Squire - Tamora Pierce

Squire
Tamora Pierce
Laurel Leaf Publishing
Copyright: 2000
ISBN: 9780679889199

In Squire, the third book in the Protector of the Small Quartet, Keladry is now a squire, having made it through her years as a page. As with Page, there are some fairly large jumps in time, but they don't affect the story any.

Keladry is the first woman to openly train as a knight in over a century. Unlike Alanna, she trains openly, in spite of all those who want her to quit and try every method, fair or foul to make it happen. By this point, most of the foul ones have been tried, and now it's up to Kel to gain the respect of those who don't think women should fight.

Unlike the other main characters Tamora has written in the Tortall world: Daine, Alanna and Beka, Keladry has no Gift, just natural talent and determination. LOTS of determination. And some good friends, both on two legs and on four.

This series is one in which each of the books gets longer, which is, in my mind a good thing.