hardcover, 438 pages
Published Feb. 27, 2021 by Argyll Productions.
He’s a paladin of a dead god, tracking a supernatural killer across a continent. She’s a nun from a secretive order, on the trail of the raiders who burned her convent and kidnapped her sisters.
When their paths cross at the point of a sword, Istvhan and Clara will be pitched headlong into each other’s quests, facing off against enemies both living and dead. But Clara has a secret that could jeopardize the growing trust between them, a secret that will lead them to the gladiatorial pits of a corrupt city, and beyond...
Book 2 following a different paladin, and though the romance was good, I loved the characters they were so cute, but the plot takes a lot of "page time", and I was not a fan of it, plus it was, or felt, very long, but it had a lot of funny moments^^
I thought the first book was a bit fantasy-autobiography with the nerdy heroine a stand-in for the author. That was probably silly (and maybe a bit condescending) of me. The characters in this are quite different, and I doubt that both heroines (or some combination of protagonists from both books) can be autobiographical.
Kingfisher's writing oozes cleverness, but in a fairly undemanding way. The romance tropes occasionally verge on the self parody, but I can't swear that isn't intentional.
As a fantasy (in the non-romantic sense), the world building and characterization are rather good.
Another fun, dry witted fantasy. Carries the story forward
LGBTQ+ friendly but not focused
Somehow the sequel to Paladin's Grace was published and I didn't notice for a week or two! A mistake very rapidly corrected. It's in the same world as The Clockwork Boys but it doesn't matter what order you read those in, however I'd suggest reading Paladin's Grace first as there are a fair number of references to people and events in that book, although if you REALLY don't want to, you'll figure things out okay.
The main character of this one is Istvhan, only a minor character in Paladin's Grace but also one of the former paladins of the Saint of Steel, now serving the Temple of the White Rat. In this novel, Istvhan is on a mission to Morstone, ostensibly to escort a merchant with some valuable barrels of extremely rare oak, but actually on the lookout for further signs of the mysterious decapitating killer of the first book. …
Somehow the sequel to Paladin's Grace was published and I didn't notice for a week or two! A mistake very rapidly corrected. It's in the same world as The Clockwork Boys but it doesn't matter what order you read those in, however I'd suggest reading Paladin's Grace first as there are a fair number of references to people and events in that book, although if you REALLY don't want to, you'll figure things out okay.
The main character of this one is Istvhan, only a minor character in Paladin's Grace but also one of the former paladins of the Saint of Steel, now serving the Temple of the White Rat. In this novel, Istvhan is on a mission to Morstone, ostensibly to escort a merchant with some valuable barrels of extremely rare oak, but actually on the lookout for further signs of the mysterious decapitating killer of the first book. On the way, however, due to an unfortunate cultural misunderstanding, Istvhan is gifted with a slave in the person of Sister Clara, one of the nuns of St. Ursa. Clara turns out to be one of the few nuns to escape a raid of her nunnery, and is now determined to track down the others and find out what happened to them and how to set them free. As a paladin, and as a servant of the White Rat, Istvhan of course feels fairly strongly obliged to help.
Since this is a T. Kingfisher book there's also a generous helping of smoldering paladin unrequited lust, people keeping secrets from each other, disarmingly charming servants of the White Rat, and of course, gnoles. In fact, the main gnole in this book is Brindle from Swordheart, although this isn't relevant to the plot at all and just a passing reference. Once again, Kingfisher has created some satisfying characters and once again I'm pretty sure I'll read anything about the Temple of the White Rat, even an account of their daily laundry list. My main complaint was the abrupt ending. This book had a lot of references to paladin Stephen and Grace from Paladin's Grace, so let's hope the next book contains enough references to this one to form a satisfactory epilogue telling us what happens to Istvhan. If the pattern so far holds, the next book will center around someone else - Galen or Marcus perhaps? But I'd be extremely happy to have a book about Beartongue or Zale instead. Or as well? WHY NOT ALL OF THESE PLEASE AND MORE!
Bloody amazing in every regard. Vernon just keeps writing stuff I love, and each book is better than the last.
