As the third book in the Saint of Steel series, Paladin's Hope picks back up with the broken former paladins of the Saint of Steel. While none of the paladins who survived the death of their god are what one could consider normal, Galen was one that bore some of the worst effects, including violent nightmares that can set off his berserker rage and from which it is difficult to wake.

Fresh from helping out his brother-in-arms Istvhan in Paladin's Strength, Galen is back at home and has returned to his usual duties of helping out the lawyer priests of the White Rat. When mutilated bodies start showing up by the riverside, Galen is pulled into an investigation, along with Piper, a lich-doctor (similar to a coroner and mortician wrapped together), who had previously helped the paladins with a different bloody mystery. As the paladin in the group, it's up to Galen to protect Piper and the guard-gnole, Earstripe, from both the killer they are tracking and Galen's own violent past.

To be perfectly honest, Paladin's Hope is one of the weakest books in the series in terms of the romance. Piper and Galen provide the two POVs for the story but while Piper is fleshed out as a very caring if reserved doctor who is completely dedicated to his craft, Galen just kind of....exists. It feels like Kingfisher was trying to straddle some middle ground between the brooding, responsible Stephen from Paladin's Grace and the snarky, more easygoing Istvhan from Paladin's Strength and never really settled on an individual identity for Galen. He's got some issues to work out but only at the end does it feel like there's any real character arc and even then, it's pretty minimal.

However, I adored Piper and loved that we get another gnole character (a species somewhat similar to badgers introduced earlier in the series) in Earstripe. Both characters were compelling for their own reasons and helped to make up for Galen being pretty boring.

The main appeal of this book is that it expands substantially on the world-building established earlier in the World of the White Rat series. While you could probably pick up Paladin's Grace and even Paladin's Strength without being spoiled on much, you really need to have read the Clocktaur duology (Clockwork Boys and The Wonder Engine) to pick up Paladin's Hope. Unless you don't care about pretty substantial spoilers and references. As someone who had read the entire World of the White Rat series prior to this though, it was so fun to see where Kingfisher expanded on the history of the world. And as other reviewers have said, that last line of this book left me dying to find out where Kingfisher is headed in the series, regardless of my disappointment with the romance.

Overall, the Saint of Steel series is worth picking up if you love the World of the White Rat that Kingfisher introduced in the Clocktaur duology and Swordheart. I really loved getting to see the development of the world both in this book and the series at large. But if you're a big fantasy romance fan, I'd temper your expectations somewhat because that isn't the strength of this book.