Wednesday Reading: Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher

[chomiji]

Three years ago, the Saint of Steel had died. The god left behind his paladins, men and women sworn to the righteous fight, terrifying in battle against evil when they would run berserk. Empty of their god's spirit and bereft of purpose, the paladins have died, one by one, leaving hardly more than a handful.

Stephen is one, attempting to bury himself in purpose by serving the White Rat, god of the downtrodden, alongside the healers, lawyers, and diplomats who strove to make life better in their kingdom. Every day he gets up and does whatever he's ordered: mostly serving as a bodyguard to healers working the poor and desperate parts of the city. In his spare time, he knits socks and tries not to wish he were dead.

And then one day, while he's on duty in the slums, a woman fleeing from the grim priests of the Hanged Motherhood throws herself into his arms and whispers "Hide me!"

The woman is Grace, a skilled perfumer with an unhappy past, and she and Stephen each find themselves unable to forget the other after their brief (and hilariously dirty) encounter in the alley. Meanwhile, a maniac is leaving headless corpses around the poorer quarters of the city and foreign envoys seem to be weaving political schemes.

What's up with the corpses? Why does the foreign prince want to see Grace in person? Why is Grace being arrested? Will Stephen and Grace ever stop tripping over themselves in each other's presence, despite their non-youthful years? And will Grace ever figure out why Stephen smells like gingerbread?

Readers of "The Clocktaur War" will recognize the setting, and those who have read Swordheart will also recognize the Rat God and its servant, the lawyer Zale. The romance seems almost recycled from Swordheart as well, but Kingfisher says in her notes (in the Acknowledgments at the end) that although she meant to write a sequel to Swordheart, she got sidetracked by a podcast on perfumery: "I thought, 'Man, that could be a great profession for a heroine ... '." And indeed, a great deal of this book is a couple of mysteries that Grace helps solve with her highly trained sense of smell.

I wasn't super-impressed with the book, but I enjoyed it. It's not on par with Swordheart, in my opinion (it's missing the dramatic tension of Sarkis' history), but it's fun. And those who found Halla, the heroine of Swordheart, too passive (I didn't, but I heard there are those who did) may find Grace more to their taste. I found Stephen more fun than Sarkis too, knitting and all.

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

That does sound less exciting than Swordheart, but I'm glad to hear Zale's in it! I liked Zale a lot.

[lydy]

Point me at the people who said that Halla is too passive and I will FIGHT THEM!

I agree that Paladin's Grace is not as strong as Swordheart, but I liked it a lot. Every fluffy romance should come with the occasional severed head.

[estara]

Thanks for the rec, that sounds interesting, I enjoyed Swordheart ^^

[skygiants]

I'm in the middle of reading this now! I agree it's not as good as Swordheart but it's perfectly reasonable fluff.