Paladin's Hope by T. Kingfisher
Aug. 2nd, 2023 04:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lightreadsPaladin's Hope
3/5. Another one of these fantasy romances with horror elements where the hero (well, one of the heroes, in this case) is the paladin of a dead god. This one is queer – the other hero is a dude fantasy medical examiner. They solve crimes and stumble into a messy survival situation.
I liked parts of this – it’s about burnout and doing the job you can do, rather than the one that will do the most good, and also police corruption. But . . . I’m sorry. I just do not like her romances. It’s weird, she’s so great with friendship and other kinds of platonic relationships, but when she goes into romance mode it’s in this weirdly shallow way that is 95% physical attraction, and that is just not satisfying. She could definitely have sold me on this couple and how their respective issues mesh together, but there was no time since they wanted to bang, they banged, they angsted (in a super annoying ‘oh no, I can’t be with you, I’m too damaged’ way), they banged again, end of book. I don’t know, I needed more.
That’s a real winner of a last line, though.
Content notes: Serial murder, lots of bodies and related stuff.
3/5. Another one of these fantasy romances with horror elements where the hero (well, one of the heroes, in this case) is the paladin of a dead god. This one is queer – the other hero is a dude fantasy medical examiner. They solve crimes and stumble into a messy survival situation.
I liked parts of this – it’s about burnout and doing the job you can do, rather than the one that will do the most good, and also police corruption. But . . . I’m sorry. I just do not like her romances. It’s weird, she’s so great with friendship and other kinds of platonic relationships, but when she goes into romance mode it’s in this weirdly shallow way that is 95% physical attraction, and that is just not satisfying. She could definitely have sold me on this couple and how their respective issues mesh together, but there was no time since they wanted to bang, they banged, they angsted (in a super annoying ‘oh no, I can’t be with you, I’m too damaged’ way), they banged again, end of book. I don’t know, I needed more.
That’s a real winner of a last line, though.
Content notes: Serial murder, lots of bodies and related stuff.
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Date: 2023-08-02 10:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-03 11:17 am (UTC)I liked this one because it was not overlong, unlike the bear one. But yeah about her romances; I wonder if she needs to read more in the actual romance genre?
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Date: 2023-08-03 02:48 pm (UTC)Yeah, I saw the recorded time on the bear one and went "nope" and grabbed this one instead. Good call, I think.
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Date: 2023-08-04 08:46 pm (UTC)Yes, this is very much my problem with Kingfisher. I literally read her romances for the worldbuilding. I mean, I generally do also love the characters and friendships she builds, but the actual romances do nothing for me.