Review: Daggerbound by T. Kingfisher

Daggerbound

T. Kingfisher

(Swordheart #2)

Publication Date: August 25, 2026

Hardcover, 448 pages, Bramble

Genres: Adult, Romantasy, LGBTQ+

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

If you miss the whimsy and fun of fantasy but still want adult romances, adventures, and themes like overcoming trauma and finding your place in the world, then the interconnected Swordheart series is for you. It has cute badger-like creatures called gnoles, cursed swords with trapped warriors, and relatably awkward protagonists. Both the first book and Daggerbound had me flying through chapters to see what crazy shenanigans the characters were going to get into next.

Daggerbound starts out similarly to book one, Swordheart, with an awkward human in danger drawing a magical warrior-possessed sword. Edmund is a scholar who's leaving his order and has a ton of random knowledge about ants, trees, gnoles, and all kinds of odd things. He also loves books. (Very relatable.) The Dervish, our second protagonist, comes out of the sword and is forced to protect Edmund because of his curse. The Dervish is suave and handsome, despite his past trauma, and boy, does he know it. Edmund, on the other hand, is adorable but seemingly oblivious to the obvious. They make a great pair. 

Edmund and The Dervish (yes, that's his actual name, and yes, that's my biggest pet peeve of the book) stumble along two companions on their journey to the city of Archon's Glory. Those two, without giving away spoilers, do make the story very entertaining. If you were a fan of Brindle in Swordheart, I think you'll be happy with these new characters.

The worldbuilding in this series is interesting. Swordheart and Daggerbound take place in a world that seems to be based on the orders of different religions and their respective devotees, yet the book doesn't focus on those dynamics. It focuses on random groups of people/beings traveling for fairly low-stake reasons when compared to high fantasy's usual "save the world" storyline. Essentially, it's just a long adventure walking from one city to another with strange fantastical happenings along the way. The series reads like a cozy romantasy. It's light-hearted and fun, despite its darker moments.

All in all, I thought Daggerbound was a great sequel to a laugh-out-loud first book. I don't think there's even a slight chance book one readers won't enjoy this installment. It has the same amount of heart and atmosphere, just with a new romance to root for. I'm excited to see what chaos is in store for book three.

*Note: I received a copy of this book to review from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way affected my opinion/review.

Stacking the Shelves: The Really Shouldn't Have Edition

 "Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

Nothing super crazy happened this past week. It was a quiet "work, workout, read" week, which is nice. Well, besides the work part. That I could do without. I did end up spending way too much money on books and some book-related things that you'll see in this and next week's haul. I've been treating myself like crazy. I'm definitely going to have to go back to my book-buying ban rules after this month.

 

As for the books I received, I have many. My Bad Women Books Spring Romantasy box arrived. It's Kresley Cole's A Hunger Like No Other. While I'm excited that a Kresley Cole book got a special edition, the cover image doesn't really scream A Hunger Like No Other to me, or at least, something about the male character is off. I'm pretty sure it's the hair. I do like the endpaper art, though. I also received my Barnes & Noble preorder of Runebreaker by Mila Finch. 

 

 

 

Up next, I have four books that are all from different sources. Warrior Princess Assassin by Brigid Kemmerer is the UK paperback that I preordered from Blackwells. I think it's the best cover out of every edition out there right now. I do have the FairyLoot edition, but it's very cartoonish, even though it's pretty. From B&N, I got The Poison Daughter by Sheila Masterson. My preorder of book six in the Zodiac Academy luxe set also arrived, and my FairyLoot The Ballad of Falling Dragons edition was dropped off by my parents. I also got another FairyLoot sequel edition, but I won't be keeping it, as I recently DNF'ed the first book. I'll share that in my next unhaul post, though.

 

 

 

Here I have one of those books that gets stuck in my head, so I decide I must buy it soon even though I could just read it on Kindle Unlimited to see if I even like it. That book in this case is Anathema by Keri Lake. I specifically wanted the deluxe edition which was out of print, so I had to go resale and purchase it on Pango for too much money. I am excited to own this, but I need to get myself under control. No more expensive secondhand purchases for books I could read on KU first.

 

 

 

This is the last of the book portion of the haul. It's an order I randomly decided to make on Book Outlet because they had an $8 coupon. I perused their site and saw they were selling the deluxe edition of Sable Sorensen's Dire Bound, which I needed because mine was damaged by B&N and they weren't able to replace it. I think because the copy I bought was signed, but I didn't realize that until later. Oh well. I got it cheaper on Book Outlet. I also ordered many other things I didn't need like The Silversmith by L.J. Claren, Vesselless by Cortney L. Winn, Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma, A Cruel Thirst by Angela Montoya, The High Mountain Court by A.K. Mulford, Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo, and For Whom the Bell Tolls by Jaysea Lynn. 

 

And lastly, I have something that's not a book, but is book-related. I bought an FBAA pin from Celestial Faerie Trove. I have three of her pins now, and they're very pretty. I'm hoping she does a few more for the individual characters, but we shall see. The ACOTAR fans are currently making their preferences for which pins come first very known. Sigh. It's hard being an FBAA lover in the midst of all these people obsessed with SJM characters.

 

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

2026 ApollyCon Recap: Part 3

My ApollyCon 2026 recap is now up to Friday's events. And I just realized that Friday wasn't signing time. All I did on Friday was attend panels and go to smaller-sized events. So, this post will include some of Saturdays signings, since otherwise it'd be a fairly short post. It'll have the first half of the signing day, before lunch. That means there will definitely be a Part 4 for the afternoon signing and remaining events, but that should be all. I'm not writing a Part 5! I'll just do a really long post before I make a Part 5. I'm very tired of uploading pics.

 

Friday mornings at ApollyCon are for author panels. Last year, I didn't attend these because my friend and I were too exhausted after staying up late the previous night. However, because I was an Ascended ticket holder, I didn't have anything going on later. Therefore, might as well attend the panels. Plus, I really wanted to see Elizabeth Helen. So, we ended up attending the 8 a.m. Moonlight, Mischief & Mating Calls: Where Romance Meets Fantasy panel with Melissa Roehrich, Elizabeth Helen, Stephanie Blair, Holly Renee, R.L. Caulder, Analeigh Sbrana, and Amalie Howard.

 

 

We stayed in the same room for the next panel, which was the Three's Company, More's a Party: Why Choose panel. Elizabeth Helen was also on this panel. Kalista Neith, Allie Shante, T.C. Kraven, Steffanie Holmes, and R.L. Caulder were on this panel too. This was the final panel we attended until the Sunday brunch panel. After, it was all about signings and party-type events.

The next event we went to was the Holly Renee event. I attended this as an aid, as I didn't have a ticket for it. That just meant I couldn't have a free bag. They had an embroidery station for the bags to get them personalized with a strawberry or a cowboy hat. Holly Renee's events are always themed, and usually, that theme is the color pink. Like last year, there were some carnival-type games, and you could make a keychain. You could also get signatures from five authors that attended and then turn the signatures in for a raffle. R.L. Caulder and Emily Blackwood were at the first author table.

 

The next two authors I didn't remember off the top of my head. I had to google them. Amber Palmer is the author on the left and Ambar Cordova is on the right. They were very nice. All of the authors were. I was very tired by this time, though, so I was probably a mess. Lol.

 

Next up was Holly Renee herself. I'd met her last year at ApollyCon during her late-night event. She's a lot of fun. I really need to read more of her books. I've only read one, and I need to finish the series I started. Holly revealed the cover of her new book Moon Cursed at this event as well. It's obviously widespread now, but we did get to see the reveal live and in person. I did preorder this book, so I'm excited for it. 

 

I was super tired after this event, but we ended up going to another event. I don't remember the author who hosted it, but it was basically a dance party. The event handed out goodie bags at the end with swag and books. I don't believe I kept anything except a key chain that you'll see in Part 4. At some point in the day, I took a selfie in front of one of the the ApollyCon displays. I'm just putting it here. Oh, and after this event (or before this event, I honestly can't remember), we went to the Arcane Society Shopping Event where I picked up my The Summer Prince novella bindup and The Summer Prince mini individual paperbacks. I got two from them and traded for the second book. And we also stopped by the Barnes & Noble shopping space throughout the con.

 

Now, we're at the Saturday signing, which is when Ascended ticket holders can officially get their items signed. I won't bore you with more line waiting, but the first place we went to when we got on the signing floor was Jemlin's table. I purchased the Grim Gates edition of From Blood and Ash, which is quite naughty, and the Interview with the Vampire cards. I also got Violet Sorengail and Xaden as freebies. Later on when things were calmer, I picked up my preorder of the Lady of Darkness set as well.

 

After that, I had to go to Elizabeth Helen's table. Them and Tricia Levenseller were the authors I wanted to see most, as I'd never met them before. I also really wanted to get one of their freebies, which was a wedding invite from the Beasts of the Briar series that they gave out to the first 50 visitors. I didn't think I'd make that cut, but I did! I got an invite! They were super sweet, and I took an awkward picture right in their faces, so apologies for that. My friend did joke about the dating app/being single comment they had made during one of the earlier panels. It was funny.

 

Emily Blackwood was up next. She's probably the author I spent the most money at, oddly enough. My friend peer pressured me into buying Beg the Night, a paperback copy that I thought was a fancy special edition but ended up being an ARC. I spent $20 on it, so that was weird. I also purchased her limited editions of Wings So Wicked and Blood So Brutal. These were the expensive books. I think it was $80 for both. I was panicked at the time. I shouldn't have bought any of them. I just wanted a regular paperback of Wings So Wicked, but the B&N had run out, so I was stupid and bought these. I hope I love the Wings So Wicked book, because, if not, I wasted some money there.

I believe after this, we saw Rebecca Yarros since our ticket wristbands were in the lower numbers. I'd met Rebecca a couple of years before this, so I had my first two Fourth Wing books signed already. Therefore, I just brought Onyx Storm to get signed. I only have the regular hardcovers of this series, unlike some other people I saw who had very fancy editions with them.

 

I think I went to Tricia Levenseller next. I loooooved her What Fury Brings book, so I brought all my unsigned copies with me. That included the regular hardcover, the UK ARC, and the US ARC. If she comes again and I get a ticket, I'll have to get my Warrior of the Wild book signed. I honestly forgot I had it. But anyway, she had cardboard cutouts of the two main characters in What Fury Brings. I obviously had to take photos with them. She was giving these away at the end of the con too, but I didn't have the suitcase room to take them. I probably wasn't fast enough to claim them either. 

  

And then, I took pics in front of the Heated Rivalry cardboard cutouts while I waited for my friend. Shane and Ilya were drawn by Jemlin, of course. They're so cool. I kind of regret not buying the bookmarks Jemlin had of these two, but I don't really collect TV character art because you can just see the actors in the show, unlike book characters who are often just words on a page. Though, I did buy the IWTV cards, so I do have exceptions to this arbitrary rule.

Emma Hamm was the next stop. She was generous enough to contribute a copy of her A Darkness So Sweet book in the bags we received at registration, so of course I needed to stop by. She's always so nice, though she'd been sick with food poisoning the night before. She was way more put together than I would be if I'd had food poisoning earlier that morning. I still have yet to read an Emma Hamm book, but I will one day. I own three now, so I need to get to one of them soon.

 

We stopped by Jordan A. Day's table because her artwork was gorgeous. I've seen her books around, but haven't delved into her writing yet. I did take some of the prints that were on her side table, though. They were freebies. The artwork is very pretty.

 

 

After that, I saw Melissa K. Roehrich. She was another author I really wanted to see. I'd already met her the previous year, but I hadn't read her books then. I'd finally read her Lady of Darkness series and a bit of her Legacy series right before this year's ApollyCon, so I was excited to actually meet her after I'd read her books. Since the books I owned from her were all already signed, I bought the Unrelenting Winds novella at her table for her to sign along with a bunch of character artwork. One of my roommates also gave me this MKR tote bag she didn't want.

 

Stacia Stark was next. I'd also met her the previous year. I bought an entire huge series set from her table in 2025, and I couldn't do that again. I just didn't have enough suitcase space, so I opted to bring my Aurora Crate Speak of the Demon book to get signed. That also means I have two more sequels to get signed by her in the future, which saves me the dilemma of choosing what to get signed by her if I'm able to attend again.

At some point during this, we stopped by S.M. Gaither's table. Her assistant asked us questions to get us to give a code phrase in order to receive a chapter sneak peak of S.M. Gaither's upcoming Ashwalker release (now out, I think). The code phrase was dragonbred, and the hints were confusing to me because I was exhausted and operating on zero energy by this point. I was a zombie. 

 

 

Danielle L. Jensen was the last author I saw during the a.m. signing session, I believe. I had brought two of my The Traitor Queen copies. One is the original indie paperback and the other was the new hardback release. This was the second time I'd seen her, so my indie The Bridge Kingdom was already signed. Her setup was super bright and fun, and, like many authors, she had free prints up for grabs.

Well, that was all for Friday and the first half of Saturday. After this, I think I went up to my hotel room to rest and grabbed a pizza from the concession shop area to fuel for the p.m. signing session. Stay tuned for that recap in next week's post.