In my review of A Sorceress Comes to Call, I mentioned that T Kingfisher has a number of books that have slightly older women as protagonists. Halla in Swordheart might be a little younger than Hester in A Sorceress, but she’s not an ingenue.
Halla is in her mid thirties and a widow. The passing of her husband has not freed her from the clutches of her in laws though. This is both a blessing and a curse in some ways; thanks to her basically serving as a nurse for Silas, her great uncle in-law, Halla has protection and enough funds to survive as a widow of a certain age. But her other in-laws have different plans for her.
But then Silas dies. And the rest of the family start champing at the bit in their eagerness to get their hands on his inheritance—which rightfully is meant to go to Halla. What no one, Halla included, counted on is that her Uncle was in possession of a magical sword that held an enchanted warrior—Sarkis. He was bound to the sword over four hundred years ago, and now that her Uncle is gone, he is obliged to serve Halla. Not her scheming relatives.
What we get next is both a bonkers roadtrip story and a slow burn romance between a thirty something year old woman with a bubbly personality and a lot of deep set insecurities, and a centuries old warrior preoccupied with his uncanny immortality.
T Kingfisher is one of those authors who can insert a light and fluffy romance into a story without having it overwhelm the whole plot. She’s also in possession of a fantastic sense of humor. So while we we are witnesses to a lot of cute ‘will-they-or-wont-they’ moments from Halla and Sarkis, we are are also treated to a odd-couple comedy duo consisting of snarky straight man and bubbly chatty heroine as the ‘gag-lady’. I mean, it takes a very special mind to ask just how your magical-sword-warrior handles certain body function when transported back into the sword.
(And then, with encouragement, Halle tries to carry out the experiments to test her hypotheses! I don’t think the ‘straight man’ in this comedy duo was the one really serving as the audience surrogate in this example. I too, wanted to know how the enchanted-sword-warrior takes a slash. “Does this end with me pissing in a jar again?” Poor Sarkis)
I do want to point out though that while Halla is a bright and bubbly chatterbox who is often easily distracted, she is not stupid. She knows how society treats women like her—very dismissively. So what does she do? She weaponizes it. If Sarkis can’t stab a problem to death, Halla will chatter at it until they lose their patience. Or in one memorable incident, strategically burst into tears. Underestimate friendly bubbly ladies at your peril!
Like a good deal of Kingfisher’s other writings, the side characters in Swordheart are all well developed and the fantasy-based setting is very well drawn. The plot here, however, is low stakes to the point of being scant. And there was a little bit of trope-y nonsense near the end that I wasn’t fond of. But overall, Swordheart is a great book to just switch your brain off to and let yourself enjoy the ride.
And while I may have mentioned in the past I am not the biggest romance reader, slightly older women with no desire for kids make for excellent romance leads.