Book excerpt: “Only the strength of the heart can govern one’s fate.” Tibet 1285. Nordun is ready to forgive her uncle for his sins, despite knowing he murdered her mother long ago. But her family is set on revenge— they’ve ordered Karma, the man Nordun is falling for, to hunt her uncle down and kill him. Desperate to avoid more bloodshed, and determined to stand by her Buddhist beliefs, Nordun joins Karma on his journey under the false pretense of going on a pilgrimage to Lhasa, the place her uncle is hiding. As they cross raging rivers, traverse vast grasslands, and conquer the mighty mountain ranges of the Cho-La, Nordun realizes the man she loves is indeed a kindred spirit—but he is also a merciless warrior, who believes compassion has no place in a family blood feud. When faced with the inevitable, will Nordun risk losing her love, and her life, to save the man who murdered her mother? We follow Nordun on her crusade across the rooftop of the world, to the lands of Gods, where the fickle fate of men is in the hands of the ones who reign through force and fear, and the unshakable faith of a woman in the innate goodness of humankind proves to be the very thing that can set a man free. A Pilgrim’s Heart is book 2 in the historical fiction series Nordun’s Way and can be read as a stand-alone novel. Join Nordun on her reluctant quest through the turbulent times of thirteenth-century Tibet with its royal clans, Mongolian invaders, smugglers and Silk Road traders, to the places where demons lurk, and through the trials which afflict every family and human life—courage and cowardice, love and lust, loyalty and treachery, and cruel endings which do not always sprout into the new beginnings we desire them to be.