Paladin of Souls

This is less a romance novel and more a high fantasy novel with romantic elements, but the romance subplot is exceedingly strong.

(I can highly recommend a mental fan-casting of either Arhys or Ilvin as Pedro Pascal, because he’d absolutely knock one of those roles out of the park if this was ever made into a miniseries).

Ista is over 40, a queen, a new grandmother, a recovered madwoman, and…wait for it…a living saint. Seeking to get away from the suffocating (yet loving) arms of her family, she goes on a pilgrimage (Road Trip!) with a group of… show more.

Bujold is rightly known as a master of Sci-fi thanks to her Vorkosigan saga, but this novel, the second in her World of the Five Gods series, won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, and rightly so. 

It tells the story of Ista, a middle-aged (yes, you read that right) woman recovering from unimaginable tragedy, betrayal, and what felt like madness (all explored in the previous book, The Curse of Chalion). Ista is certain that she’s been released from her past too late for her life to have meaning or joy, but a certain trickster god and two gallant,… show more.

I think this was the first fantasy novel that I can remember reading that featured a middle-aged woman as the hero of her own story and it came along at just the right time in my life.

Add to that, the world building is some of Bujold’s best work and Ista is a marvelous character. This is someone who’s led a terrible sheltered life in many respects, some of it under a terrible curse, and yet here she is, planning and carrying out her own rescue.

The plot gives her lots of opportunity to grow as a character, providing a… show more.

Although this is called a sequel to The Curse of Chalion, it’s a standalone novel about Ista, dowager royina of Chalion, who is a secondary character in the first book. A middle-aged widow recently cured of madness by the lifting of a curse, Ista rebels against the cage of her life and thinks to find a taste of freedom by going on pilgrimage, but she finds herself the chosen mortal instrument of the god called the Bastard, charged with a task that will take her, most unwillingly, into the bloody heart of war. This book is reflective, philosophic, and… show more.