Lady Knight - Tamora Pierce

Lady Knight
Tamora Pierce
Random House
Copyright: 2004
978-0375829086

The amazon.com product description:

Kel has finally achieved her lifelong dream of being a knight. But it’s not turning out as she imagined at all. She is torn between a duty she has sworn to uphold and a quest that she feels could turn the tide of war. . . .

This is a surprise! I was sure I'd reviewed Lady Knight before at least once, but it doesn't look like it. All of the other books in this series have at least one prior review on All Booked Up, but not Lady Knight. And it's not that I haven't read the book before, either. Guess it was one that just got left out thanks to a backlog of books to be reviewed.

Anyway, Lady Knight is the fourth book in the Protector Of The Small Quartet, following The First Test, Page, and Squire. The books are geared towards girls between the ages of nine and early teens in my opinion, although in my local bookstores they're found in the Teen section.

In this book, Kel has made it to her goal: she's successfully made it through training as both a page and a squire, and also survived the Ordeal. Now, her first command is to be in charge of a refugee camp, rather than on the front lines of the war. Is she being "protected" once again by people who don't thing women can be knights?

Add to that the way she feels as though she's under two conflicting sets of orders, both of which she has to obey: to stay and protect the camp and the people of it, and at the same time, to find the creator of the horrible weapons being sent against Tortall and stop him. How can she do both?

Honestly, I think this is the best of the four books in the series. It's certainly the most exciting, and at the same time, in spite of  the tension and drama, there are the moments of lightness and fun. These books may be written for the teen audience, but Tamora Pierce writes books that an audience of any age can enjoy.