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Narrated by Justine Eyre
Bryony and her sisters have sunk in the world after their rich merchant father lost all his money and then died. Bryony has taken over the gardening at their little cottage and while, travelling to a friend for turnip seeds, she gets lost in a vicious snow storm and stumbles across a magical house, a strange beast-man, and a rose garden. Yes, it’s a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, but not quite in the way you expect. I love T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon), and this somewhat creepy take on the fairy tale is excellent.
The audiobook narration works reasonably well, but the English accent is very Queen Elizabeth circa 1955. There’s a bit of an overexaggerated RP twang. Ah, I checked, she’s Canadian doing an English accent. It’s just a bit too London posh.
Narrated by Zoe Mills.
Kindle version. I love T. Kingfisher’s books in general and her Saint of Steel books in particular, so I was delighted to pre-order this. Wren and Shane, both Paladins of the now-deceased Saint of Steel, are assigned by Bishop Beartongue of the White Rat to protect Marguerite at a foreign court where she’s looking for information about an artificer who could revolutionise the salt trade – which might not sound terribly exciting, but it could affect many other trades and revolutionise the economies of many countries. Unfortunately, Marguerite is likely to be killed by one of the factions of the Red Sail, but worryingly she’s not sure which faction or whether she’s a primary target or just a loose end that they are trying to clear up from a previous encounter. While Wren has to pose as a minor foreign dignitary at court, Shane plays the muscle-bound bodyguard, supposedly standing on the side-lines. It would all be so simple if he were not falling for Marguerite and unable to protect her from the more unpleasant parts of her job as a spy. Then, suddenly, their roles are reversed and it’s Shane who is in deadly danger. There’s peril, action and quirky humour a-plenty without letting the dramatic or romantic tension lapse. Highly recommended. And if you haven’t read the other Saint of Steel books, they are also highly recommended. I would suggest starting with Paladin’s Grace, where we first meet Marguerite as a secondary character, but all the books stand alone. I'm hoping Judith is the next Paladin to have her own book. There's a loose end in this that could easily lead to that.
Rosa Mandolini is the 10 year old daughter of a household of painters of magical illuminations, images that hold specific spells from keeping milk fresh to protecting the city. He hopes to pain magical illuminations one day but at the moment all she seems to be able to paint are radishes with fangs. Looking for a way to help her family she finds an old box in the cellar, an illumination of a crow on its lid. Opening the box, the crow illustration comes to life, but not in time to stop her from opening the box and releasing the Scarling, a vicious illumination obsessed with wiping out the Mandolini family by unmaking their magical illuminations and plunging the city into chaos. With the help of the crow and her former best friend, Rosa must stop the Scarling. T. Kingfisher is one of my favourite authors. This book borders on middle grade and the younger end of YA, but it's a perfectly fine adult read, too.
I loved revisiting this book via audible. Halla is a great character, and so is Sarkis, the barbarian mercenary doomed to be trapped in an ancient sword and to serve the wielder. When Halla inherits all her uncle's property after keeping house and nursing him in his final years, the uncle's family try to find ways of disinheriting her or marrying her off to her cousin to get at her money. Halla draws the ancient sword, not realising Sarkis will materialise. The dialogue between the two is very witty. Reader, Jesse Vilinsky does a great job on Halla's dialogue, but less so on Sarkis whose accent varies from some sort of Scottish with a bit of Yorkshire and Geordie thrown in, occasionally drifting into Slavic. You get used to it, but it's not as good as it might be. Having said that, this is still five stars
This picks up the story of Slate, Caliban and Brenner along with Learned Edmund and Grimehug the gnole as they enter Anuket city and begin to scout around for whoever is creating the destructive clockwork boys. Slate and Caliban spend the first half of the book dancing around their romantic feelings for each other, which has its funny moments, but that just throws the seriousness of the mission into sharp relief. They’ve known all along that this is probably a suicide mission, but until now have possibly thought that there would be a way out. Now they’re not so sure. Once again this is well read by Khristine Hvam.
A forger, a paladin, an assassin and a scholar walk into a bar… not quite, but almost. These are the characters central to the story with the addition, later on, of a gnole, an intelligent, badger-like creature with a complex society. The forger is Slate, the paladin is Caliban, Brenner is the assassin and Learned Edmund the young and unworldly scholar. The gnole is Grimehug. This crew (all but Learned Edmund) consists of convicted criminals who are sent to Anuket City to discover (and if they can, put an end to) huge clockwork monsters which are smashing their way through Anuket’s enemies. Just in case they decided that running away is preferable to running into danger, Slate, Caliban and Brenner are given a magical tattoo that will eat them if they don’t stay on task. This is a story in two parts. This book covers the story of assembling the crew and making the journey to Anuket City. You’ll immediately need to move on to The Wonder Engine for the other half od the story. This is a re-read for me via Audible. It’s nicely read by Khristine Hvam who brings out some of the comedy, especially in Slate’s commentary. Highly recommended.
I do love a hero who knits socks in his spare time. The Saint of Steel died and all his paladins ran mad. Only a few survived the shock and, three years later, Steven is still broken, but is gradually beginning to get his life back. Employed and sheltered by the Temple of the Rat, led by the indomitable Bishop Beartongue, the few surviving paladins of the saint are mostly tasked with suitable physical missions where violence is likely. Steven is acting as protector to a healer in a rough area of town. On his way home he sees a young woman being chased as a witch by the Hanged Mother’s priests, a particularly cruel sect. He saves her and then lets her go. Grace is a perfumer, trying to lead a quiet life as she’s run away from an unfair and two-timing husband. Steven and Grace meet again at an official palace event and are immediately thrown into a plot of assassination and false accusations. This is a romance but taut and exciting, as Grace’s landlady turns out to be a spy, and Grace is accused of attempted murder, again, by the Hanged Mother’s priests. This is a re-read via Audible. Christian Rodska reads very well, and I thoroughly recommend this in audio or written form.
This is a re-read for me via Audible. I like listening to audiobooks that I’ve read (and enjoyed) before. The Saint of Steel died and all his paladins ran mad. Only a few survived the shock and, four years later, are beginning to get their lives back. Paladin’s Grace is the story of Steven, and Paladin’s Strength is the story of Istvahn, a giant of a man, and Clara, lay sister of the order of St Ursa. Istvahn is travelling with a convoy of (empty) barrels while trying to find out more about the smooth men, who have left a trail of severed heads and headless bodies, not necessarily matching (and there are fewer bodies than heads). Clara is following a group of her sisters who have been captured and kidnapped for reasons that eventually become horribly clear. If I say any more it will be too spoilery. Suffice it to say that this becomes a romance between two middle-aged, somewhat over-sized people that is utterly charming. T Kingfisher is good at this sort of romance. Her dialogue is witty, and I forgive her for ignoring the fact that the two protagonists could get together far sooner if only they were honest with each other. Clara, in particular, has good reason for keeping her secret. Ms Kingfisher is extremely good at spinning out the sexual tension, and having the couple’s carnal intentions thwarted in a number of amusing ways.
I love T. Kingfisher’s writing. She’s a buy on sight author for me, even her horror books (and generally I don’t read horror). This is not horror, it’s a fantasy with fairy tale elements: a princess (youngest of three); a dog made of bones; a dust wife who speaks with the dead; a steadfast knight rescued from a goblin market; a chicken inhabited by a demon; two godmothers (fairy variety); and a cruel prince. Marra’s two older sisters have been married off (sequentially) to the cruel prince of a powerful northern kingdom. The first mysteriously died, and the second is wearing herself out, staying pregnant to avoid his beatings. Marra, hidden away in a convent in case the prince kills the second sister and needs a third wife, decides to do something about the situation, and sets off to murder the prince. She knows she can’t do it alone so she enlists the help of the dust wife who sets her three impossible tasks. These are a nice bit of misdirection. This is not the story you think it’s going to be. Marra and the dust wife set off to do the dirty deed (with the demon chicken and the bone dog) and pick up the steadfast knight and one fairy godmother along the way.
This is a take on the Snow Queen fairy tale, or I should possibly say 'inspired by,' as it strays from the original by a country mile. Gerta's friend, Kay, the boy next door that she's fancied all her life, is stolen away by the Snow Queen one cold winter night. No one but Gerta saw it happen, so she knows she's the only one who can find him. She's not an experienced traveller, so almost immediately she gets into trouble at the house of a witch and gets stuck for seven months. Eventually she gets away and is helped by a talking raven, a bandit girl and an elderly reindeer. Finding Kay doesn't go the way she expected, but then, there was always a chip of ice in his heart. Don't assume that this is a light story. There's darkness at its heart, waiting to be overcome. It's a coming of age story as well as a rescue. Recommended.
I've loved T. Kingfisher's previous Saint of Steel books, so I knew I was in for a treat with Galen's story. The basic background is that the paladins of the Saint of Steel were suddenly cut loose when their god died. Some went mad, many died but these books chronicle the stories of the ones who lived. Galen might not be entirely sane, but he's transferred his allegiance to the Temple of the White Rat and is getting on with life as best he can. When bodies begin to turn up, mutilated in strange but different ways, Galen goes to investigate with a brave gnole guardsman, and meets Piper, a lich-doctor (that's a pathologist to you and me) who specialises in determining cause of death. Galen had given up hope of ever finding love, but Piper might be the one, if Galen can protect him from the traps that await all three of them.
T Kingfisher is the pen name of Ursula Vernon in her writing-for-adults mode. She's become a buy on sight author for me. 
I don't usually read horror, but I've loved all of the T. Kingfisher books I've read so far, so I thought I'd risk it, and I'm glad I did. I'm not sure where the dividing line is between dark fantasy and horror, and would happily place this in the dark fantasy/portal fantasy pigeonhole, though it has Lovecraftian leanings. Newly divorced and living in the little back room of her uncle's Museum of Natural Wonders (more like a museum of the weird with a large helping of taxidermy) Kara (known as Carrot) finds a hole in the wall behind one of the museum exhibits - a hole which leads to a passage that can't possibly fit into the confines of the museum building. Together with her (gay) friend, Simon from the coffeehouse next door, she goes exploring only to find a bunker in a very strange world full of islands and willows that move, more portals, the occasional dead body… and worse. It's dark and weird, Narnia from Hell. It's scary, but it also has lighter moments and the 'voice' is engaging and quirky, even when everything goes south. They can hear you thinking. Pray they are hungry.
A new T. Kingfisher book is always a delight, and this is no exception. Mona is a wizard. But her only talent lies in dough – the bread kind – and her ability to make a carnivorous sourdough starter that once ate a rat. When she opens up the bakery one morning, and finds a corpse on the floor, Inquisitor Oberon promptly accuses her of murder. Things go from bad to worse. Someone is murdering wizards, even the small and insignificant kind. Mona finds herself on the endangered species list and then – even more scarily, finds she's the only wizard in town when a vicious invading army arrives. With a fourteen year old heroine this book hovers between upper-end middle grade, YA, or it can equally enjoyed by adults who like quality literature.
Rhea, a miller's daughter, is less than pleased when Lord Crevan, a wealthy minor noble, makes an offer for her hand in marriage. She's only fifteen, and even if she did want to get married, miller's daughters don't marry lords, especially ones they've never met. He family aren't happy either, but they don't see that they have any choice in giving up their daughter if they want to keep their mill (and probably their lives) so Rhea goes tramping off through a magic wood to the sorceror-Lord's house, which can't possibly exist because surely someone must have noticed it. On the way she acquires a hedgehog, communicative, but not in a talking sort of way. In reaching Crevan's lodge she finds that she's niot actually Crevan's first bride, she's his seventh, and at least three of the previous ones are alive and well and already living in the lodge. Maria, the cook, Sylvie a blind woman, and the silently disapproving Ingeth, are obvious, but then there's also the clock wife and the golem wife, plus Lady Elegans, the only one who's dead and buried. Crevan's home is enchanted. There's no escape. With the help of Maria and Sylvie, Rhea and the hedgehog have to figure out how to beat Crevan before Rhea's wedding. This is a creepy fairytale-type story which draws you into the mystery of what Crevan wants from Rhea, and how she can avoid her fate.
Oliver is a very minor mage, in more ways than one. He barely has any magic, and he's a twelve year old child, but he's all the village has got, so when there's a drought he and his familiar, an armadillo, are sent off by a mob (formerly his friends and neighbours) to the Rainblade Mountains to bring back rain. Oliver muses on the transformation of a crowd into a mob, but his mother isn't at home to say no, so off he trudges. He would have gone anyway, but he rather resents being sent. A twelve year old and an armadillo encounter bandits and monster and even though he can only manage three spells (and one of them is to cure his allergy to armadillo dander) he manages to think his way out of some dangerous corners. T Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon) is one of my writer discoveries this year. She's well worth reading. I'm puzzled as to why this has been published under Ms Vernon's T. Kingfisher pseudonym which I understood was the name she kept for her adult books. She writes as Ursula Vernon for children. Granted not all books with a child protagonist are intended to be read by children, but this one is perfectly suitable for the older end of Middle Grade.
