Paladin's Strength

I'm rounding this up from 4.5.

This is a sequel to Paladin's Grace, although I'm sure you could enjoy this without having read Paladin's Grace (but go read that anyways).

As the afterword to Paladin's Grace said: “I had it in my mind that I was going to write a fluffy romance. I am a great fan of fluffy romance. I am told that there are generally fewer severed heads and rotting corpse golems in fluffy romance, so possibly this book didn't quite get there, but I'm certain I can write something fluffy eventually. Probably.”

So there's another lovely fluffy romance in this book, plus more severed heads and rotting corpses, plus nuns with a secret. Plus some newts. And mules. And bears. And, of course, delight.

A quote: ““So their leader looks pretty dead,” said Istvhan, who was at the point where a corpse was a welcome break in the tension. “

If a corpse is not occasionally a break in the tension of a fluffy romance, you may not enjoy this book. If, however, you're willing for the occasional severed head coming up, in between the romantic tension, you will be delighted.

Probably more of a 3.5 but I'm rounding up.

This one took a while to get going for me but eventually I was totally engaged with the story and the characters. Clara is a super fun heroine and I really her character arc a lot, especially the reveal of her identity was such a delightful surprise. Ishtvan felt a bit different than the character I came to love in Paladin's Grace but he is still a compassionate leader and takes care of everyone with him. The plot was also a bit on the slow side which made me very distracted but overall, I had fun listening to the well narrated audiobook and hopefully will get to the next one soon.