Daggerbound

• Author: T. Kingfisher
• Genre: Fantasy
• Publication Date: August 25, 2026
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Series: Swordheart #2

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

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.

I have loved T. Kingfisher’s writing from the moment I discovered it, so I didn’t even have to read the summary to know that I wanted to get my mitts on this book. Her style has always appealed to me, and despite forgetting the details of Swordheart I was desperate the start this book.

Fortunately, this is a loosely associated continuation, and it can be read as a standalone or as part of the White Rat world. The characters are new and different, and I quickly fell for Learned Edmund, a brilliant scholar who is extremely awkward. This sounds like a strange combination, but it makes for highly entertaining reading.

Since I read this as an audiobook, I have to speak about how well Jesse Vilinsky did with this one. To start with, I quickly became nostalgic since she does a wide range of voices, tones, and accents, but her real talent came a little further into the book, when she began doing some really fun voices for certain characters. It made me think about how much I used to love having an adult read a book to me and do the ‘fun voices.’ I’ve seen this before with the Morrigan Crow series by Jessica Townsend, and absolutely adore this type of narration style.

In typical Kingfisher fashion, humor is liberally sprinkled throughout the story. It kept things interesting, even during the slower-paced parts of the story. She crafts fantastic characters with depth and flaws and humor, and manages to make the characters feel realistic even as they’re set in a fantasy world with situations that are anything but realistic. Sword that is actually a man, anyone? Even so, I was completely on board with complex, well-rounded characters like Learned Edmund, the Dervish, Large-Francis-Building (a huge, sentient, talking pillbug), and Dog Violet the gnole, who is like a large, talking badger. Vilinsky gives every character a unique voice, tone, and accent, and it wasn’t hard to differentiate between them. I really enjoyed all of the characters, but these four were favorites of mine. 

The world is similar to ours yet has fantasy elements throughout—talking animals, an enchanted sword, and a whole magic system, plus a system of multiple gods and temples where they are worshipped. Edmund is associated with a temple for one god, and is tasked with bringing a relic to another temple. His faith feels as though it is wavering, and he is set upon by bandits shortly after starting his journey. To defend himself, he unsheathes the sword, and is just as surprised as the bandits by the appearance of the Dervish. Being trapped in a sword for centuries hasn’t softened the Dervish’s outlook on his wielders, and he has a huge chip on his shoulder when it comes to Edmund. However, Edmund’s sweet nature is endearing, as is how awkward he is in social interactions, and it isn’t long before the Dervish warms up to Edmund. 

As Edmund and the Dervish are forced to cooperate, they quickly expand their crew to include a ginormous talking pillbug (sometimes known as a roly-poly) and Dog Violet the gnole. I adored these side characters, and found that they were just as endearing as our central characters. Dog Violet is particularly sarcastic, which is my own love language, and Large-Francis-Building is unintentionally funny. These characters had me laughing all through the book, and even though the pace slowed down in the central part of the book, the way that these characters interact and their experiences had me eagerly devouring chapter after chapter. 

There is an exceptionally slow-burn romance that predictably develops between Learned Edmund and the Dervish, while Dog Violet comes in with some winning one-liners when poking fun at the two men, and Large-Francis is unintentionally funny, especially when trying to understand human behavior and society. 

Overall, this was another outstanding addition to Kingfisher’s body of work. The inclusion of Large Francis the pillbug reminded me of the ladybugs from A House with Good Bones, while the humor and found family elements brought to mind Nettle & Bone. So this wound up featuring some of my favorite aspects of fantasy, even if this one fell more into a liminal space between cozy fantasy and romantasy. I found myself engaged throughout the story, even the slower-paced part, and hung on every word. The voices used by the narrator made this even more of an enjoyable read, and I’m even more determined to work my way through Kingfisher’s backlist.

Bottom line: An outstanding addition to Kingfisher’s body of work, featuring humor, sarcasm, enemies to lovers romance, and found family set against a backdrop of trying to break a centuries-old curse. 

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