Book 6 of 2024: Paladin's Hope (The Saint of Steel, #3)

[thistlechaser]

Paladin's Hope (The Saint of Steel, #3) by T. Kingfisher.

Quick synopsis: Two men fall in instant-lust, spend the book angsting about why they can't be together, occasionally have sex.

Plot: It feels silly to even talk about the plot at all. The plot only existed to give the main characters something to do while angsting.

Piper is a lich-doctor (basically a coroner). Galen is a paladin of a dead god. Both men are gorgeous in different ways. The moment they see each other, they fall into lust at first sight and a week later both love the other. But for completely stupid reasons, neither feels the other wants him.

Then for the 50%-60% middle the book they have sex (yes, really, 10% of it), then they go back to angsting until the end of the story.

The plot involved hunting down a murderer, but it really wasn't believable at all and was secondary to the angsting.

Writing/editing: The writing was good. The editing was good as well (I spotted only two issues).

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: Lord. This book series is just not for me. I read book #1 and #2 a year ago, but waited to read #3 in hopes of forgetting the fact that this author does the Same Damned Thing in every book. Two characters fall in insta-lust, spend the entire book angsting about why they can't be together.

This author can write, I love her other stuff, but I was endlessly rolling my eyes while reading this one. I should have DNFed it, but it was a really fast read so I just kept going.

I LOVE the worldbuilding in this series. I wish she'd write a book without the insta-lust/angst and focus on plot and the world.

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: 2. I hate to rate her work so low, but 2 is being generous.

Comments

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

It's very frustrating, because she is funny, plots well in the non-Paladin books, and (as of the end of this one), *has* started building the overall arc, but I really just can't get into the romance genre conventions. But she has stuck more non-romance-genre plot into the succeeding books, if that helps. (It's helped me cope, anyway.)

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

Hello! Your entry got to top-25 of the most popular entries in LiveJournal!
Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in FAQ (https://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=303).

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Oh that's good to hear about the next books, because the final sentence of this one killed me and I wanted to read the next one, even as much as I disliked this one.

I was wondering if all this angst was a romance book thing. As popular as romance books are, I didn't think it could be, but the goodreads reviews for these books are overwhelmingly positive, so I guess it would fit.

I'll check out the next one, thanks!

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's my impression from various blogs familiar with the romance genre that the "angst a lot and have a lot of barriers thrown up against the relationship until you get to the Happily Ever After at the end" is basically required for it to be considered a romance, which is, I understate, meh. (HEA is a recognized acronym. Initialism, rather.)

Anyway, so these are both Fantasy and Romance genres. And honestly, I really can't read them that often if they're going to be A Romance, even if there's moar plot, but the moar plot helps.

(I believe she's planning for there to be 7 of them.)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Thanks, cat, for somehow successfully hitting the back button while I was replying...

Yeah, 7 books. 5 and 6 only have "some clues" as to what's happening. I think that was her wording, there was a tweet about it (are they still even called tweets?).

Agreed on the meh! Big time meh.