Audiobook Review: The Saint of Steel #4

Paladin’s Faith by T. Kingfisher

Read By Joel Richards

Publication Date: December 2023

Summary from Goodreads:

Confession:

While I enjoyed the story and the characters, the audiobook sort of kind of didn’t work for me. I’m not sure why though. The only thing that I can come up with is I don’t think Joel Richards had the right voice for this story. I actually like his voice, he does a nice job narrating other books, but for some reason it just didn’t work for this one. It could also be the fact that when there is dual narration, I really like to have two voices to listen to. But that is on me. I’m sure others liked his narration.

Despite my issues with the audiobook, I did mostly like this story. It has been a couple of years since I read the other three books in this series, so it did take me a few minutes to remember who Margarite and Shane were. Once I did though, I was able to settle into the story without much trouble. The story is mostly told through these two points of view but there are a few times when we get to see Wren’s as well.

“Children,” said Marguerite wearily, “if you do not stop bickering, I will turn this escape attempt around, so help me god.”

I really liked Margarite, I found her to be a fun character. A woman who has seen and done a lot of things in her life. She appears on the outside as an extrovert, but is afraid to truly open up and share herself with others. She is also smart and cunning and can manipulate others when needed. Shane is kind of the opposite, a total introvert, and so afraid to open up to people that it almost paralyzes him. I really enjoyed the banter between these two but, the romance didn’t necessarily speak to me. But that could have been the issue with the audiobook.

“Shane wondered if there was a term for feeling guilty about not feeling sufficiently guilty.”

The couple/non-couple that I really enjoyed, was Davith and Wren. I absolutely adored Davith and hope that we get to see him again. He was such a smart ass and just had the best one liners in the whole book. I thought he and Wren would work through their issues by the end of the book, but things were left a little bit open in that department. Maybe next book?

“Ten minutes later, Shane pushed open the door to the inn. Davith limped through and didn’t stop. He made a beeline for the bar, grabbed the edge to hold himself up, and hissed, “Do you know that there are holes that bite people here?”

The world building and writing were great. I loved that we got to see even more of this world than we have in the other books. The pacing was slow at the start and really didn’t pick up until half way through the book when Davith joined the group. But still enjoyable. The romance also didn’t quite work for me, but I am ok with that. I was hoping that this would be the last book, although we did get a few more bits of information about what happened to the Saint of Steel, but there is more to come. We had a bit of cliffhanger with the epilogue so I am hoping that we get another book soon.

I did enjoy this story even with the few minor issues I had with it. There will be at least one more book in this series, but there is no current info as to when that may be. I think I might try to reread the series before that one though, as I think I forgot enough from the first three books, that it made a few things confusing in this one.

If you enjoyed the other books in the series, certainly pick this one up. It does answer a few more questions about the Saints and Gods, and the romance aspect was fun. If you haven’t read the series, I wouldn’t start with this one though, please go back and start at the beginning.