Daggerbound (Swordheart #2) by T. Kingfisher Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via Edelweiss
Formats available: hardcover, ebook, audiobook
Genres: fantasy, fantasy romance, romantasy
Series: Swordheart #2, World of the White Rat #8
Pages: 448
Published by Bramble Romance on August 25, 2026
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads
New York Times bestselling author T. Kingfisher returns to the charming fantasy world of Swordheart in this delightful and unexpected new romantic adventure.
Learned Edmund, a disillusioned scholar, is transporting yet another precious relic from one stuffy temple to a different stuffy temple. Another great adventure for the ages…
But when Edmund is set upon by bandits, in desperation, he breaks the cardinal rule and grabs for the relic, an ancient sword. To his surprise, instead of unsheathing a rusty, ancient weapon, an alarmingly handsome man appears, wielding daggers of blue steel and cutting the thieves down.
This man is the Dervish, an immortal warrior who’s been trapped for centuries in a sword of enchanted steel, and is angry as hell about it. He hates the curse that put him there, and he wants to hate Edmund, just as he has hated every wielder before him.
But the damned scholar is just so sweet and clever and kind. And while the Dervish may be able to protect Edmund from bandits, cultists, dragons, and strange inhuman diplomats, he may find it much harder to protect his own heart.
My Review:
I grabbed this one for two reasons. First and foremost, because I love T. Kingfisher’s work. Occasionally she writes something that isn’t quite my jam, but even then I love the characters she tells the story through. Second, I especially love her fantasy romances, particularly her Saint of Steel series that begins with Paladin’s Grace, and Daggerbound’s immediate series predecessor, the marvelous Swordheart.
Like Swordheart, Daggerbound begins with someone who seems to be a bit too naive for the world they are a part of – and a mercenary bound in a sword. Learned Edmund, who loves knowledge and books and research and, well, learning, has just started his last mission as a dedicate of the Many-Armed God. He’s delivering a packful of books and artifacts to a scholar in the not-exactly-nearby city of Archon’s Glory so that he won’t feel guilty about leaving the Order with his mule, Sweetness.
(The Order undoubtedly thinks Sweetness is THEIR mule, while Sweetness, of course, KNOWS that Edmund is her person – or possibly servant. The law may be on the Order’s side, but Sweetness is a mule who knows her own mind – quite likely better than Edmund knows his.)
When Edmund gets attacked by bandits/cutthroats on the road, the sword gets accidentally pulled from its sheath, which is where the story begins. Because that’s when ‘the Dervish’ appears in a blinding flash of silver light, kills the bandits (whether the Dervish aids Sweetness in this endeavor or the other way around is in the mind of the beholder) and informs Edmund that Edmund is now the wielder of the sword – and therefore – of the Dervish.
Sweetness clearly thinks that both men are idiots – and she’s not exactly wrong, either. They’re certainly both a bit emotionally stunted, they both have HUGE trunks of emotional baggage dragging behind them, and they’re so hot for each other and so unwilling to risk heartbreak for entirely different but equally, well, heartbreaking reasons that neither of them can manage to string a coherent sentence together when they’re in each other’s proximity.
The Dervish’s extreme and extremely well-earned – unfortunately – PTSD is not helping them figure themselves or each other out.
At least, not until Edmund picks up two more ‘strays’, the gnole (intelligent badger person) Dog Violet and the 12-foot tall (when she’s standing) ginormous, intelligent pillbug, Large Francis of Building. With the addition of the two – much more sensible – non-human intelligences, the story has enough feet to kick it into a truly breathtaking pace. Also a lot of sidesplitting laughter.
The story that follows combines the thrill-a-minute pace of a rollicking adventure with an out-of-the-frying-pan-into-the fire quest to get Large Francis to a library that will accept her AND her people, find a solution to the Dervish’s cursed existence in the sword, and let Learned Edmund carry out his final mission for a god he no longer worships. All while Edmund and Dervish dance around each other like boys with their first crush, each firmly believing (often very firmly indeed) that they are not worthy of each other, or of being loved, or of getting remotely near whatever a happy ever after might look like in their particular circumstances.
All while being chased by a cult of fanatics who believe the monster who tortured the Dervish into the sword is a saint they want to worship and a power they want to replicate. Of course there’s a daring rescue to cap the story off because the story has just the right kind of drive and verve to make that the best ending possible. Which it SO is.
And, in the end, worth every single page of reading. Even that angsty build up, if only to get to the shattering (screaming) climax!
Escape Rating A: The rating is in spite of the slow start, so if (when, I hope) you pick this one up, the first quarter is a lot of setup, introduction to the main characters and re-introduction to the world. I say re-introduction because this is set in the same world as her Clocktaur War duology, her Saint of Steel series, AND, most importantly, this series that began with the fantastic Swordheart. Not that the Saint of Steel series, (Paladin’s Grace, etc.) isn’t also terrific. (I haven’t read Clocktaur War YET but it’s scrabbling up the virtually towering TBR pile as I type this.)
The Saint of Steel series, Swordheart AND this book are all fantasy romance. You can call them romantasy if you want, but both series began before ‘romantasy’ became so very cool. There have always been fantasy romances, and there always will be, but IMHO they’re not quite the same as romantasy. Still, if you like romantasy, you’ll like fantasy romances, too.
Getting down off my soapbox now and back to this book – with a little bit of Swordheart thrown in because that leads straight to this. (This is also a huge hint that Daggerbound doesn’t stand alone – although Swordheart does. You shouldn’t start with this book but you can definitely start with Swordheart – and if this all sounds like your jam, you should. (I love the Saint of Steel series and it does tie in but you don’t have to read that first. You will want to read it after. Really, truly.)
I have to admit I had to set this one aside for a few days. When I initially started it, I got a bit bogged down in the introductory phases. Edmund and the Dervish (no we never do learn his name and it tasks me, it really does) are both hot messes, and they are both going through their own separate hells of internal angst. It’s an introduction the reader needs but it’s not fun to read and probably wouldn’t be fun to experience, either.
Then they rescue – and adopt – both Dog Violet and Large Francis and the story is off and running. This may be the first book I’ve ever read that literally needed more legs (a LOT more legs) to get itself going. But once it does, it’s fantastic in multiple senses of the word.
This one was particularly funny in the way that the gnole Dog Violet and the mule Sweetness are clearly the two most sensible people in the party. If there’s a character in this story who stands as the author’s avatar – as there usually is in her work – this time around it’s Dog Violet, and I hope we get to see her again – or at least more of her people.
When I wrote this review back in April I was REALLY hoping that there would be a third book in the series. Not JUST because I want one, but because there were three people tortured into swords back in the day. Sarkis has a cameo in Daggerbound but his complete story is in Swordheart, the Dervish’s story is here in Daggerbound, while their comrade in arms, Angharad, at that point, had appeared only in memory. I desperately wanted to read her story, so I’m very happy to say that it will be told in Shieldborn, coming next August.
