A review by espiargrant
Paladin's Hope by T. Kingfisher

adventurous funny mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I really should've loved this book, but instead, I found it very disappointing. My favorite part of this book was the world, which was well-crafted and complex, with an interesting religion and minor magical elements. This in conjunction with a murder mystery story arc, lends to a setup for a great novel. However, the book didn't really follow through regarding the mystery element due to the 'Who' and 'How' of it being revealed almost immediately and the killer being
neutralized almost immediately, once the opportunity arose.

But in my opinion, the biggest disappointment of this book was the romance, of which I will enter even more spoilery territory:
Although both Galen and Piper were quite loveable at first glance, they eventually came across as quite flat and their connection was shallow. Both of their desperate need to sacrifice themself to save the other seemed to stem more from the fact the other was hot, as opposed to genuine mutual affection. The self-sacrifice also got quite repetitive, and did nothing to further either the plot or their character development. But what ticked me off the most about the romance was the sexual component. By Ch. 3, I was able to tell who the "Top" and the "Bottom" was going to be, not because the writing clearly shows what these characters prefer, but because they fit so neatly into heteronormative stereotypes. And what's worse is that they both somehow telepathically knew who was going to take which role, rather than having a conversation about what they each like. Lastly, for a book that spent so much time having these MCs fixate on how much they want to bang, I was incredibly confused that the 2 love scenes that were in this book were largely F-T-B (the 2nd moreso than the 1st). It just seemed like such a waste to listen to MCs long for eachother's bodies just to skip over the parts where they actually hookup.
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