If Stephen and Grace’s deadpan asides and awkwardly sweet flirtations kept you grinning even as assassins lurked, you’ll love the sparkling wit between Zacharias Wythe and Prunella Gentleman in Sorcerer to the Crown. Like the Temple of the White Rat’s sensible problem-solving, Zacharias survives magical politics with politeness and razor‑edged understatement, while Prunella’s audacious schemes echo Grace’s competence under fire. It’s buoyant, clever, and charmingly humane—the same laugh‑while‑clutching‑your‑heart vibe that made Paladin’s Grace so endearing.

If what hooked you was how Paladin’s Grace stays close to Stephen and Grace—the perfumery, the White Rat errands, the quiet rooms where trust grows—Silver in the Wood offers that same hush‑close focus. It lingers on two men in a forest cottage, their conversations, small kindnesses, and the slow unwinding of old hurts. The stakes are personal, the setting grounded, and every emotional beat lands with the gentle intensity you felt when a wary paladin and a skilled perfumer learned to breathe around each other.

Did you love watching Stephen (all gentleness over steel) and Grace (all craft and backbone) fumble toward each other between temple errands and murder plots? The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy pairs a gruff marshal and a driven undertaker who bicker, write secret letters, and fall—hard—while dealing with lethal errands and civic headaches. It hits that same blend of competent adults, longing, and moments of goofy sweetness amid danger that made the paladin‑and‑perfumer dynamic irresistible.

If Stephen’s grief over a dead god, his fear of losing control, and Grace’s skittish bravery drew you in, Winter’s Orbit gives that same tender attention to characters carrying old wounds. An arranged marriage forces Kiem and Jainan into proximity; what follows is careful communication, earned trust, and two wary people learning to be safe together while untangling a conspiracy—very much the emotional cadence of watching a Saint of Steel paladin relearn steadiness with a perfumer at his side.

If your heart clenched for Stephen as he rebuilt himself—finding new vows with the White Rat and choosing mercy without a god’s voice—then Maia’s journey in The Goblin Emperor will glow for you. Thrust into power, he chooses decency, learns quickly, and refuses to harden into cruelty. Like Stephen’s quiet, stubborn goodness (and the way Grace helps him believe in it), Maia’s growth is profoundly satisfying and delivers that same warm, hard‑won hope.