.

There was just nothing good or interesting about any of Ella’s actions, and Mysterious Time Boy is a bit of a White Savior pedantic asshole throughout the whole book. He’s incredibly creepy. A la Twilight, we even get a “he watches her when she sleeps but it’s cute and sweet” scene!

Finally, for an ostensibly YA novel…. the sex scenes are awfully explicit. I sure wouldn’t be handing this to someone in the 12-15 age bracket. Close to 18, sure, but not before then.


All right, major spoiler time. I’m basically going to go through the entire book here, so only join me if you’re in it for the popcorn.

Stupid scene #1: LET’S BUY SOME FRIENDS!

Ella is famous as hell, apparently. Because in this alternate reality, people care about the daughters of hotel millionaires and she has the paparazzi breathing down her neck. NO ONE CARES ABOUT HOTELS IN REAL LIFE. Sure, if they were actors/actresses, but they aren’t! Anyway, Ella goes to some random cafe, and two girls recognize her because she’s sooooooo famous. Ella proceeds to use all of her money and influence to buy them as friends, because why not? They’re going to go to some fancy exclusive club called the Indigo where some other rich guy named Josh is throwing a party!

Stupid scene #2: THE PARTY.

Yay! We made it to The Party. The party primarily is a set up for Ella to make more stupid decisions later. Rich guy Josh comes over to the table where Ella and her two new paid-off lackeys are sitting. Josh is swooning all over Ella, since apparently even though Ella doesn’t think she’s pretty, rich guy Josh does. Unfortunately, he’s a presumptuous asshole about the whole thing. Ella exchanges, oh, three or four sentences with the guy. Take note: three or four sentences. That’s it. Ella skedaddles off to the bar to get a drink. What do you know! Mysterious Time Boy is here! She falls all over him and basically begs him to have sex with her. Oh, the romance.

Stupid scene #3: THE OTHER PARTY

Ella’s parents are going to some other party a few days later. Ella has still only known Mysterious Time Boy for around a week at this point. At the party, her parents introduce her to some stereotypical Nice Guy who’s speaking in that faux Victorian English that is the Nice Guy stereotype. The logical reaction here would be to excuse yourself and quietly inform the bartender that the Nice Guy was bothering you – or simply avoid him or tell him to lay off directly. Easy! Unfortunately, that’s far too easy for Ella. Ella notices Rich Guy Josh is here at the party too! Obviously, the BEST way to get Nice Guy to leave her alone is to lie, saying she has a boyfriend, and to go over and make out with Josh, let him blatantly feel her up in front of all the party-goers, and generally put on a show for the whole room. Because gotta add some veracity to that boyfriend lie, amirite? Remember: ELLA HAS ONLY SPOKEN WITH JOSH FOR A TOTAL OF FIVE MINUTES PRIOR TO THIS SCENE. What the actual fuck is wrong with you, Ella?

“No, he’s still looking,” she said. “I think we need to crank it up a notch.”

NO YOU DON’T, ELLA, YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW HIM.

“I can see why everyone says you’re a great actor. That was a convincing performance.”

“I wasn’t acting,” he said. “I’ve wanted to kiss you for a long time.”

WTF JOSH, YOU’VE ONLY EXCHANGED THREE SENTENCES WITH HER.

Stupid scene #4: THE BUS

Ella is riding on the bus, as you do. Josh also gets on the bus, and he’s pissed off because she doesn’t want to go on a date with him. So he tries to sexually assault her. Yay! Mysterious Time Boy saves Ella. Everything is okay again!


Stupid scene #5: ZOMG he’s actually a VAMPIRE ANGEL

Halfway through the book, Mysterious Time Boy reveals that he’s actually been an angel all along! An actual angel with wings and shit! Ella has been reincarnated hundreds of times throughout history, and he’s been looking after her this whole time. So he’s basically thousands of years old and Ella is around 19, which obviously isn’t something that should get in the way of their romance at all. He’s loved her SO MUCH forever.

But oh no! Angel Boy reveals that the other angels will be angry at him for interfering! Ella’s true destiny is to be with Josh, the boy who tried to fucking sexually assault her on the bus! What the actual fuck is wrong with this book.

Stupid scene #6: YAY MORE SEXUAL ASSAULT

So it turns out Ella’s stepbrother, Sebastian, has been raping her and sexually abusing her all along. Sebastian comes home unexpectedly while Angel Boy is around, tries to rape her again, but then Angel Boy uses the Force to choke him and beats him up. And everything is okay again, and Ella has exactly zero sexual hang ups from this abuse, so they have sex like ten times that night. Then the angels forcibly call him back and he tells her good bye and leaves her, ostensibly forever.

Stupid scene #6: THE LAST PARTY

One more party! This is another one with her parents. Sebastian threatens to rape her again and tries to blackmail her by saying he filmed her having sex with Angel Boy the other night. Ella actually makes a good decision for once, and goes to tell her parents about what’s going on! They believe her, which is great. Unfortunately, Ella follow this up with a characteristic stupid decision: since Angel Boy got called back by the angels, she decides the only way to be reunited with him is to jump off the 97th floor of the building they’re in and kill herself. PS she’s only known Angel Boy for about three weeks now.

THE ENDING

Okay, we’re going to wrap this up here. Angel boy obviously saves her. They go to visit Ella’s real dad. Angel Boy turns out to be a special Angel Boy who is ~secretly~ an archangel, unknown even to him. Also Angel Boy is a pedantic fuck who explains her could have stepped in way earlier when Ella was getting raped and shit, but oh, it’s CHARACTER BUILDING and it’s the LIFE SHE CHOSE and her LIFE PATH. Anyway, then the angels come and Angel Boy reveals the big major archangel Michael is actually his father. Then in a twist Angel Boy kills himself instead of his father which is implied will turn him human or something. It was all bland and stupid.

Thank you all for joining me in this utter train wreck of a YA romance and have a lovely day.

I loved this book, I couldn't put it down and was sad when it ended.
It's well written and with a great plot that mixes different genres creating something unique and original.
I look forward to reading other books by this author.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

The Path Keepers
N.J. Simmonds

What if every coincidence was a tiny miracle? What if our life was already mapped out before birth? What if someone had the power to change the path we were destined to follow?
Natali Drake, who writes under the pen name of N. J. Simmonds debut novel.
The Path Keepers is compelling Novel that intrigues and engages you.
Simmonds’s well developed characters and creative storyline is sure to keep you In suspense. Star crossed romance and thrilling twists.
This one book, that you will not be able to put down. Enjoyable historical elements mixed with mythology. I am looking forward to more of N.J. Simmonds writing.

So at the moment I am stopping this at 60% through because it's about the same things over and over.
Girl meets hot guy
Instant love....regardless of the past
Guy turns out to be a supernatural being
At this point into the book he has already left her like 4 times because even though he is in love with her he just cant be with her.
Oh and he is kind of a jerk.

I wanted to like this as it's fantasy YA by a British author, but it felt very dated already (YA/NA move on fast, and this read like it came out in 2008). I knew there were going to be religious undertones to the book but I just found some of them to be very strange choices that didn't seem necessary (the Jesus stuff could have been cut without affecting the plot much, if at all). The writing style was clear and I thought was well-suited to YA, but the sexual content pushed it up to NA for me. Not for me, I'm afraid.

I 100% admit that the cover (and title) drew my attention to this book first - then the synopsis had me intrigued...

"What if our lives were mapped out before birth? Does anyone have the power to change their destiny?

Ella hates London. She misses her old life in Spain and is struggling to get over her past—until she meets Zac. He’s always loved her but isn’t meant to be part of her story. Not this time. Not ever. Little does she know that his secret is the one thing that will tear them apart and force her to live in a world that no longer makes sense. A world full of danger, lies and magic.

The Path Keeper is a passionate tale of first loves, second chances and the invisible threads that bind us. Can love ever be stronger than fate?"

***********Possible Spoilers**************

I have a tendency to forget the descriptions of books when I am reading on kindle and so as I began I was thinking - Who is Zac? Who is Ella? What is his Job? And as I continued to read I wondered if he was her guardian, did he only watch over her or others too, was he a fate, some kind of destiny, cupid even?

Ella as a character was fun, well written and was refreshingly normal despite what was occurring, I loved her slips into Spanish whenever something went wrong! Zac was instantly likeable despite his outbursts, but you have a good idea that something is not as it seems and make allowances! Her mother had her moments, but mostly she annoyed me, later on I realised why she could be the way she was and it didn't make it okay but it did allow for some understanding,

The switch to the 1940s initially threw me but by this point I had figured out enough to realise Evie was one of Ellas previous incarnations, and as the war time story progressed with Dolly and Ted and we gained insight into the workings of everything. I love the concept.

From this point we learned more and more (though Ella did not straight away) and I adored how everyone in the different time periods came to be who and where they were. I was glad that we heard her mums story and I loved the way everything tied together with all our characters. It made me happy, but also sad because she didn't know who Julianna was and I also really liked the little link to the de Silva's. I don't know if this will become more relevant down the line?

I really liked this version of history, I liked that they (Ella and Zac) had been together in their first lives, that they were the ones who were really meant to be and that we discover important things towards the end that are going to be vital moving forward but we don't fully understand the consequences yet.
We have to wait, and we have to have faith. And I love it!

Thank you to the author and publishers for this ARC edition.

I truly enjoy YA books. It's my favorite genre. I just could not get into this book. I didnt understand why there were so many sex scenes , yet the story also comes across as childish. I dont feel like YA novels need sexual scenes in them.
I was provided this ARC by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I choose this book, because the tittle remember me Patch, from Hush Hush (LOL). It surprise me, cause they show another view about religion, a word without God and the Heaven being commanded by the Archangels, Mikhael as their leader. The remember me the Fallen Series, where the couple failed to be together, cause Luci always died when Daniel kissed her. The only think that annoyed me was the drama Ella always do. I think I've been reading a lot books that the girl doesn't need a boy to doing great things, like destroyed a King and his monarchy. I can't wait for the second book. The finale was great.

The rest of my review could be read in my blog: wanderlustskoob.wordpress.com

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review. I really enjoyed this book, it's not your typical YA book. I feel like it should be more New Adult rather than Young Adult simply because of some of the mature content. It was a fast read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you Netgally and BHC Press!

👼 in between young and new adult - our main character is in university but for some reason, I went into this novel thinking it was categorized as YA. It's a bit confusing because the accurate age range of characters would fit the new adult genre but the way Ella acts can feel a bit childish. We don't get a lot about her life before her mother married Richard and even though she says she's unused to the luxurious lifestyle, she definitely uses her status to her advantage with ease. It was a bit hard to take her seriously at times due to how she reacted to several events in the story.
👼 do you believe in fate? - this novel is definitely rooted in the insta-love trope. Admittedly, our MCs have technically been in love for multiple lifetimes but personally, I'd like a relationship that had more substance. It seems like Ella was infatuated with Zac from the moment they met and that was all she needed to know about him was his physique to become completely obsessed with him.
👼 past lives - since a huge part of the plot revolves around individuals having predestined life paths and focuses on what happens when one doesn't follow said path, the way that past lives were interwoven was definitely an important aspect. Personally, the delivery of Ella's past lives was a bit confusing at first because we jumped from present to multiple past lives randomly. The formatting could have been a bit weird due to my copy being an e-ARC but the different snippets of the past took a while to get used to. On the bright side, all the pieces do eventually fall into place and everything makes sense.

"What if our lives were mapped out before birth? Does anyone have the power to change their destiny?" (Quote from blurb)

I really enjoyed this book, it has an original plot, is fun and is well written. the pace of the story is good, moving you on quickly but with enough time to thoroughly build the world and the characters. This book is about a interesting young lady, living in London, called Ella. She meets a guy with a secret that will change her world forever. She discovers that their world is dangerous and magical and discovers if love is stronger than fate. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading fantasy with a touch of romance.

What if everyone decided what their lives will be like before they were born? Lives with trials, tragedies, love, hurt and the opportunity to make better decisions than in the lives before. To make sure that everyone sticks to their plan after they are born, Path Keepers are sent to earth to guide every person on their way. In each life the same Path Keeper is at the persons side, always watching, never interfering.

When Ella bumps into Zac, she feels an instant connection and attraction to him. It is as if she has known him before and she can’t get him out of her head. When she meets him again in a bar she knows that she can’t live without him. It is clear that Zac has something to hide and is different from anyone else she's ever met. He seems to know all of her fears, is there when she needs protection and has an aura she can’t quite put her finger on.

Again and again Zac pushed Ella away but in the end she knows they are destined for another.

You can probably already tell by my summary that I didn’t like The Path Keeper one bit. After reading the official summary I was sure that this would be a book I’d really enjoy but in the end this was a love story that made me feel sick.

It’s not that there is any abuse between Zac and Ella, or similar, but her obsession with him was disgusting to read about. It is the worst case of insta-love I’ve read about and so heavy handily done that it actually took me almost ten days to finish the book. I just couldn’t take more than a few pages before setting it aside again. If this hadn’t been an ARC I would have DNFed it.

I know the insta-love is supposed to make sense because Zac and Ella
already met in former lives but that doesn’t excuse the neediness that Ella
demonstrates. Zac as the tortured soul who isn’t allowed to have contact with
Ella but breaks the rules out of love is also anything but a loveable
character. The way he changes his mind every couple of minutes made me gag.

If you are expecting a well-developed fantasy world with characters that have any substance to them, The Path Keeper is not it.

Thank you Negalley and BHC Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Oh my! I REALLY enjoyed this book (took me longer to read than I had hoped due to life getting in the way recently!)

This book made me question so many things! But it was so nice to see at the end that some of the events in the book and real!
This amazing book had me upset with loss and so happy for the love that Ella and Zac had together.

I really enjoyed this book from start to finish and I do adore the cover too 😂❤️

can't wait for book 2 ❤️

*This review contains spoilers*

I really wanted to like this book much more than I did. When I read the summary, I was intrigued by the idea of human's lives being chosen on their own at birth and how they sometimes needed guidance to keep them on their right paths. The idea of humans being reincarnated and being given the chance to make the right choices in their next life was interesting to me, The plot between Ella and Zac sounded like a promising, romantic story as well and I was keen to see what would happen between them.

While this book was certainly well written, especially in the segments that featured the past lives of the characters and a particular segment which was the letter Ella's mum wrote for her father, I really had to force myself to finish it.. There were times I enjoyed the story and the romance elements just fine, but there was too much in this book I didn't like that unfortunately meant I simply came out of it knowing I won't be reading the next two books in the series because I don't feel I care about what happens next.

The first big problem I have with this book is the characters themselves. While some of them, especially Ella's mum, grew much more likeable by the end of the book, I spent most of the novel finding the characters extremely tiresome. Ella was particularly frustrating to me. It was like there were two sides to her character and they both really clashed. On one side she was this collected, newly famous girl who was studying and trying to move forward in her life, hopefully with Zac beside her, and on the other was this temper-fuelled, foul-mouthed, selfish and unpredictable personality that I just didn't understand. Her character just didn't work for me and that meant I found it really hard to sympathise with her. I also didn't really engage with Zac. I thought his personality was also really two-sided and I just didn't get a feeling from him that backed up his history with Ella and the way he decided to be with her and turn his back on his life as an angel happened too quickly and too easily. Still, he was a better depicted character than Ella herself.

The biggest problem with this book is the rape subplot and Ella's step-brother, Sebastian. The fact that Ella was struggling with her stepbrother raping her when she was sixteen didn't feel believable to how she acts in the rest of the book. I just didn't get the impression that she'd had such a horrible thing happen to her until that awful scene when Sebastian comes to her room unexpectedly and tries to do it again.. Her fear and anger towards Sebastian in the scene made sense, of course, but the events surrounding it and the fact that she then has sex with Zac straight after the whole violent event were not in line with how someone would react to that kind of ordeal. Sebastian was a terrible, vulgar and manipulative character and I'm just not sure I understand his place in the book or why the author chose to make Ella into a rape victim in this way. If it had been executed with more sensitivity and realistic characterisation, I might have believed it more. But, really, it clashed with the rest of story and sat like a heavy stone in my stomach after I finished reading it.

I had no issue with the whole paranormal/Angel/Religious element of the book (though I will add that some of that stuff made little sense to me) but I was also not super interested in that part of the story. While I thought Zac and Ella's romance happened a little too fast, I did enjoy some parts of how they came together and fell in love.

Overall, this novel just wasn't for me. While I thought the writing was fine and at times even whimsical in its portrayal of love and loss, I didn't like the characters and there were too many elements in the plot that just needed a lot of work in my opinion. Some readers may really love this book for it's compelling portrayal of history, romance, angels and reincarnation, but for me there were too many negatives that got in the way of the positives.

I liked the cover. I probably should have read a bit further before requesting it on Netgalley. Ella has it all in London, but she can't find her place until she meets her stalker, ehm love interest. He spends the entire book saying how he always loved her, through all her previous lives. That is not scary at all.

It was one of the most cringe worthy romances I read in a long while. After she meets Zac there is not a single thing besides him that she can do or think about. He will break the rules, just for her. Add to this a random attempted rape, which was completely glanced over, and a rather ridiculous subplot about Ella's parents and I found I was not really caring any more about any of the big revelations with the angels, who may or may not play a part in life.

It was a fast read, sure, but I never got into the story. The characters don't really have a personality besides loving each other. This was definitely not for me.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I received and ARC of this book thanks to Netgalley in exchange of an honest review, the one you're going to read.
I'm sorry to say but this is not a book I liked. It's fair to say that I struggled since the beginning and near the end I was shocked. This is not what I want to read, it looked like reading a series of stereotypes. The main character, Ella, is so annoying and making her swearing all the times makes her even more annoying. Zak is clearly a stalker, I don't care who he really is, the truth is that he's a stalker.
I don't wanna talk about the religious part because it's completely absurd. Mind me I'm not a very religious person but I don't think anyone can bend any type of religious belief for their purposes.
The finale was one gigantic WTF.
Maybe the book isn't that bad, maybe it's just me that I cannot understand the real meaning of The Path Keeper (and of many YA books that are published, so I decided to not apply anymore for YA books ARCs ) but I don't think I'll read the next book in the series.

I loved this book! It wasn’t anything like I was expecting a YA book to be like.
I loved the way the author drew you in straight away with a strong feisty character in Ella. Zac also intrigued me, I wanted to find out more about him and I enjoyed reading about their connection.
Such a page turner of a book! I cannot wait to read book two of the series.
I bet this book would make a fabulous film, something I would definitely want to watch.

This was the first YA book I have read as it’s not my usual genre. I always assumed YA books were aimed at teenagers. Well I can safely say, at least as far as this book is concerned, I think I was wrong.
I loved this book and highly recommend it. It captured me completely and I could not put it down. It is predominantly a story about young love and the choices we make in life, but with a little twist. The concept behind the story will stay in my head for a long time. Without wanting to give away any spoilers, I will just say that the idea behind the whole plot certainly makes you think twice and makes you question certain aspects of life. It echoed many of my personal and spiritual interests and beliefs and has helped explain a few thoughts and ideas that I have had mulling around in my head for most of my adulthood, making this story both relatable and realistic.
N.J. Simmonds has brought the concept of soulmates and destiny to life and I am really looking forward to the next book in the series.