A
Genre: Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
The first time I read Paladin’s Grace, I finished it, turned back to the beginning, and immediately read it again. This is partly because it’s very good, which I’ll get into later, and partly because for me, it was the right book at the right time.
I’ve been having a hard time reading this year because of, you know … (*jazz hands*) everything. It’s hard to connect with Happily-Ever-After when we’re in the middle of Disastrously-Right-Now. Serotonin? In this economy? My brain thinks not.
As a romance reviewer, this is A Problem. (As a human, also not great.)
In the middle of my reading slump, I saw on Twitter that T. Kingfisher had released a new book, Paladin’s Grace. (Side note: The ebook was released before the print version, which just came out on April 28th.) I’ve been a fan of Kingfisher’s work for a long time, especially her more romance-adjacent fantasies, Swordheart and The Clocktaur War duology. They’re standalones, but they’re all set in the same world as this one, and I loved that world. So, I one-clicked it even though I knew I might not be able to read it for a while.
Some time later — never mind how long precisely — I got the energy together to actually open the book. Just a few pages in, I read:
Stephen stared at the ceiling of his room and thought, as he did every morning, about simply not getting out of bed.
As the kids say: BIG MOOD.
Stephen is a paladin whose god has died and left a blank space in his soul. Stephen is hella, hella depressed. Every day he thinks about not getting up, and every day he does it anyway. He does his best to be a good person, even though he’s not sure what that means or if he deserves to be one.
And also, did I mention he knits socks as a way to combat his intrusive thoughts? Knitting and depression, oh my, Stephen is my boy.
On a routine bodyguard mission, he meets Grace, a perfumer and reluctant damsel in distress. They pretend to be Doing the Do to evade pursuit (you know, like you do), and their chemistry is immediately explosive:
…despite the fact that he had a moaning woman in his arms, Stephen had not been less aroused in recent memory.
…The young woman was moving enthusiastically against him, but she was, well, frankly she was very bad at it. She was pumping her legs like a child on a rope swing.
So that goes great.
However, after they get away, it turns out that they’re super into each other. It’s a classic “Who him? I hardly remember him, I’ve completely forgotten his blue eyes and the way he smells oh dammit” situation. When chance (and Grace’s scheming friend Marguerite) brings them together again, they team up to foil a plot using Grace’s super-acute sense of smell and Stephen’s berserker strength. Hijinx, as you might imagine, ensue.
The book covers a lot of ground. It’s funny, it’s sad, it’s suspenseful. It’s a fantasy romance AND a spy story AND a courtroom drama. It has lines like, “Am I the only person concerned about the severed head situation in this city?” (Yes, Stephen, you are.) It would be easy for such a packed plot to go off the rails and lose track of what it’s trying to be, but it never does. Grace and Stephen’s relationship is always the heart of the story, right from their first awkward encounter.
Speaking of which, I may be weird about this, but I have a major soft spot for bad sex in a romance. It’s such a refreshing change from insta-lust and magical orgasms! The emotional impact of “That was weird and uncomfortable but I still like you” is worth more than any throbbing boner in the world, if you ask me.
In fact, that dynamic also kind of sums up what I liked about them as a couple. They’re not smooth with each other. Neither one ever manages to get their game face on. They really like each other, and they really want to bone, and neither one has the first clue what to do about it so they just keep hanging out and having awkward conversations about everything but that.
Secondhand embarrassment is a major squick for me, but this didn’t hit that button, because the awkwardness isn’t a joke at their expense. It’s more like hanging out with a really good friend who you no longer need to try and be cool for. Every time either of them gets too honest or too weird, the other one just keeps liking them. Their bond grows from silliness to trust to intimacy, driving the story and making you root for them.
Also the sex gets pretty hot later on, so.
The book alternates POV between Stephen and Grace. As much as I love Stephen, he’s a pretty angsty dude, so the time in Grace’s head is a nice palate cleanser. She has her own share of baggage and abandonment issues, but she doesn’t spend a lot of time agonizing:
Grace had no idea what being wistful entailed, but she was pretty sure you had to be younger and thinner and possibly have consumption.
Instead of getting down, she’s out there cheerfully getting on with things. This is one of my favorite things about Kingfisher’s romances: she has a lot of badass characters who just roll their sleeves up and get on with it, whatever “it” may be. In Grace’s case, “it” is her work as a master perfumer for the city’s elite.
Kingfisher did a lot of research into perfume-making, and it shows in the sections about Grace’s work. Her world revolves around smell. Everything she encounters comes with a detailed list of scent notes, including (and especially) Stephen. As a perfume fan and designated Sniffer of Dodgy Milk for my household, I liked how vivid the descriptions were. However, if you’re not a smell-oriented person, I imagine it might get a little tedious at times.
The book does have a few elements that I think deserve a warning. Grace’s past includes emotional abuse, which is described in flashback. There’s also a subplot about a serial killer, the aforementioned “severed head situation,” which gets pretty graphic towards the end. Kingfisher’s other genre is horror, and her romances often contain a little bit of both. She’s good at mixing them, but it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. (If it helps, it’s gross but not terribly scary. If body horror bothers you, skip it, but otherwise, I’m a massive wimp and I was fine.)
Last but not least, the story deals with trauma and depression. Stephen isn’t suicidal, exactly, but his emotional state will be familiar to anyone who is or has been. That can be triggering, so please take care of yourself.
However, it may also be surprisingly helpful, as it was for me. The thing about Stephen’s arc is: he gets better. As the story goes on and he starts to connect with life again, the great weight of despair on him lifts. He smiles and laughs, feels curious and engaged. He’s happy. Not at every minute, but he is. When you’re in the thick of depression, feeling better can be very hard to imagine. This book helped me remember what “okay” might be like. It helped me believe in it again. Sometimes that’s what you need.
I wasn’t planning to talk this much about personal stuff, and maybe if things weren’t The Way They Are, I wouldn’t. But the thing about depression is that it’s a disease of loneliness. Its party trick is telling you that no one could ever understand how you feel. And this year is, to put it lightly, a bad time to be a person with loneliness disease.
All of that is to say: if you stare at walls a lot right now and you can’t really read because everything is just too much all the time? You’re not alone. I get you. And if you want to try a book that gets it too, and will remind you that there can be light at the end of this god-awful tunnel, maybe try this one.
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Thanks!
don’t know this author but your review, AJ, has inspired me to “stretch my wings & fly” (ie read it)- thank you!
T. Kingfisher is also Ursula Vernon of Hamster Princess fame, so she’s got the whole household covered from toddlerhood to kiddy fantasy to fantasy romance to horror. Her voice is consistent and consistently good across the entire range, so if you like one kind of thing she writes, she’s a good author with whom to venture into other kinds of things you might not ordinarily gravitate toward.
Is bad sex a trope? I can only think of Jennifer Crusie’s “Faking It.” I’d love to see it as a rec league, please.
Thank you for your honest, thoughtful review. I’m a big fan of the author although I haven’t been brave enough to try her horror novel. I hope you are doing okay dealing with your depression. This current situation is so stressful to those of us who have depression or anxiety. I feel much like Stephen most days, glad that I can get out of bed and face the day. Take care of yourself!
I love the books set in this world, and Paladin’s Grace was a good one. I enjoyed the relationship that developed between them and Stephen coming out of the gloom. My only complaint would be that there weren’t enough gnoles.
Another person here with a thumbs up for (occasional) bad sex in romance. It takes some skill to pull off, but I find it engaging when done well. I like when I see characters can communicate about that stuff early on and work through things together and figure out what works for them. It gives me more faith in their happily ever after since a couple’s sex life will evolve over time. And it gives a very concrete, grounded way to show how their relationship grows over the course of the story.
Going to recommend my libraries by an ecopy of this and keep my fingers crossed.
I’ve only read her first horror, The Twisted Ones, and it was terrific: truly scary but also funny, which is quite a feat. This one sounds interesting.
It took me a while to read this one too, but I loved it so much (except for the lack of gnoles mentioned above). I am waiting for my paper copy which I will immediately read again. Can I have to say how much I am hoping for more Bishop Beartongue in future stories? That woman is amazing, and the men in her life are fully aware of that.
I went on a T Kingfisher bookbuying binge with a gift card and I have zero regrets about buying this book. I was reading this in our breakroom at work and accidentally LOLed when the debate about whether or not handknit socks were a romantic gift or not.
Kingfisher has clearly done her research on romance cliches as well. As a perfumer, one of Grace’s complaints is that all her male clients want to smell of sandalwood 😉
I’ve developed a strong affection for the Rat God. (And, yes, handknit socks – in winter – are very romantic.)
I love Kingfisher and highly recommend everything in the backlist (horror, fantasy, romance, etc).
Great review, this is something I would ordinarily not even have looked at, but you have changed my mind. 🙂
@Ren Benton: Agreed! I love her work under both names. She’s a talented artist, too. Digger won the Hugo Award and is one of my favorite graphic novels ever. (And it’s free to read online!)
@Zuzus: Faking It is exactly the other book I was thinking of! Also Think of England by KJ Charles, though I think you could make an argument the problem there is the communication, not the sex. (But then, isn’t it always? Hmmm.) I would love to see it as a rec league, too, for sure!
@Evelyn M. Hill: Oh my god, the sandalwood snark! I died. I wear a lot of ‘unisex’ perfumes and can we just cool it with the sandalwood already? Please?
@Todd: I LOVE the Temple of the White Rat. A god whose mandate is providing legal help, food, and medicine for those in need? Sign me UP.
As @chacha1 said-this isn’t something I would normally pick up, but your review sold me! I’m trying to expand my horizons with new to me authors, genres-this one sounds great.
T. Kingfisher books are such comfort reads for me. Even when they deal with something horrific like severed heads, you know that somehow it’s all going to work out, and the characters are so damned lovable. This might be my favorite so far, although I adored Swordheart too.
That said, The Twisted Ones is SCARY AF! Gave me serious nightmares. But it was so good I kind of didn’t scare.
As Swordheart is the funniest book I have ever read, Paladin’s Grace was a disappointment to me. 3.5 stars compared to 5+ for Swordheart.
Okay. You say “A” and the review has me hovering over click… Is it just because it’s not on sale that it doesn’t have the insta buy (for me) title RECOMMENDED? What to do. What to do…Your “recommendeds” have not once steered me wrong.
T Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon has been one of my absolute favourite creatives ever since Ancient Times when I followed her webcomic and livejournal, and she’s just been getting better. She could write “T Kingfisher Adapts the 1978 Moosejaw Telephone Directory” and I would be like AWW SWEET IMMA PREORDER THE HELL OUT OF THAT TELEPHONE DIRECTORY and I would be right to do so because it would somehow be amazing with deep worldbuilding and wry humour and compassionate humanism and it would be the best phonebook I ever read.
Anyone who hasn’t read T. Kingfisher’s works and would like to know if it’s their sort of thing, check out her 2017 Hugo acceptance speech: at 1 hour and 48 minutes in this video or in text. She talks about whale falls, it is SO her …
I’d like to try this author but I really don’t like reading books with serial killers. What other titles do you all recommend?
@Cleo: All of the books that Ursula Vernon writes under the Kingfisher name have a little thread of darkness in them (one of the things she uses the pen name for is writing chidrens’ and teens’ books that are a little too odd and dark for publishers). But personally I might recommend “The Raven and the Reindeer” which is based on “The Snow Queen” (revisionarily) and has among other things vivid descriptions of what it’s like to be a reindeer.
Thank you so much for this review! I would never have stumbled upon this book on my own. And now I have a new author to love!
I adore T. Kingfisher. Her books are comfort read to me and that’s one reason why I haven’t read Paladin’s Grace. I’m saving it for when I’m both depressed and in a book slog.
So Ursula V is just down the road from me, I’ve been wanting to check her stuff out and this sounds totally like my thing, but… there isn’t an audiobook. Woe! (I can look into the format options for TTS later. I’m tired.)
So… of her books that exist in audio formats, any recs? I don’t have particular problems with gore, though I do have problems with stereotypical gender tropes (then again, I don’t really get the impression that’s her thing?)
Just wanted to say that I loved this book and wouldn’t have found it if not for SBTB! thanks for the stellar work you guys do! (I’m going to look up Swordheart by the same author as well)
p.s. another of my favorites for this year was the Linesman series by S.K. Dunstall that I found in the comments section of one of the threads. Keep up the great work all of you!
@Juhi, I’m glad you enjoyed the Linesman series; I’m a cheerleader and frequent rereader of the series.
And now you’re motivating me to read Paladin’s Grace!
Like the review, interested on your take on the coming out of depression, I read and enjoyed it without that aspect hitting me as strongly as it did you. (Apart from Zale’s comment on anyone who stops their paladins clanking gloomily around the place is fine by him)
What did hit me was that both Grace and Stephen (and the other paladins) are experts in their fields, and as experts do, they see the world coloured by their expertise. For Stephen this is especially so when he and the other paladins are escorting Bishop Beartongue to the reception and there is commentary on how they guard her and then they expand this to include how they’d use items in their surroundings as weapons. Hilarious, but also true to how people who have worked hard for a lot of years and become expert can see the world. There are so many books where someone is declared an expert and after the first couple of chapters the expertise fades away to next to nothing.
Thank you! Your “squee” convinced me to hie over to Amazon (using the affiliate link, of course) and get the first book.
One thing more! There’s a human character who uses the pronouns they/them and it’s never remarked upon, never explained. They’re just they! It’s wonderful and inclusive and handled just right.