Rating: 4 stars
CBR17 Bingo: Purple (most of the cover, barring the cover image, is a lovely lavender purple)
Stephen is one of the paladins of the Saint of Steel (who was a god, despite the name), who died very suddenly and unexpectedly a few years back. No one thought gods could die, and a lot of his paladins killed themselves and caused massive amounts of damage when it happened. Now, Stephen and the six other paladins who remain are housed at the Temple of the White Rat and volunteer as bodyguards whenever that's required. Stephen and the other paladins are berserkers; they used to descend into battle madness when fighting for their god. Without their god to call them back, the paladins worry about new berserker rages, as they may not be able to stop without any force to call them back. So Stephen knits socks and does his best to see to the well-being of his brother and sister paladins.
One day, when patrolling the city, he runs into a woman being harassed, and to foil her attackers, they pretend to have a steamy tryst in an alleyway. Grace is a skilled perfumer, with nothing but negative baggage in the romantic department. She shares her lodgings with a charming spy, who acts as her agent and tries to make sure Grace makes the sort of money she deserves. Grace wasn't really expecting to ever see her rescuer again, but they meet at a court function, and are soon witnesses to an assassination attempt. Soon, both Grace and Stephen are involved in a complicated power struggle, and to make matters worse, there's a mysterious killer out there on the streets who chops the heads off its victims.
I've liked all of the Kingfisher books I have read, especially her fairy tale retellings. I even mostly liked What Moves the Dead, despite being very creeped out by it throughout. I've owned many of her Saint of Steel books as e-books for a while, but when it was announced that T. Kingfisher (or Ursula Vernon, as she is really called) would be one of the guests of honour at Norcon (a very small and intimate fantasy/sci-fi convention at the University of Oslo) this year, it seemed like the perfect time to acquire the books in paperback, so I could get them signed. I also had grand plans to read all four stories before the festival started, but since this happened just before the end of term, I was pretty exhausted from work, and had only read a book and a half of the series.
Meeting authors is always such a strange and wonderful experience to me, but T. Kingfisher was funny, gracious and very interested in chatting with her fans in between the panels she took part in. There were also several opportunities during the two days to get books signed. She also had a big signing in the fantasy/sci-fi/all things nerd shop in the centre of town, where I saw a picture of the queue. It went for more than a block and a half. At the actual festival, I don't think there were ever more than six people having to wait in line - it was great.
It's not that I've gone completely off YA as I get older, but romantic fantasy with YA characters is getting less appealing to me. A romance with slightly more mature characters is therefore feels so much more satisfying. None of the protagonists in any of the Saint of Steel books are teenagers (or the age where they could play teenagers on TV). They have lived eventful lives, with all the advantages and disadvantages this involves, and they have to negotiate their awakening romantic feelings while considering the position they're in and the people they feel beholden to.
Grace used to be married, and her ex is clearly a real piece of work. Stephen struggles to find a place where he truly belongs, and is a protector through and through. He wants to protect and be with Grace, but the thought of abandoning his fellow paladins at the Temple of the White Rat, the only family he now has, may be impossible for him. Trying to sort out the political machinations and trying to find a creepy decapitating killer are challenges enough, but Grace and Stephen also need to figure out how to hopefully manage a happy ending together.
As well as the romantic relationship, which develops gradually between Grace and Stephen, Kingfisher also includes other important people in her protagonsist's lives. Having lost pretty much everything, even his sense of identity, when his god/Saint died, the remaining surviving paladins are all Stephen have left, and they are all as family. The bishop in the Temple of the White Rat may be his benefactress and de facto employer, but she clearly cares a lot for the broken knights. Grace may have had a troubled past, but she's found herself with a formidable best friend. Because of her husband, Grace doesn't really have any way to prove her previous accomplishments, which might have made it difficult for her to support herself, but thanks to her friend and landlady Marguerite, her perfumes are sought after and exclusive. In fantasy, the heroines are often independent and move about in male dominated societies, not all of them have any female friends. Women supporting other women is one of my favourite things, so I'm glad Kingfisher showed how loyal the women are towards one another.
Of the four books in this series, I think the third, Paladin's Hope, is my favourite. I really enjoyed all of them, though, and hope that Kingfisher will write books about the remaining paladins who haven't found their happy endings yet, as well.
Judging a book by its cover: When I first got the new paperback editions of the Saint of Steel series, I was a bit taken aback by how very pastel they all were (this one is lavender, the second is a delicate pale green, the third is baby blue and the fourth book is very pink). The cover illustrations are really nice, though, and really give a good impression of how the characters are described in the story (sadly, not always the case).
Crossposted on Cannonball Read
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