The Plot: Generally speaking, I enjoyed the basic outlines of the plot. A paladin of a dead god fighting to clear the name of an unjustly accused perfumer makes for a very interesting and unusual story. I enjoyed this story thoroughly. Piper is a great character and I'm incredibly interested to see what the next book covers as we might get a few answers on how a Saint could die. T. Kingfisher has another win with this story full of great characters, a journey into mostly certain death and a world I love spending time in.

There was a lot of attention on the same-sex romance. As usual for T. Kingfisher novels, the protagonists are middle-aged or close to middle age. There usually isn't teenage nonsense in these novels, but in this installment, the emotional reactions were a little distressingly melodramatic. Maybe the author just thinks all gay men are like that. But, I shouldn't criticize too much. The author did not indulge any real stereotypes. Sole Survivors: Only seven of the Saint of Steel's paladins survived His death: Stephen, Istvhan, Galen, Shane, Marcus, Judith, and Wren. It's never mentioned outright how many paladins the Saint had in the first place, but twelve of them were spared to meet with the locals near the town of Hallowbind, so it's implied that there were quite a few. Three years later, Stephen is a broken paladin, living only for the chance to be useful before he dies. But all that changes when he encounters a fugitive named Grace in an alley and witnesses an assassination attempt gone wrong. Now the pair must navigate a web of treachery, beset on all sides by spies and poisoners, while a cryptic killer stalks one step behind…

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It wasn’t like that!” protested Stephen. “And it doesn’t mean anything! She might be married with six kids! She might not even like men!” Now as for that other part of the plot, the one I kept waiting to see tied together with what afflicts Grace – WTF? I certainly hope that illumination will come to us all as to what on earth this is all about. Right now, I’m still in the dark along with, it seems, all of the characters in the book. Please – we need a part II of this story.

Having read three Kingfisher novels in short succession, I'm in prime position to get weary. But despite seeing similarities between the books, I just can't find it in me to be upset about it - they feel like familiarities, if that makes sense? This author is one you can trust to take characters and do right by them; to make them ordinary people in a fantastical world and to make the reader root for their success. I love the element of horror that crops up in this series too, and there's a particularly creepy example in this book - it keeps things from getting too safe. Review copy was received from Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Funny, frightening, and full of heart; I loved it' Alix E. Harrow, author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January on Nettle & Bone The thing about the Saint of Steel is that this god blessed their paladins with divine berserker fits. So when the god dies they all go literally berserk, into a killing rage that results in murders, suicides, explosions and generally a whole lot of the death they were famous for in the first place. In that sense, it’s a world that resembles the world of Max Gladstone’s Craft Sequence, starting with Three Parts Dead. That’s a world where the lawyers are necromancers, and part of their job is to write contracts for gods both living and dead. But even more than the Craft Sequence, the world of Paladin’s Grace reminds me of Lois McMaster Bujold’s World of the Five Gods, particularly as it is seen through the eyes of the Learned Divine Penric of the White God and his demon Desdemona in Penric’s Demon and the books that follow. Penric has met his god, usually just before or just after said god sends him on yet another errand, and other people in that world have met their gods as well.Other supporting characters were interesting on paper, but because of the writing style, didn’t seem to be as compelling as they could have been. I liked Zale, the nonbinary( or agender?) lawyer-priest who seemed committed to their calling to defend the helpless in court. Stephen’s fellow paladins also seemed like a supportive group of friends, and the Bishop of the White Rat was an admirable woman of force and personality. I would have liked to see more of them. despite the fact that he had a moaning woman in his arms, Stephen had not been less aroused in recent memory.

Six kids is workable. A live husband…mm, well, why was he letting her chase through graveyards in the dark without assistance? Clearly unfit for such a woman.” Istvhan nodded to himself. “We will have him killed.” Funny, frightening, and full of heart; I loved it' Alix E. Harrow, author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January My one complaint about the characterization would be that both Grace and Stephen spend way too much time thinking "oh no, they couldn't possibly be interested in boring, ugly old me." The first two or three times, it was charmingly oblivious, but after the tenth time, it was depressingly pathetic. Did the two least confident people in all of Archenhold just happen to meet and fall in love? Stephens god died on the longest day of the year Three years later, Stephen is a broken paladin, living only for the chance to be useful before he dies. But all that changes when he encounters a fugitive named Grace in an alley and witnesses an assassination attempt gone wrong. Now the pair must navigate a web of treachery, beset on all sides by spies and poisoners, while a Stephen’s god died on the longest day of the year… Three years later, Stephen is a broken paladin, living only for the chance to be useful before he dies. But all that changes when he encounters a fugitive named Grace in an alley and witnesses an assassination attempt gone wrong. Now the pair must navigate a web of treachery, beset on all sides by spies and poisoners, while a cryptic killer stalks one step behind… From the Hugo and Nebula Award winning author of Swordheart and The Twisted Ones comes a saga of murder, magic, and love on the far side of despair. [120]…more Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher – eBook DetailsGalen is one of the recovering Paladins in the White Rat's service. He is helping Earstripe, the only Gnole (badger looking creatures that walk and talk and can smell much better than a human) in the guard, in the investigation of murders. Piper enters the story when they task him to help them determine the cause of death. Piper is great at his job, as a wonderworker his talent is to be about to touch a body and see the last moments before death. Very useful as a lich-doctor is basically a coroner used to determine cause of death. Not many know Piper's secrets as some are distrustful of the magic he can do. Kingfisher said: “Seeing a weird little series I mostly wrote at my kitchen table go global is both wonderful and surreal. I’m delighted to work with Orbit UK on bringing these books to a wider audience.”

Plot: This book mainly follows Stephen and Grace as they become entangled in two main problems: 1. there is a serial killer on the loose, and his modus operandi is leaving behind severed heads, sans bodies; 2. there is a mysterious assassination plot aimed at the Crown Prince of a neighboring kingdom. To be honest, I found the serial killer plot underwhelming. It only seemed to be present to give Stephen an excuse to escort Grace places, and even when we found out who the killer was, I didn’t feel the rush of excitement or a sense of closure. I think perhaps this was because the serial killer plot wasn’t one that readers could try to piece together with the characters - at most, there was a single clue, and then it was solved (but readers can’t even predict the twist, so I didn’t feel any sense of suspense). Close platonic male friendships. The kind of men that can cry without shame in front of each other and say “I love you” to each other. We need more of these and we need to be secure enough to stop calling them bromances. But yeah, we need more bromances. The lady is Grace. She’s a perfumer, not a witch, even if she was gathering plants in a graveyard. She thanks him for his help, and lets him escort her home, and that should be the end of it.

Whilst foraging for startleflower, perfumer Grace finds herself pursued by ruffians and rescued by a handsome paladin in shining armour. Only, to outwit her hunters they have to pretend to be doing something very unrespectable in an alleyway. If you’re into a crazy thing like visual media, then maybe you’d like to hear all of this on my youtube channel where I also add irrelevant flourishes: https://youtu.be/otqKhYpLgTU 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. This wasn't an unusual situation for him. He spent a lot of time with his hands in corpses. He didn't like it. He didn't dislike it. It was just what he did. He enjoyed putting the mental pieces together about why someone had died, and he liked being able to provide certainty to families, but mostly what he liked was being good at his job.