Where Miss Angelica goes, I go,” he said, in a voice so deep Grace could almost hear it through her boots. She might require a jar opened,” said Stephen, unruffled. “Or something heavy moved. My duty is clear.” No Ontological Inertia: It takes an extremely strong wonder-worker to create anything that will survive past their death. This is why the Smooth Men keep such a close eye on their creator—and ultimately what does them in when he chooses to make a Heroic Sacrifice. Review: So... Where to start with this one? While I liked Clara a lot (call me shallow, but I love a 6ft fat muscle lady who isn't just "hurr durr strong FMC" - she definitely has more talents than Istvhan). But beyond that, this was a BIG step down from book 1. The writing takes a dive (so much repetition!) and the romance especially doesn't do it for me. Seriously, Istvhan thinks about Clara's breasts constantly (CONSTANTLY!), and they get interrupted so many times you just want them to bang and get it over it. This is from someone whose weakness is 100k slow burn fanfic - I was so done reading about them lusting for one another and not communicating. The pacing is also way off - the road trip aspect means there are a lot of "stops" and "sidequest characters" that imo could have been removed because they don't really add to the story. When they finally get to the end destination and defeat the big bad, the antagonist was cheesy and uninteresting. If you can't guess, I did NOT like this one. Again, Clara and bear shape shifters hell yeah was fun, but not enough to save it. 2/5. 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…

Paladin's Hope Synopsis: Galen, a paladin who played a big role in book 2, is our MC. He's struggling with nightmares that end with him going into a berserker rage when he wakes up, when he's called in to help figure out who's murdering more people (love a murder mystery) and meets Piper, a hot lich doctor who basically lives in the morgue and never sees the sun. They embark on a journey to help their gnole friend (basically a badger) solve the murders and fall in love along the way.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. A serial killer is running about the city lopping off heads and Grace and Stephen get mixed up in the matter. Somehow. I don't know; I don't care. I didn't entirely dislike the last book I read in the series, but I definitely thought it dragged. Paladin's Hope definitely doesn't - it's a little shorter, but it's also tighter, the action feeling much more propelled, but still readable. Galen is a sweetheart, though some of the angsting about being relationship ready or not did treat old ground - it might just be that I read this much closer to my last from the series than usual, though.

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. There were also minor scenes that made me uncomfortable. I love romance stories and don’t mind sex scenes (when they’re warranted, not when they’re gratuitous), but I hate scenes where one person has to avoid detection (by some king of city guard or something), so the other person covers them with their body and they pretend to be a person and prostitute (or something), miming sex to make it seem like they saw nothing. I just find it awkward, not funny or the basis for mutual attraction. The fact that Stephen and Grace meet this way made it all the more awkward for me to read. I guess that was the point, since Grace is a little awkward herself, but I still hate these types of scenes. 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.

Contains examples of:

Um... big trope of traumatized insecure humble kind people finding each other, not a plus or minus as some people love those story lines as much as other people hate them. But if you need to avoid gore, graphic sex scenes or characters reliving past and current trauma(no really, consider this a spoiler free trigger warning as some listeners looking for a fantasy romance are listening to escape the trauma of their real lives and pasts and this may only cause a lot of stress) this isn't for you, that said, if you like gore and broken souls and steamy detailed sex scenes you might love this listen.

Helen Breitwieser at the Cornerstone Literary Agency sold UK and Commonwealth rights in five of Kingfisher’s books to Nadia Saward, commissioning editor at Orbit. 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. 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. Refuge in Audacity: Grace's friend Marguerite cheerfully admits to everyone that she's a spy for Anuket City. This works amazingly well at keeping her out of trouble. Turns out that she is a spy, but she doesn't work for Anuket City and her name's not Marguerite.As much as I liked this book, I do think the plot is the main weak point though. There was a lot going on, including a mystery, a courtroom drama, a romance, and an action adventure. It felt like some plot threads, such as Grace's mysterious spy BFF, were just discarded without being resolved. Furthermore, the resolution of the main plot point was very underwhelming. Grace is falsely accused, spends chapters fighting it, and then the prince just pops up and handwaves the whole issue away. I would've preferred an ending that involved someone finding evidence to clear Grace's name or someone using legal loopholes to get her out of jail.