If you’ve read T. Kingfisher’s other works like Nettle and Bone or Thornhedge, you might be expecting something a little creepy yet heartwarming and funny at the same time. My hopes and expectations were thus quite high and I was expecting a book with a certain depth that would leave me thinking about the book long after I’d finished reading it. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed in that respect. Not because the book was bad - it’s not - it’s just really not what I expected.
Paladin’s Grace, at its core, recounts the meeting and love story between perfumer Grace and Stephen the disillusioned paladin. As usual, T. Kingfisher manages to ally humour, touching romantic moments and an original fantasy setting with interesting worldbuilding. So interesting in fact that I wished there had been a bigger focus on it. Yet the story focused much more on the romantic plot. Indeed, this is not a fantasy book with a secondary romantic plot, but a romantasy. The plot is entertaining and light, some situations are a bit silly, there is a lot of fluff and some moment we surprisingly (and perhaps unnecessarily) very sexual in my opinion. But then again, I am not a romantasy fan and so I was probably the wrong audience for this and I’m sure many readers will appreciate this story much more.
All in all, I enjoyed this book, the characters were endearing but I really do prefer the tone of T.Kinfisher’s other books and so I will not be continuing this series. If however, you like romantasy more than fantasy with a romantic subplot, this is probably for you!
