Paladin's Faith

I enjoyed this well enough but it felt a bit off. Too much fantasy, not enough romance. OTOH the fantasy was the better part of the novel so I was entertained by the story! Rest of this review is kinda spoilery, read at your own peril.

The romance was fun. Kingfisher takes a long time for her characters to get there, and the paladins being all self-doubting gets tedious. But that's the shtick and it works. And when we finally get to the real good sex scene, involving some mild kink, hoo boy it sizzles. Best scene in the book.

The fantasy is interesting! She's built out an elaborate world of living gods and frightening demons and a rich complex world of economics and politics. A lot of this novel is about spies and intrigue and it was fun. But parts of the fantasy are a little clumsy. And it takes a lot of pages to get where it goes. Might have benefitted from a little tightening up. I did enjoy it though.

The characters are good. Marguerite, the main female lead, is appropriately fun and brassy and lusty. The main paladin is kinda boring but does his job. I really liked Wren but just wish the author could have given her a romance, because she deserved to get laid. There's also an odd male character who joins the story later who seemed quite interesting to me, wouldn't mind more of his story.

Overall it's fun. If you liked the third of these books you'll like this fourth. I'm not sure if I need yet more of these but they are fun and competent so I'm probably in for a fifth.