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

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Of the first three The Saint of Steel books this is my least favourite, which was disappointing because I was so, so excited for Piper’s story. I’ve loved him as a character from Book #1 and I love him even more now that we were able to experience his perspective. The reason this installment fell short for me is because of the brevity, so I guess that’s a testament to Kingfisher that I just wanted more. 

Insta-love is one of my least favourite tropes, and I definitely found Piper and Galen’s story to be insta-love. Not only is the timeline in the book significantly shorter than the two previous books, but the length of the novel is much shorter too. Unfortunately, that was really apparent to me and I wanted more development between Piper and Galen. As it was, I couldn’t quite buy into how quickly they fell in love and their relationship progressed. Although I will fully admit that the life-or-death situation and adrenaline pulsing through most of the book would sway both to going all in very quickly. 

As well, I believe there were two continuity errors in Paladin’s Hope, or at the very least two explicit references to past scenes that didn’t quite match up with how they were previously described. That took me away from the story quite a bit as I tried to parse through it. 

All of that said. The last line. My gods, the last line. Paladin’s Hope was hovering around a four-star rating for most of the book because of the brevity and insta-love, but the final line had me sitting up in bed and actually screeching.
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