Shane is a paladin with three problems. His god is dead, his client is much too attractive for his peace of mind, and a powerful organization is trying to have them both killed. Marguerite Florian is a spy with two problems. A former employer wants her dead, and one of her new bodyguards is a far too good-looking paladin with a martyr complex. These two are going to spend the book working out a court intrigue and desperately trying and failing not to fuck.
Marguerite is the lead lady and our central protagonist here. Her personality could be best described as a busty spy with a mind like a trap. Marguerite has uncovered a fun little secret that is absolutely going to get her murdered, so she approaches the Temple of the White Rat for a favor. The Temple assigns her two paladin bodyguards, most notably Shane. Shane is best described as an unfathomably horny and self-loathing teacher’s pet who is so built he is one hand wielding a claymore.
Listen, every single one of T. Kingfisher’s romance protagonists are hot. Kingfisher, across her books, has a magic way of really drawing out the rich personality of people and showing lots of different forms of attraction. That being said, if you lined up all her protagonists in a row and asked me to briefly blurb them, these two would be “the hot ones”. These two are just muscle, boobs, pretty faces, and ravenous sex drives. Of the four paladins books, this is definitely the horniest one so if you are looking for that…here you go.
As someone who doesn’t read a ton of romance novels, I continue to be impressed with Kingfisher’s ability to change up and diversify relationships and still keep them very believable. I was a little worried by book four that some of this would be getting repetitive, yet here I am just as invested as I was at the start. However, I am unfamiliar with all the tropes so I may just be out of the know.
Anyway, I had a lot of fun with the novel. Marguerite is just a delight to watch work. She really captures that classic smart person quality of always pulling unsaid details from conversations with her contacts and her plans feel clever and inspired. Meanwhile, Shane is always the coolest dude in the room. Built like a Mac truck, wearing enough plate mail to build a steam engine, and barely sweating; he has a commanding presence that just screams unironic peak masculinity. They are the classic heterocouple, but the one everyone likes because both parts are just so wonderful.
If I had one complaint about Paladin’s Faith it would probably be that I feel T. Kingfisher is kinda being undone by her own talent. From context clues, I get the sense that Kingfisher wants to keep this series fairly light and breezy. The goal seemed to be to write an accessible romance book with some rich fantasy background elements to keep people intrigued. Unfortunately, she flew too close to the sun, and I am now obsessed with some of the background elements that are absolutely not a priority in her storytelling. I am getting lore blue balls here over from some of this Saint of Steel stuff Kingfisher, WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM? What’s the plan forward? How are we reconciling the mysterious past that has started to unveil? Why will you not tell me? On a less comical note, I also think that Paladin’s Faith asks some really interesting questions that Kingfisher just sidesteps meaningfully engaging with in order to keep the tone light and fun. Multiple of these involve the nature of the paladin order, personal faith, and the place of religion in a relationship. I was expecting a clearer take on some of these and was left hanging.
The Paladins series is great and Paladin’s Faith is a grand success. If you are interested in watching two of the hottest people I have ever read about oil themselves up and make intense contact while resisting every impulse to fornicate boy do I have a book for you. The romance is fun and the world rocks, don’t sleep on this one. Have faith in me.
Rating: Paladin’s Faith – 9.0/10
-Andrew