Daggerbound by T. Kingfisher
Page Count: 448 pages
Genre: Adult Fantasy LGBTQ+ Romance
Dates Read: June 19th-21st, 2026
Publication Date: August 25th, 2026
Publisher: Bramble
Review:
One of my favorite aspects of T. Kingfisher's books is how she is always writing such distinct characters. Daggerbound focuses on the characters Learned Edmund and the Dervish. Edmund is a disillusioned scholar who is going on one final mission for his temple to bring a relic to another temple. He is planning on leaving his order because of the way they keep back knowledge from others and for many other reasons. The Dervish is an immortal warrior who has been bound to a sword for centuries forced to protect any wielder of it no matter what. When, Edmund is attacked by bandits on the road to the other temple, he draws the relic which happens to be the Dervish's sword and becomes its wielder. Thus begins Edmund and the Dervish's adventures.
I enjoyed the dynamic between Edmund and the Dervish so much. Edmund is a very clever man who is incredibly sweet and kind. I love how much he loved knowledge and how he would spout out facts all the time. The Dervish is a guarded man who hates being trapped in the sword and having to do the bidding of whoever is wielding it. At the beginning of the story, he wants to hate Edmund but has a hard time of doing so because of how enduring he finds the other man. The Dervish has a rough exterior which hides much more underneath. There is so much humor brought into the book because of their personalities. I love getting chapters from both of their perspectives and getting to know them over the course of the story. They were great.
It was so much fun to see them working together and the found family they formed with the knoll, Dog Violet and the giant pill bug called Large Francis. I adored this ragtag group and would love to see more of them in the future. These characters were just as dear to me as those from Swordheart which is one of my favorite books by T. Kingfisher. I absolutely love how she is always creating lovable groups like these that make me adore them immediately. The whole World of the White Rat is wonderful and I love all the time I get to spend in it. Many of the characters from other books make appearances here. Edmund was one of the characters from The Clocktaur War books. I will not spoil anyone else here but I was so very happy with how the other characters were used.
Daggerbound was a book I have been highly anticipating ever since I first read Swordheart last year. I wanted to know more about the Dervish and I am incredibly happy to say that this lived up to every hope I had for it. The relationship and romance between the Dervish and Edmund was beautiful. I could not get enough of reading about them. Now we need to get a book about Angharad. Another adventure with the gang would be a lot of fun. The audiobook read by Jesse Vilinsky was very good and I highly recommend it. She did a great job in my opinion.
I cannot wait to get a copy of this book to go along with the rest of my T. Kingfisher books. This made me want to reread the first and then this one again. They are just that great!
*Thank you very much to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and T. Kingfisher for my audiobook ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.*
