wishesandpages 's review for:

Paladin's Strength by T. Kingfisher

4.0

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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 The second installment in The Saint of Steel series, and my favourite one so far!

While Paladin’s Grace takes place in a singular city, Paladin’s Strength is more of a journey, and we get to explore so much of this world, which I was really happy with, as I was looking forward to more books set in the World of the White Rat. From Clara and her convent to the mysterious rabbit hive, I was hooked and couldn’t get enough of this world.

Clara and Ishtvan were great protagonists, I loved reading their internal monologues and seeing them grow. I was rooting for them and their love story so much. I wish the romances weren’t focused so much on the physicality of the other in the lead-up to the romances, but I still enjoyed that one more than Grace and Stephen’s. In the first two books of the series so far, there were standout secondary characters both times, which I loved, it was Bishop Beartongue in the first one and Doc Mason in this one. I also feel like we got a little Easter egg for Swordheart, though I haven’t read that book yet, and for a latter book in the series, but not sure about that one.

Building on the previous installment, the storyline with the smoothmen developed further, it was really intriguing and I really liked where the story went; we learnt so much more about what was going on. I love that T. Kingfisher manages to balance this main storyline through the paladins, and to have storylines separate to that with the protagonists, it was really well done. This series is also a nice balance of fantasy, romance and some horror elements sprinkled throughout, which I love. I’m now really excited to see where the story is going; Paladin’s Hope with Piper and Galen’s story is now really high on my TBR!