Olsa the thief and Kalanthe the apprentice knight were part of a seven-woman team who went on a quest to save the realm. All of them grew as close as sisters, but Olsa and Kalanthe share even more. However, life after the quest hasn't been easy for either of them. Olsa used her prize money to buy her way out of the Thieves' Guild, but she still doesn't know any other way of earning a living, and now she's easily recognizable. Kalanthe's prize was not enough to completely pay off the debt incurred in her knight's training, and now she must marry a rich lord, no matter where her heart pulls her. Can the two find a way to the life they want, despite their circumstances?

The narrative jumps back and forth from the characters' present-day, to the events of the quest, so in the end the reader gets the full story. Readers who seek out stories of lady knights will want to take a look at this one. ( )

Lovely story! A book I wish had been around when I was 14. Dashing knights and magic abound, EK Johnston weaves such a heart-warming epic adventure that I might have to turn it into my next D&D game. ( )

Though it was slower than I expected going in, I enjoyed everything about this book except the whitewashed cover... ( )

I liked this a bunch.
It's good stuff.
I was hooked instantly.

A whole lotta strong ladies. Kickin all the butt. ( )

I adore trope inversions and books that look at a genre and say "okay but what's the other half of this equation?" They are so much fun, so thoughtful, and so totally and completely up my alley. So a book whose premise is "the Quest is done, now what?" is definitely gonna be a fave with me.

The majority of the book takes place After (i.e. after the Quest is done), with some chapters set Before (i.e. during the Quest itself). It's told from the point of view of the two youngest members of the Quest: Olsa, a street thief who was spying on someone for the Quest leader when shit went sideways and she got brought along partially for her own protection and partially because it helps to have a thief along when looking for a potentially well-protected gem of incredible power; and Kalanthe, an apprentice knight with a sterling records and similar enough body size to act as a decoy for the Quest leader if necessary.

I loved that this story was told from their perspective. As the youngest and least experienced members of the party, their reintroduction to normal life following a world-saving quest is the most difficult to manage. The other members of the party have been on quests of some kind before or have more experience with combat or magic than Olsa and Kalanthe. They can continue with their lives or, in the case of one member, retireearly to handle her wounds. Our main characters, on the other hand, are just reaching adulthood and are left to figure out how their newfound fame is going to affect the lives they thought was ahead of them as well as how to fit the new relationship they want into situations that don't seem to leave room for new additions.

My biggest complaint of the book, and the reason I gave it four stars instead of five, is how neatly everything got tied off at the end. The appeal of a book like this is that it's going to address all the complexities and difficulties that come from the aftermath of a quest. So seeing all those complexities be tied up with a dues ex machina bow was disappointing. I really wanted to see Kalanthe actually get married to Edramore. As an aroace person, I just really love the idea of a marriage of convenience for financial/legal/political reasons where both parties are truly happy in the marriage but never love each other romantically. Furthermore, they totally could have some kind of poly relationship with Olsa, and given the right approach, I think Edramore and Olsa could have been happy as metamours, even if that meant Olsa did go to work for one of the other knights from the Quest. That could have been an AMAZING story. Instead they conveniently kill Edramore, have Kalanthe basically marry him posthumously, and therefore leave her open to marry/have a relationship with Olsa with no entanglements. And it just felt too neat and easy. I wanted to to see some complicated poly negotiations actually play out. Even if the book didn't delve quite as deep as I wanted it to, it was still a solid book that raised a lot of interesting questions about what happily ever after actually looks like in a high fantasy setting. ( )