Paladin's Grace

I have to say, I really enjoyed this. Kingfisher's self-declared "fluffy romance," this novel really shows up all the less thoughtful romantasy that abounds today. First, the worldbuilding is exquisite, both because the author has set several books in this universe and so the details feel grounded and lived-in and because Kingfisher (aka Ursula Vernon) understands fantasy as a genre. She might be writing a so-called fluffy romance, but she's not just tacking on some magic and swords for the vibes, a fact that I really appreciate.

I also love the tone and humor of the book. Every character is endearing in their own way and their banter feels genuine and funny, without being out of place during the more serious moments. I delighted in the show more details as well as the development of these characters and, while the twists were not profoundly surprising, the plot was well-paced enough that I really couldn't put the book down. Seriously, this was an all-in-one-night read for me.

If you love a romance/romantasy but wish it had actual nice guys (with swords), more of a plot (with magic), and banter that doesn't feel repetitive, this is the book for you! show less

Make way, rom-com and severed heads coming through!

What a delightful read! The writing is easy breezy, but it doesn’t mean that everything will be soft and fluffy: gruesome things happen, and this is not a relaxing universe to live in.

I liked the idea of paladins, filled with a god’s grace (well, in the case of this particular god it’s berserker rage that makes them Murderbots ;) ). Then the god dies, and the paladins are broken… and dangerous.

One particular paladin (Stephen) gets embroiled in a mystery that involves assassinations, poisons, lots of severed heads, evil priests, courtroom drama, and a perfumer named Grace. Grace is a scent geek, has past trauma to deal with, and she doesn’t need to be rescued, thank you very show more much. Oh, and Stephen’s hobby is knitting, when he is not busy intimidating people by being a big muscular guy in armour. Can you tell where this is going?

The rom-com tropes are tropes for a reason: sometimes they work. They work here. Yes, Grace and Stephen do a lot of “but he/she probably didn’t mean anything by this; he/she cannot possibly be interested in me; I’m too broken for her/him, this is a mistake.” Where is that shaker I use to try and make fictional characters see reason? Ah, there it is. Shake, shake, shake. Nope, it’s not working on Grace and Stephen :))) They are both adorable, though, and you root for them.

“He wished that he could break out his knitting, but for some reason, people didn’t take you seriously as a warrior when you were knitting.”

There is a lot to chuckle at, and the dialogues are delicious:

“Yes, I hear there are assassins about.”
“Not very good ones.”
“Sometimes that’s what you want in an assassin.”

I am happy that there are more books in this series (apparently, each paladin gets a book).
T. Kingfisher has yet to disappoint me, it seems ;) show less

Oh, excellent. Another in the Clocktaur universe, which Ursula apparently calls the World of the White Rat. Another paladin...sort of; as the blurb says, his god died three years ago. So he and his fellows are kind of in limbo - and currently working with, sheltered at, the Temple of the White Rat. We get to see Zale again, and Bishop Beartongue. And Grace, a perfumer, who is fascinating. It is, like most of the Clocktaur stories, a romance - lots of lust and "I am not worthy" (from both sides), which I usually find annoying. But this is a Ursula Vernon (T Kingfisher) book, so there's also rich and vivid characters and lots more reason than lust for the protagonists to be together; and by the way, accusations of poisoning and clay show more golems and severed heads - oh, and a few gnolls. I started it and couldn't get to sleep until I finished the story. Lovely, and looking forward to almost anything she writes. show less

I enjoyed the change of pace. This was pretty slow going initially but I liked getting to know the world and the people.
The writing is immersive and the characters, as well as the world, are well constructed.
After the introduction, the story quickly becomes an incredibly angsty romance that involves a whole lot of one step forward, two steps back.
I liked being with the cast and experiencing their daily lives and entanglements so this didn't bother me too much.

The biggest flaw of the book makes itself known when it moves towards the climax.
The pacing picks up and things come to a head and it all leads to a court case.
This is where things fall apart. The entire lawsuit makes no sense. This court of law works very much like a modern court show more with all its bells and whistles except the possible punishments are medieval. It's all really weird.
It could've worked at least somewhat if the entire thing was a staged farce with lots of bribery and blackmail but it isn't. The judge is even explicitly introduced as sympathetic towards the accused but despite all that, the accused is supposed to be executed without a single piece of proof.
It's infuriating that the reader is supposed to actually take this as a reasonable outcome pertaining to the circumstances.
This is the one core point around which the entire plot pivots and it makes no sense.

Beyond that one thing, there isn't anything in the story that requires deductive reasoning or any kind of sharp logic and the author manages to keep everything beyond that vague enough to not get entangled in that sort of flawed reasoning anywhere else.
I don't have high hopes that later books in the series will be any better in that aspect.

I'll maybe try the second one at some point but for now, I will not continue with the series. show less

A lovely romance! I really enjoyed the relationship that was built between Stephen and Grace; it was romantic but not super dramatic like some romance novels can be. (Although it was a little frustrating watching both of them be like, "No, there's no way he/she could be interested in me, he/she is just being nice," for the first half of the book while all of their friends tried to convince them otherwise. It was cute at first, and then Grace and Stephen just seemed dense.) I really enjoyed how practical Grace and Stephen and all the secondary characters were. The dialogue was very much similar to how I would talk with my friends, and it made me feel like these were all real people just trying to live their lives while dealing with the show more plot.

In the afterword, T. Kingfisher said that she tried to write a fluffy romance but didn't think she quite succeeded. And that seems accurate to me--the first two thirds of the book are very fluffy feeling with some vague plot threads happening in the background. And then the last third gets very dramatic (I had to read it all in one night when I got to that point!) as all the plot threads come to a head all at once. It makes for an exciting read, but it also feels a bit like the book changed sub-genres while I wasn't looking. I still really enjoyed it, but other people's mileage may vary. show less

I guess the first thing I should say is, damn, I'm very sad that only this first book is about Stephen and Grace, because I love them. However, I am grateful that I didn't realize that before I started, as I probably never would have read this book, and that would have been truly unfortunate for me. I loved this book so much.

I've heard of this author but hadn't touched any of her books, which is shocking since they're right up my alley. I was reading through descriptions of some of them and stumbled across this book, and thought I'd try it first - I mean, I love romance, and I love fantasy. I was secretly hoping some of the more occult/horror elements from her other books would bleed into this one, which they did, and I'm so glad. I show more think this was the perfect one to start with because I will definitely be reading others from her now.

Some spoilers past this pointtttttttt.

I was hooked on this book starting from the first chapter, which pretty rarely happens to me. I tend to take a few chapters to become really attached, if at all, but the witty banter and the interesting tease of story drew me right in, not to mention the writing.

I've always thought the idea of berserkers was super interesting, and I was curious how it would work in a romance, especially considering how messed up Stephen is. The poor man has been through so much and now basically runs on nothing but a desire to keep his fellow paladins sane and repay the Rat with his life, until he eventually expires and hopefully meets his god again. I was a little wary of it feeling too religious, but it didn't, despite there being multiple gods in the story who were pretty central to the plot. It was just interesting to learn about them. I personally thought the Dreaming God was super interesting, and though I'm hesitant to read the other books since they don't center around Grace and Stephen, I'm curious if they'll flesh that side out some more. It would be really interesting if there were a book from the view of one of their paladins.

As for the characters, I really enjoyed nearly all of them. To me, they all felt very fleshed out and real. I absolutely loved the witty banter, especially between Istvhan and Stephen with Beartongue's running commentary and absolute exasperation over their antics. The scene where they were talking about how to weaponize random items while they waited for the Prince's audience to end, toward the beginning of the book. I was actually cackling out loud, and that wasn't even the first or last time. I mean, who doesn't love to laugh? Weirdos, that's who. Give me a book with romance, interesting plot, good characters laughs and I'm sold. I'm guessing and hoping this will be a trend with the author's other books.

Grace and Stephen were so angsty and slightly annoying at times but also realistically wary of one another and definitely idiots at times, but I loved them so much. I was kicking my feet and actually giggling aloud during their encounters. I also enjoyed that Grace literally simped over him the entire book, because who doesn't love to read about how huge and broad and muscular a book guy is? The fact that they both drooled over each other was really cute, and I enjoyed how protective but also respectful Stephen was. They were just both really adorable. Also, I don't know if I've ever read a book about a perfumer, so that was new.

I obviously loved Istvhan, Beartongue, the other paladins, Tab, Zale, etc. Marguerite got me worried there for a minute when she didn't show up for the trial, but I'm so happy she ended up coming through!

I will say, there were some times where I felt like not a lot was going on except Stephen and Grace pining for one another, but the plot became super interesting as the book wound down. I again find myself wondering if the other books will flesh that out more, and even if they aren't in it, I may still read them anyway... We'll see.

Overall, I really loved this book and highlighted so many things. It's been a long time since I so thoroughly enjoyed a book and laughed this much. I can't wait to pick up something else by this author. show less

4.5 stars. I've only been reading T. Kingfisher for a few years but she's quickly become one of my favorite authors (her Twitter feed is pretty entertaining too, especially if you care about wombats and chickens). She strikes just the right balance between snarky and genuine, and her characters are usually down-but-not-out regular Joes and Janes whom you immediately want to see find their HEA.

Several recent books, including [b:Clockwork Boys|36618062|Clockwork Boys (Clocktaur War, #1)|T. Kingfisher|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1511019840l/36618062._SY75_.jpg|58376790] and [b:Swordheart|42747739|Swordheart|T. show more Kingfisher|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1542983306l/42747739._SX50_.jpg|66478946] were fantasy adventures that featured strong romantic elements. Paladin's Grace puts the romance front and center, although because it's T. Kingfisher, there are also severed heads and a not insignificant body count. I fell completely in love with our hero Stephen, a warrior paladin whose god died (didn't know that could happen? neither did Stephen), devastating his soul and destroying most of the men who served with him. He has tried to reconstruct his life as hired muscle for the law clerks, healers and diplomats of the Temple of the Rat while worrying that he will at any moment snap and fall into one of his beserker rages that were useful when his goal was to kill lots of bad guys, but not so much these days.

The best thing about Stephen? He knits socks in his downtime. Be still, my heart! Could anything be better than the image of a large, strong, knight in shining armor who is sitting quietly and knitting red socks so his fellow paladins' feet don't get cold?

Where Kingfisher loses me, just a little, is in her heroine Grace. She's a talented perfumer who is also trying to build a new life for herself after fleeing her last home. She's smart, caring, and brave, but unfortunately she has that dreaded "oh he can't possibly be interested in me" thing going on, as well as the "my last lover was admittedly a jerk but he said I was terrible in bed so that must be true." I don't need all of my heroines to be badasses, but the insecurity gets old pretty quickly. Of course, Stephen is also doing his share of "she can't possibly want me because I'm a broken man who might lose my shit without warning," but at least he doesn't doubt his own sexual attractiveness.

Still I liked Grace enough to think she would be a good match for the unparalleled Stephen, and the secondary characters added a lot to the story too (Swordheart readers will be happy to see an old friend, and rest assured, there are gnoles!), especially several of Stephen's brothers-in-arms who deserve their own story.

It's hard to explain Kingfisher's sense of humor because much of it is context specific, but here's a great passage featuring Stephen and DuValier, the advisor for a visiting prince, who has taken a shine to Grace:

"You grant your servants an enormous degree of liberty," said DuValier, apparently remembering that it was beneath his dignity to fight with a man-at-arms.
"He's not a servant," said Grace indignantly. "He's...ah..." Oh blast, what did she say?
"Sworn to her service," rumbled Stephen. "By an oath."
"You are?" said DuValier, which was good because otherwise Grace would have said it, and that would have rather spoiled the effect. "I thought you were sworn to the Temple of the Rat."
"I swear a lot."

There's so many other things I wish I could fit into this review (I didn't even mention Tab the ferret-like civet and his unique contribution to the perfumes), but Kingfisher's writing is so rich that I could write a thesis on her work. If you haven't discovered this wonderful author yet, this is a fine place to start, although I think the two books mentioned above might be my favorites. If you are a fan, the only thing that might stop you from reading Paladin's Grace is that once you start you will not sleep until you finish. show less