Disclaimer: This is a review, and as such will contain opinions, spoilers and (often) general shit talking. (If you talk about what you don’t like about a work, you learn a lot. When you think through a work with the stakes presented to you by the creator, by the context of the work, you learn a lot. I review things, not because I love to dislike things, but because dislike contains rich and vital information for the process of experiencing something, but I cannot access it without interrogating it.) So, if you don’t want to have this thing spoiled for you, or don’t know how to behave when a person on the internet, that you don’t know, has opinions that don’t line up with yours, this review is not for you. It’s also not for the author/creator of the work. Please and thank you.
This time around, we get to follow Marguerite and Shane in yet another paladin romp, but with some spy-action this time.
There are a lot of those familiar elements from previous books, the big protective bear of a man and the smaller woman who feels safe in his presence.
In Marguerite’s case this positioning is the strongest yet, since her backstory is a lot of running away and changing identities, for work and for her personal safety.
There’s that fascinating combination of cosiness and horror again. This time we get closer to chasing down demons that before.
And, to be fair, I may just be a demon since paladins commanding me to kneel is by far the best thing about demon-hunting. Send me a paladin telling me to kneel any day and I’ll fold like a piece of paper… 👀
This book takes more of a bird’s eye view of the world and events we’ve seen so far — not that there hasn’t been a sense of interconnectedness in previous books, but perhaps because of Marguerite’s job, we get a more comprehensive idea of what’s going on in the world (and not just this story).
The balance of the deeply practical, kind of cynical spy and the paladin consumed by grief and guilt and self-doubt is really entertaining.
Marguerite is the perfect foil to Shane’s self-pity, and she’s a strong woman who easily takes command (and sometimes enjoys it a little too much), which is exactly what Shane needs.
That dynamic is beautiful, and plays well into the bodyguard romance this is at its heart.
The big boob talk makes me wonder…
The thing that I’m trying to wrap my head around is Marguerite’s physical appearance. Yes, I understand that this is a series genuinely showcasing larger, lived in bodies and I’m here for it, but I have some issues. Grace was living a relatively sedate lifestyle (compared to Marguerite anyway) so having meat on the bones didn’t stand out.
But, by all accounts (her own included), Marguerite is quite active. In this book alone, she’s hiking across countryside and riding horses, so I can’t imagine she’s super rotund as she doesn’t seem to suffer much from the physical activity, but then we get the bust talk.
And it’s kind of constant, this talk of large breasts, it’s giving gratuitous and not feeling like how women with generous cleavages think of themselves, or how they move in the world.
It honestly feels a bit like a man writing about large breasts (but that could just be the patriarchy talking?). Either way, it’s starting to make me wince when it comes up repeatedly and feels unnecessary.
For example, “Marguerite, who could not have done a single push up even if her breast hadn’t rendered the issue largely moot, tried not to feel bitter envy.” has me a little confused. She’s an all-round capable woman, who’s confident in her own skills, she moves around a lot (in this world that means walking, riding or riding in a wagon, not air planes) and has never shown any indication that “hitting the gym” is meaningful to her.
So, why is she bitter about not being able to do the push-ups? Her large breasts? She’s old enough (and self-aware enough) that she should have figured out by now that her breasts don’t define her. If she can’t do a push-up, there are other options to achieve the same goals – which she should regularly be doing anyway to counteract the negative effects of having really big breasts.
Not to mention, that she’d probably have worked out some stays that make her feel more comfortable if they’re really that big? And also, if they’re that large why isn’t that an issue in her line of work? Exceptional physical features aren’t easily forgotten, even if she can get every man in the room to stare at her cleavage while she picks their pockets.
Yeah, this characterisation feels like “need to give each character a defining, memorable trait” and in the case of this one, the lucky wheel pointed to “big boobs”.
While the plot moves forward, but it’s still meandering.
And this just seems to be typical of Kingfisher’s style. When you’re enjoying the book, you’re just happy to be along for the ride (as I did with this one), but when you’re on the fence, it just gets a bit boring (as happened to me with some of the previous books).
But when you know what to expect going in, these books are, as always, a very solid 3-star read for me.
The travelling group was kept relatively small this time (compared to previous books) and I feel like Davith might make a comeback in Wren’s story (assuming she gets one), since a lot of effort went into rehabilitating his faux pas.
I’m also on the fence about one of the Saint of Steel paladins ending up back in the fold with the Dreaming God, but apparently not as one of his paladins? Because that would be… inconvenient?
Perhaps future instalments will inform my opinion further.
Kingfisher keeps that warm humour that lets us explore the world through mature characters that have been through some shit before getting to this point.
However, this isn’t in that same vein of cosy horror as the previous books are. This leans far more into the spy/political court theme, but even there the court story lacked the sophistication to be genuinely interesting, it mostly happens as a backdrop to other narrative elements.
Still, it’s my favourite book in the series so far, blending adventure, a sense of fun and humour with disappointment, sorrow and melancholy.
We pick up more of the paladins of the Saint of Steel in this book, and they’re clearly going to feature in future books.
There was one scene where they’re escaping in a group from a castle that I definitely know I’ve seen in previous books in the series, but maybe that’s just a thing that we’re gonna see in every book.
The world of the White Rats keeps expanding, and though the Rat features very little in this book, I’m still excited to have more adventures in this world.
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