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His Name Was Augustin #4
Cryptic Pathway: A Paranormal Fantasy Saga
“I generally write the truth in my chronicles, for historians should not lie, though sometimes they misinform.”
I’m back in the twenty-first century, but it looks like my old life has dissolved. My cousin isn’t talking to me, Joel’s forsaking the mere idea of Teutonic magic, and Hans—my former crush—doubts my faith since I explored the dark path during my travels. Sure, maybe I offered my heart to a demon’s servant, but that doesn’t change anything about who I am. Right?
Now I’m torn between a sizzling urge to run back to my past lover Augustin and a loathsome destiny that pulls me toward a fated mate. My people expect me to ascend as an elegant matron, but I haven’t finished college yet. And it’s not like I can broadcast the fact that I spent twenty years in the eleventh century. Time travel brought about my people’s destruction once, and I can’t let that happen again.
It’d be a lot easier to just spurn my duties and flee to my medieval lover. But this fated mate thing is breathing down my neck, scratching at my peace—and Augustin claims our destinies are separate now. My heart isn’t ready for this . . . .
*If you like dark paranormal fantasies with secret societies, forbidden love, tough choices, and unexpected twists, this is for you. CRYPTIC PATHWAY is full length (130K words), is book four of six in His Name Was Augustin series, and ends on a cliffhanger. The series is sequential, but each book can be read and enjoyed on its own.
**Reader Discretion: This book is recommended for adults due to profanity, sexual situations, and mature themes.
I’m back in the twenty-first century, but it looks like my old life has dissolved. My cousin isn’t talking to me, Joel’s forsaking the mere idea of Teutonic magic, and Hans—my former crush—doubts my faith since I explored the dark path during my travels. Sure, maybe I offered my heart to a demon’s servant, but that doesn’t change anything about who I am. Right?
Now I’m torn between a sizzling urge to run back to my past lover Augustin and a loathsome destiny that pulls me toward a fated mate. My people expect me to ascend as an elegant matron, but I haven’t finished college yet. And it’s not like I can broadcast the fact that I spent twenty years in the eleventh century. Time travel brought about my people’s destruction once, and I can’t let that happen again.
It’d be a lot easier to just spurn my duties and flee to my medieval lover. But this fated mate thing is breathing down my neck, scratching at my peace—and Augustin claims our destinies are separate now. My heart isn’t ready for this . . . .
*If you like dark paranormal fantasies with secret societies, forbidden love, tough choices, and unexpected twists, this is for you. CRYPTIC PATHWAY is full length (130K words), is book four of six in His Name Was Augustin series, and ends on a cliffhanger. The series is sequential, but each book can be read and enjoyed on its own.
**Reader Discretion: This book is recommended for adults due to profanity, sexual situations, and mature themes.
418 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 10, 2021
8 people want to read
About the author
C.L. Carhart
27 books65 followersC.L. Carhart has been writing since the age of 4, dabbling in everything from children’s books, to fantasy, to historical fiction. Eventually, her lifelong interest in European history inspired her to create a mystical other-world based on the Teutonic people groups. Her Teutonic Fantasy Realm is chock full of heart-pounding adventure, dark magic, and swoon-worthy romance.
A book addict, stray cat rescuer, and unashamed metalhead, you can find her plotting out fresh stories deep in the night with a can of diet soda and a fun-sized panther infringing on her progress.
Join her mailing list ➜ https://bf.clcarhart.com/6w57qgfhc9
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A book addict, stray cat rescuer, and unashamed metalhead, you can find her plotting out fresh stories deep in the night with a can of diet soda and a fun-sized panther infringing on her progress.
Join her mailing list ➜ https://bf.clcarhart.com/6w57qgfhc9
Visit her website ➜ https://clcarhart.com/
Like her Facebook page ➜ https://www.facebook.com/CLCarhartAuthor
Follow her on Instagram ➜ https://www.instagram.com/c.l.carhart...
Follow her on BookBub ➜ https://www.bookbub.com/profile/c-l-c...
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 30, 2021
How does one comfortably write a review for a book where nothing but abuse against young women happen? Ok I’ll start this like my others. The issues from all the previous books are still an issue here unless otherwise stated. I don’t wanna rehash the old reviews but you can go back and read all of my previous ones to refresh your memory if need be.
I will say that this book so so poorly done that it does make the previous book look better. Having read four of them now book 3 is easily the strongest (though this doesn’t take away from its endless list of issues.) But this book like book 1 is just swanie going to school, going home for vacation, school, vacation, with very little substance in between. The story then has to come from the random bouts of incest and necrophilia had on vacation.
I will say as ever, though his role is much smaller in this book, Joel is the only redeeming character in this series. He sees the toots for the monsters the are, sees how he was treated like shit by his cheating wife, sees that the society is toxic and leaves. He just wants a normal girl and a normal life and we Stan a self assured king. Is he mocked mercilessly by swanie and Beth? Sure, but he gets his revenge by just living his best life. And unlike Beth he doesn’t have to bang his uncle, or a dead body like swanie does, so he is for sure the winner of this race. Also seeing the girls so salty and obsessed with him was a nice touch, knowing they just couldn’t let him go seemed like karma for the horrible ways they had treated him. Here’s to hoping that Joel is now free forever from these heifers.
Beth starts the book pissed that her bf and her cousin got together and rightfully so. And she doesn’t speak to swanie for a year which is well deserved (though swanie somehow feels she is wronged for this like girl, didn’t you bang her bf for 15 years instead of just coming back?!) And when Beth does speak to swanie again it’s to tell her cousin that she’s bagged her dad. Insert creepy incest plot line where an older man replaces his dead wife with her niece. I’m disappointed that Beths dad didn’t murder the pervert pursuing his daughter but he’s a toot and we know the toots are very ok with pairing off young girls to old men. It’s kinda their whole thing.
To keep the age gaps going, after swanie had sex with her dead husbands dead body, she married Hans, keeper of the keys and guy old enough to almost be her grandpa. I’m typically not averse to age gaps handled with care but as we have established this society likes the power imbalanced between men and woman, add these women are all too young to have a fully developed brain and these age gaps are the worst kind of abuse.
Outside of the old uncle praying on his troubled niece and swanies magic pull between a dead body and an old man nothing happens. There is no plot to this book. The plot might have been find out who the key holder was but that was figured out too soon. It might have been get married but that was also done too soon. So there is no thread pulling this all together. It’s just messy ramblings where swanie laments the loss of her child rapist ex husband, and every so often randomly cursing Joel’s name, though he isn’t thinking about her at all.
There’s an increased mention here of nazis and hitler but without real purpose either other then reminding us that the toots really like their blood purity. There are some attempts to retcon the sheer volume of sexist and racism and classism within this society but it’s all word service with no backing in the text from the characters. I’ll give some examples
* Swanie says that the society is sexist, and they are happy to keep a power imbalance between men and woman. This is true and if she ever did anything to fix this as the lady in charge it would be lovely. Instead she does nothing to change it and encouraged her cousin with ptsd from her own murder to create a relationship with an old relative cultivating a massive power imbalance.
* Swanie admits that the blood purity has been their downfall and the mistreatment of those with “lesser” blood is what caused their first fall and would cause another. As word service she’s saying all the right things. But what does she say and do when Joel says he wants out from this culture? She berates him for wanting to find some dumb American who can never possibly “understand” his wind. Despite her lip service to not propping up purity she attacks anyone who isn’t interested in that nonsense. Another example she never shuts Beth down for trashing her mother for not undergoing the demon blood magic before she was born.
* Despite admitting that she’s spoiled she persists with calling her fathers employees her servants and even questions why Ina didn’t have servants to help, instead of you know just wondering why her husband didn’t help her. The classism is more subtle then the sexism and the blood purity racism but it’s still there and should be mentioned.
* She finds out one of the black priests who helps their women survive birth is taking part in child trafficking and doesn’t even bat a lash. Just says he better make the proper sacrifices of innocents so she survives childbirth. It’s not an example of more retcon ish but it does highlight what a bad person swanie is and that’s never a wasted bullet point.
Outside of the retcon-ing and the finishing school, the incest and the necrophilia, nothing happens. This book could have been a novella with the lack of story progression but that’s also maybe the fault of there being no clear purpose to the story. It meanders with no great point, there is no goal we reach at the end so the reader is left wondering why? Have I committed to finishing this series since the author and her friends treatment of me and other reviewers? Yes, yes I have. Do I kinda hate my own resolve? Yes, absolutely I do. But I suffer this so y’all don’t have to bookish fam 💜
Edited to add; Thanks to the author for the ARC which this review is based on. No formatting criticism was included since this wasn’t a polished copy.
I will say that this book so so poorly done that it does make the previous book look better. Having read four of them now book 3 is easily the strongest (though this doesn’t take away from its endless list of issues.) But this book like book 1 is just swanie going to school, going home for vacation, school, vacation, with very little substance in between. The story then has to come from the random bouts of incest and necrophilia had on vacation.
I will say as ever, though his role is much smaller in this book, Joel is the only redeeming character in this series. He sees the toots for the monsters the are, sees how he was treated like shit by his cheating wife, sees that the society is toxic and leaves. He just wants a normal girl and a normal life and we Stan a self assured king. Is he mocked mercilessly by swanie and Beth? Sure, but he gets his revenge by just living his best life. And unlike Beth he doesn’t have to bang his uncle, or a dead body like swanie does, so he is for sure the winner of this race. Also seeing the girls so salty and obsessed with him was a nice touch, knowing they just couldn’t let him go seemed like karma for the horrible ways they had treated him. Here’s to hoping that Joel is now free forever from these heifers.
Beth starts the book pissed that her bf and her cousin got together and rightfully so. And she doesn’t speak to swanie for a year which is well deserved (though swanie somehow feels she is wronged for this like girl, didn’t you bang her bf for 15 years instead of just coming back?!) And when Beth does speak to swanie again it’s to tell her cousin that she’s bagged her dad. Insert creepy incest plot line where an older man replaces his dead wife with her niece. I’m disappointed that Beths dad didn’t murder the pervert pursuing his daughter but he’s a toot and we know the toots are very ok with pairing off young girls to old men. It’s kinda their whole thing.
To keep the age gaps going, after swanie had sex with her dead husbands dead body, she married Hans, keeper of the keys and guy old enough to almost be her grandpa. I’m typically not averse to age gaps handled with care but as we have established this society likes the power imbalanced between men and woman, add these women are all too young to have a fully developed brain and these age gaps are the worst kind of abuse.
Outside of the old uncle praying on his troubled niece and swanies magic pull between a dead body and an old man nothing happens. There is no plot to this book. The plot might have been find out who the key holder was but that was figured out too soon. It might have been get married but that was also done too soon. So there is no thread pulling this all together. It’s just messy ramblings where swanie laments the loss of her child rapist ex husband, and every so often randomly cursing Joel’s name, though he isn’t thinking about her at all.
There’s an increased mention here of nazis and hitler but without real purpose either other then reminding us that the toots really like their blood purity. There are some attempts to retcon the sheer volume of sexist and racism and classism within this society but it’s all word service with no backing in the text from the characters. I’ll give some examples
* Swanie says that the society is sexist, and they are happy to keep a power imbalance between men and woman. This is true and if she ever did anything to fix this as the lady in charge it would be lovely. Instead she does nothing to change it and encouraged her cousin with ptsd from her own murder to create a relationship with an old relative cultivating a massive power imbalance.
* Swanie admits that the blood purity has been their downfall and the mistreatment of those with “lesser” blood is what caused their first fall and would cause another. As word service she’s saying all the right things. But what does she say and do when Joel says he wants out from this culture? She berates him for wanting to find some dumb American who can never possibly “understand” his wind. Despite her lip service to not propping up purity she attacks anyone who isn’t interested in that nonsense. Another example she never shuts Beth down for trashing her mother for not undergoing the demon blood magic before she was born.
* Despite admitting that she’s spoiled she persists with calling her fathers employees her servants and even questions why Ina didn’t have servants to help, instead of you know just wondering why her husband didn’t help her. The classism is more subtle then the sexism and the blood purity racism but it’s still there and should be mentioned.
* She finds out one of the black priests who helps their women survive birth is taking part in child trafficking and doesn’t even bat a lash. Just says he better make the proper sacrifices of innocents so she survives childbirth. It’s not an example of more retcon ish but it does highlight what a bad person swanie is and that’s never a wasted bullet point.
Outside of the retcon-ing and the finishing school, the incest and the necrophilia, nothing happens. This book could have been a novella with the lack of story progression but that’s also maybe the fault of there being no clear purpose to the story. It meanders with no great point, there is no goal we reach at the end so the reader is left wondering why? Have I committed to finishing this series since the author and her friends treatment of me and other reviewers? Yes, yes I have. Do I kinda hate my own resolve? Yes, absolutely I do. But I suffer this so y’all don’t have to bookish fam 💜
Edited to add; Thanks to the author for the ARC which this review is based on. No formatting criticism was included since this wasn’t a polished copy.
December 3, 2021
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I didnt read book 1,2&3.
But started in book 4 woeps.
I enjoyed the ride of this book.
And accatually didnt really need book 1,2&3 for it for the understanding on book 4.
I loved evey second of it.
Its the first time ive read something of this author.
And im currious for more.
I rate it a 4 star out of 5.
Because i really enjoyed this book, also had some wonderfull characters in it, and that cover wow!
I didnt read book 1,2&3.
But started in book 4 woeps.
I enjoyed the ride of this book.
And accatually didnt really need book 1,2&3 for it for the understanding on book 4.
I loved evey second of it.
Its the first time ive read something of this author.
And im currious for more.
I rate it a 4 star out of 5.
Because i really enjoyed this book, also had some wonderfull characters in it, and that cover wow!
December 13, 2021
If I could give this 4.5 stars, I would. The book was good, well written, and a must-read for the series - but I didn't find it quite as compelling as the previous three books. However, it answered quite a few questions and resolved several situations that were touched upon in each of the previous books.
This book saw Swanie finally start to mature a bit, although she's still a bit of an entitled rich kid at times. But as Muniche's Lady, she starts to temper her behavior and speech (at least in public) and think about the consequences before she acts. It did delve more into the romantic realm (and a bit more graphically than the previous books), which I don't personally enjoy as much - and the drama and angst over certain necessary events created a roller coaster of highs and lows for Swanie. But the narrative was still tight and clear, and the characters well developed.
I did enjoy getting to know some of the minor characters a bit better. We hear from Ina and Marga and Erika again, see a bit more of Freia, and reconnect with Beth. Some of their life events helped keep the momentum of the book going, even when Swanie was stuck in her own personal drama. We also learn more about her family in this book, both events from her past as well as new information about her living relatives. And there were several interesting twists that added layers of depth to characters like Max and Hans. We also got to know a few new characters as well, which I hope we continue to see in the rest of the series.
If you've started this series, you've got to read this book. It clears up a lot of questions and untangles at least a few of the more complicated relationships. While there's still uncertainty about some things, it felt like we could take a deep breath at the end of the book, knowing several of the bigger issues were finally resolved. That being said, I can't wait to see how Swanie settles into her new roles and relationships in the next book!
This book saw Swanie finally start to mature a bit, although she's still a bit of an entitled rich kid at times. But as Muniche's Lady, she starts to temper her behavior and speech (at least in public) and think about the consequences before she acts. It did delve more into the romantic realm (and a bit more graphically than the previous books), which I don't personally enjoy as much - and the drama and angst over certain necessary events created a roller coaster of highs and lows for Swanie. But the narrative was still tight and clear, and the characters well developed.
I did enjoy getting to know some of the minor characters a bit better. We hear from Ina and Marga and Erika again, see a bit more of Freia, and reconnect with Beth. Some of their life events helped keep the momentum of the book going, even when Swanie was stuck in her own personal drama. We also learn more about her family in this book, both events from her past as well as new information about her living relatives. And there were several interesting twists that added layers of depth to characters like Max and Hans. We also got to know a few new characters as well, which I hope we continue to see in the rest of the series.
If you've started this series, you've got to read this book. It clears up a lot of questions and untangles at least a few of the more complicated relationships. While there's still uncertainty about some things, it felt like we could take a deep breath at the end of the book, knowing several of the bigger issues were finally resolved. That being said, I can't wait to see how Swanie settles into her new roles and relationships in the next book!
December 12, 2021
"Cryptic Pathway" addresses all of the mayhem caused by Swanie's travel to the past and propels her into a new future.
The writing is excellent and the plot is engaging. I was unable to put it down!
There are a couple of scenes that are...disturbing, perhaps, but they beg the question: would you still love someone if their appearance changed? If the change was so profound that it made them physically unrecognizeable, even horrifying?
Throughout the "His Name Was Augustin" series, Swanie believes that love conquers all. But does it? What if you are working against fate and a mystical power you can't control?
If you have read the first 3 books in this series, I don't know how you could possibly Not read this one. If you haven't read the first 3, please do. They are excellent and will provide the necessary background you need to fully appreciate book 4!
The writing is excellent and the plot is engaging. I was unable to put it down!
There are a couple of scenes that are...disturbing, perhaps, but they beg the question: would you still love someone if their appearance changed? If the change was so profound that it made them physically unrecognizeable, even horrifying?
Throughout the "His Name Was Augustin" series, Swanie believes that love conquers all. But does it? What if you are working against fate and a mystical power you can't control?
If you have read the first 3 books in this series, I don't know how you could possibly Not read this one. If you haven't read the first 3, please do. They are excellent and will provide the necessary background you need to fully appreciate book 4!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews