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Paladin's Grace
(The Saint of Steel #1)
by
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 ...more
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 ...more
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Kindle Edition, 400 pages
Published
February 11th 2020
by Red Wombat Studio
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Darcy
It is set in the same universe as Clocktaur, but you can understand this book and Swordheart just fine without having read Clocktaur.
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30
Start your review of Paladin's Grace (The Saint of Steel, #1)
A delightful fluffy romance with a high severed head count. A paladin whose god died meets a perfumer who's escaped an abusive marriage and the romance develops over a pile of dead assassins, political intrigue, spies, religious fanatics, and decapitation. On brand T Kingfisher. I read it in a delightful evening sitting and enjoyed every moment. Linked to Swordheart but it's not necessary to have read that, you just should because it's also wonderful.
...more
If you're weary of fantasy starring super-hot, super-special eighteen-year-olds with improbably smooth banter skills, allow me to recommend these two awkward, well-meaning, damaged middle-aged people who are trying to patch together adequate lives and don't deserve to be caught up in political intrigues and supernatural serial killings that have nothing to do with them.
Sequel with more gnoles, please. ...more
Sequel with more gnoles, please. ...more
2020 Ripped Bodice Summer Bingo: Title is a Pun
I looooove T. Kingfisher and everyone should try her books. Her backlist is a bit confusing to sort out (fantasy vs romantic fantasy vs fantasy romance vs horror), but PALADIN’S GRACE is fantasy romance.
Highly recommended. Go read this! It’s dark but also hopeful and funny. Not entirely sure what hopedark is, but I think this qualifies.
I looooove T. Kingfisher and everyone should try her books. Her backlist is a bit confusing to sort out (fantasy vs romantic fantasy vs fantasy romance vs horror), but PALADIN’S GRACE is fantasy romance.
Highly recommended. Go read this! It’s dark but also hopeful and funny. Not entirely sure what hopedark is, but I think this qualifies.
3.5 stars. It’s a pleasant read, a linear and flowing story light on plot and a bit heavy on the romance side, which isn’t my preference. I liked the protagonists a lot and it was fun to return to the world of Swordheart. This book is a stand-alone but there is an opening for more tales.
“Annnnnd now I’m thinking about how to make perfume out of human flesh. Yep, that’s completely normal behavior. Nothing odd going on here.”
“He and I are friends.
Aren’t we?
Granted, she hadn’t known Stephen that ...more
“Annnnnd now I’m thinking about how to make perfume out of human flesh. Yep, that’s completely normal behavior. Nothing odd going on here.”
“He and I are friends.
Aren’t we?
Granted, she hadn’t known Stephen that ...more
Stephen had been called to service as a paladin, a holy berserker in the service of the Saint of Steel, one of the many gods in the world of the Temple of the White Rat. Only three years ago the god died and shattered his followers. A scant seven of the broken paladins remain and they work in service to the Temple of the White Rat in Archenhold. While patrolling the city in search of a particularly gruesome murdered Stephen rescues a young woman who is being hounded by followers of the Hanged Mo
...more
A wonderful cast of characters
I was fortunate enough to be recommended Paladin's Grace by a Goodreads friend and I'm so glad to have experienced T Kingfisher's magic. This story was entertaining from start to finish, made me laugh, squirm, sigh and shudder. The characters were original and by the end, I wanted to know them more. The mystery kept me enthralled and I was desperate to see it to the end.
While I enjoyed most parts of this story, the romance took a wee too long to get to and it didn' ...more
I was fortunate enough to be recommended Paladin's Grace by a Goodreads friend and I'm so glad to have experienced T Kingfisher's magic. This story was entertaining from start to finish, made me laugh, squirm, sigh and shudder. The characters were original and by the end, I wanted to know them more. The mystery kept me enthralled and I was desperate to see it to the end.
While I enjoyed most parts of this story, the romance took a wee too long to get to and it didn' ...more
Wonderful. Just wonderful. Warm, imaginative, deeply, profoundly hilarious romance involving poisoners, severed heads, spy intrigues, perfume and civets. Features the return of the Temple of the White Rat, the holy order of sardonic lawyer-priests who may be one of my favourite creations in all of fiction, and in particular Zale and Bishop Beartongue, who are absolute perfection here.
DNF @ 32%
Honestly I'm just fed up with constantly reading about how much Stephen wants to have a peak at Grace's chest.
This book is a blend of fantasy and romance. It's set in a world where each god has dedicated servants and Stephen is a paladin who belongs to a god that dies. Long story short many of the paladins go bezerk and kill innocent people, many more kill themselves, and just six are left including Stephen, so they have a bit of a reputation. Grace is a perfume maker in the city and g ...more
Honestly I'm just fed up with constantly reading about how much Stephen wants to have a peak at Grace's chest.
This book is a blend of fantasy and romance. It's set in a world where each god has dedicated servants and Stephen is a paladin who belongs to a god that dies. Long story short many of the paladins go bezerk and kill innocent people, many more kill themselves, and just six are left including Stephen, so they have a bit of a reputation. Grace is a perfume maker in the city and g ...more
Great book but the Motherhood left me with this earworm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wK5q...
There is nothing wasted in this book. The title itself is a double entendre. First there's Stephen, a paladin for the Saint of Steel — a god who died three years earlier. Stephen, one of the few paladins to survive the blowback is now graceless. Second, there is Grace, a perfume maker. She and Stephen in their own delightfully goofy way fall in love, and thus she becomes the Paladin's Grace.
In the ba ...more
There is nothing wasted in this book. The title itself is a double entendre. First there's Stephen, a paladin for the Saint of Steel — a god who died three years earlier. Stephen, one of the few paladins to survive the blowback is now graceless. Second, there is Grace, a perfume maker. She and Stephen in their own delightfully goofy way fall in love, and thus she becomes the Paladin's Grace.
In the ba ...more
A wonderfully fun story of perfumes, poisons, romance, severed heads, assassination plots, paladins of a dead god with berserker tendencies, a shy and kind perfume developer with a delightful civet and a past terrible marriage, and terrific Bishop Beartongue and lawyer Zale, both of the Church of the White Rat.
Ok, I’m gushing a little. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and a return to the world of the Wonder Engine and Swordheart. This is not a direct sequel to Swordheart or the Clocktaur books, a ...more
Ok, I’m gushing a little. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and a return to the world of the Wonder Engine and Swordheart. This is not a direct sequel to Swordheart or the Clocktaur books, a ...more
Even adults can be awkward as hell when navigating a new romance.
Stephen, Paladin of a dead god, and Grace, master perfumer, strike up an earnest and sweet, if periodically awkward romance. Stephen is still recovering from the death of his god and Grace is recovering from a collection of obnoxious men in her past. They are both genuinely good people struggling to make a new life for themselves.
Their first encounter involved Stephen fake shagging Grace against an alley wall in an attempt to hid ...more
Stephen, Paladin of a dead god, and Grace, master perfumer, strike up an earnest and sweet, if periodically awkward romance. Stephen is still recovering from the death of his god and Grace is recovering from a collection of obnoxious men in her past. They are both genuinely good people struggling to make a new life for themselves.
Their first encounter involved Stephen fake shagging Grace against an alley wall in an attempt to hid ...more
This is such a lovely, kind, and funny romantic fantasy novel, with fabulous worldbuilding and a central couple I adored. Comfort-reading at its finest!
(It is set in the same world as her earlier fantasy novels, but it's entirely standalone, so you could certainly start here. It is my favorite out of all of hers so far!) ...more
(It is set in the same world as her earlier fantasy novels, but it's entirely standalone, so you could certainly start here. It is my favorite out of all of hers so far!) ...more
Oct 03, 2020
Nenia ✨️ I yeet my books back and forth ✨️ Campbell
marked it as wishlist
This fantasy romance is only $1.99 on Kindle today!
It occurred to me while reading this book that I've been quite literally reading Ursula Vernon for 18 years. She brings something to the table that no other author can quite manage: an anthropological approach to world-building and a gleeful fascination with the universe. I always love her characters, and I will be honest that I especially love the paladins. (And Zale. I really love Zale.) This is a romance, sort of, but it's a romance/serial killer murder mystery with the usual fantasy spin. I
...more
4.5/5 stars
FAR MORE fluffy romances should involve severed heads, in my opinion. I have loved every book Ursula Vernon has written in this world as T. Kingfisher, and Paladin's Grace did not disappoint. It had everything I want in a book-- a tortured paladin hero, a self-reliant heroine, excellent romance, excellent fantasy, excellent humor. (I didn't know that I needed a book about perfumiers, but I absolutely did. And there was a civette!) Honestly, this review is going to be fairly incoherent ...more
FAR MORE fluffy romances should involve severed heads, in my opinion. I have loved every book Ursula Vernon has written in this world as T. Kingfisher, and Paladin's Grace did not disappoint. It had everything I want in a book-- a tortured paladin hero, a self-reliant heroine, excellent romance, excellent fantasy, excellent humor. (I didn't know that I needed a book about perfumiers, but I absolutely did. And there was a civette!) Honestly, this review is going to be fairly incoherent ...more
3.5-4
Great elements of horror here, too. My first read of T. Kingfisher, won't be my last. ...more
Great elements of horror here, too. My first read of T. Kingfisher, won't be my last. ...more
I really like this world that Kingfisher has created, and her characters are a lot of fun.
Grace, a perfumer and super-smeller, gets accidentally caught up in an assasination plot. Stephen, a wrecked paladin, gets caught up in helping her. Meanwhile, people in the city keep discovering headless bodies. It’s a nice plot, with just a few of Kingfisher’s trademark macabre elements.
Unfortunately, this is also a “fluffy romance” (the author’s words) and it’s a bit too fluffy for my taste. I finally st ...more
Grace, a perfumer and super-smeller, gets accidentally caught up in an assasination plot. Stephen, a wrecked paladin, gets caught up in helping her. Meanwhile, people in the city keep discovering headless bodies. It’s a nice plot, with just a few of Kingfisher’s trademark macabre elements.
Unfortunately, this is also a “fluffy romance” (the author’s words) and it’s a bit too fluffy for my taste. I finally st ...more
[4 stars]
this was lovely! i was looking for some fantasy romance and someone recommended Paladin's Grace to me. i had never heard of T. Kingfisher before, and i’m VERY picky when it comes to romance, so i honestly didn’t know what to expect from this, or if i’d actually enjoy it. luckily, it was a case of ‘the right book at the right time’, as it was exactly what i needed at the time i read it, and i’m looking forward to checking out more of her books in the future.
this was lovely! i was looking for some fantasy romance and someone recommended Paladin's Grace to me. i had never heard of T. Kingfisher before, and i’m VERY picky when it comes to romance, so i honestly didn’t know what to expect from this, or if i’d actually enjoy it. luckily, it was a case of ‘the right book at the right time’, as it was exactly what i needed at the time i read it, and i’m looking forward to checking out more of her books in the future.
he felt old. and yet Grace...more
T. Kingfisher best written book for me so far.
The first three chapters were so somber it make my heart hurt. We see the aftermath of the first chapter. How the remainders of the order cope with the fact that they still living. Then things took a turn for... farcical? slapstick? When Grace enter the scene.
Ms. Vernon can write comedy. Her funny dialogues can make you gasping for air from excessive laughter. Here she used it to the great effect, by juxtapose it with the punch in the gut of some r ...more
The first three chapters were so somber it make my heart hurt. We see the aftermath of the first chapter. How the remainders of the order cope with the fact that they still living. Then things took a turn for... farcical? slapstick? When Grace enter the scene.
Ms. Vernon can write comedy. Her funny dialogues can make you gasping for air from excessive laughter. Here she used it to the great effect, by juxtapose it with the punch in the gut of some r ...more
This one fell a little too close to T. Kingfisher's Clockwork Boys for me — similar broken paladin, similar practical lady-hero who doesn't think much of herself or expect other people to think much of her, similar instant mutual lust covered over by "Oh, but this could never work out, I have to hide my emotions for reasons that will keep us apart until the eventual earthshattering sex." I know, it's a romance, there are conventions, it's just that the characters were too similar in this case, a
...more
This was so good. I expected it to be all angsty and sword & sorcery epic-y. It had swords and had a nice fantasy world, but I didn't expect it to be as funny as it was. Great dialogue, great characters, good story. And yeah some very welcome humor in places.
...more
Funny, charming, and comfortable - with just a dash of quiet romance. Chicken soup for the fantasy soul.
A an engaging new book by T. Kingfisher, set in the same world as Clocktaur Wars and Swordheart.
Paladin's Grace is very much in the same mould as the above books, and hits some of the same beats - a broken paladin, pairing up with a mature woman with an emotionally painful and sexually unsatisfying relationship history. Lot of lusting after each other and sticking their foot in their mouths, followed by a passionate consummation. The plot involves a perfumer, her best friend (a spy), the broken ...more
Another of Kingfisher's Paladin Romances! This is how I think of them, all 4 (and more coming!) books in the Temple of the White Rat universe, although one was technically a talking sword and not a Paladin at all.
But Paladin's Grace does in fact have a proper Paladin, one whose god is dead, and he's been muddling persistently along in service to the Temple of the White Rat (godly lawyers). He's one side of the moony romance.
The other is Grace (aaah see what she did there), a Master Perfumer with ...more
But Paladin's Grace does in fact have a proper Paladin, one whose god is dead, and he's been muddling persistently along in service to the Temple of the White Rat (godly lawyers). He's one side of the moony romance.
The other is Grace (aaah see what she did there), a Master Perfumer with ...more
I think I came across this book while browsing Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, but I don’t remember for sure. Regardless, I decided to pick it up because the story of a paladin whose god has died intrigued me. I’m a sucker for stories about crises of faith, and I was in the mood for a fun adventure with a little angst thrown in. While the premise was very much my jam, the prose style ultimately prevented me from connecting with this book. In my opinion, it felt like the book was aimed at readers wi
...more
What a delight! Reads like an AU fanfic in the best ways. Reminds me a bit of Beka Cooper/Terrier books by Tamora Pierce with the solving mysteries angle. OKAY SO BASICALLY this is a political intrigue/mystery (an attempted assassination!! also a serial killer beheading people) but the real heart of this story is Stephen (a paladin, which is like a god-touched warrior) and Grace (a perfumer with a past she'd prefer to leave behind). These characters are excellent, not least of which is because t
...more
4+
A bit more romance than I'm accustomed to from this author but still quite good. I love the author's voice and sense of humor. ...more
A bit more romance than I'm accustomed to from this author but still quite good. I love the author's voice and sense of humor. ...more
Paladin's Grace was just as funny as Swordheart if not more so. There's a lot more violence in this book -- lots of decapitations and poisonings and attempted murders, but not so many that it makes the book extremely dark. The main character, Stephen, is a paladin for a dead god. He's a sweetheart who knits socks for his brothers and is constantly worried about going berserk. Grace, his love interest, is a perfumer on the run from her horrible ex-husband.
Basically, if you like to laugh, like fa ...more
Basically, if you like to laugh, like fa ...more
Oct 07, 2020
Vee
rated it
it was amazing
Shelves:
friendship,
swoony,
yearning,
humour,
horror,
lgbtqiap-themes,
romance,
2020-release,
fantasy,
all-time-favourites
This was probably the best fantasy romance that I have read in a really long time. And, it was because it was doing almost the exact opposite of what is currently being offered in fantasy romance. I LOVED IT SO MUCH!
There are only about 350 pages to play with here, but packed within those pages we have: a 40ish year old beta-hero paladin who is in the midst of recovering from trauma, he knits socks, he is incredibly patient, kind, loyal and respectful - to a fault, he is trying to rediscover his ...more
There are only about 350 pages to play with here, but packed within those pages we have: a 40ish year old beta-hero paladin who is in the midst of recovering from trauma, he knits socks, he is incredibly patient, kind, loyal and respectful - to a fault, he is trying to rediscover his ...more
I LOVED this book! There was so much creativity and joy - but also murder and severed heads - and Grace and Stephan were such wonderful characters. The entire cast of characters was a joy and the world was so interesting and I really, really loved this.
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T. Kingfisher is the vaguely absurd pen-name of Ursula Vernon. In another life, she writes children's books and weird comics, and has won the Hugo, Sequoyah, and Ursa Major awards, as well as a half-dozen Junior Library Guild selections.
This is the name she uses when writing things for grown-ups.
When she is not writing, she is probably out in the garden, trying to make eye contact with butterflies ...more
This is the name she uses when writing things for grown-ups.
When she is not writing, she is probably out in the garden, trying to make eye contact with butterflies ...more
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The Saint of Steel
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Talia Hibbert is a USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. A lifelong bookworm, she’s known for haunting the local library,...
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“All women are beautiful,” said Istvhan, dismissing this. “It is the job of their lovers to make them feel that way if they do not already.”
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“Oh gods, if any of you are listening, please grant that we don’t make things worse.”
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Mar 02, 2021 03:41AM