Alanna: The First Adventure:
I read Alanna The First Adventure because Kristin Cashore (a author of Graceling) recommended it so highly on her blog. I was surprised that the audience for the book was so young. John picked it up for me at his library, and I had to send him to the children's room. (I often spend time in the Teen area, obviously, I suppose.) The character starts out young and moves into her teen years throughout he story.

The story centers around Alanna who is not interested in learning to become a lady, but hopes to be a knight and a warrior maiden. Her brother, on the other hand, has no interested in knighthood. He wants to be a great sorcerer. The two of them hatch a plan to get their wishes and Alanna goes undercover, pretending to be a boy to achieve her dream.

This book is only the beginning of the story. So far it hasn't given me much in the way of brain food, but it is a pleasant adventure with a strong heroine and the books are easy to read in a sitting, so I imagine I'll continue through the 4-book series. I enjoy the characters and the villain is interesting. It was an excellent afternoon's diversion.

In the Hand of the Goddess:
In the Hand of the Goddess directly follows the plot from Alanna The First Adventure. Alanna is still a squire disguised as a boy. The book follows her through her first battles, the Ordeal of Knighthood, and her show down with the evil Roger of Conte.

I can sympathize with those who feel that the book often jumps forward skipping moments that we would like to see, but I enjoy many of the characters so much that I can easily overlook any flaws. This series has brought out my love of adventure and my inner-warrior maiden in a way even Graceling didn't. I'm not sure how I feel about the romance in this book, nor in the next, but I have yet to read the fourth, so we'll see how it turns out. I think the fact that I had the third book The Woman Who Rides Like a Man out of the library and was able to move straight into it helped with any misgivings I may have had about this book. I think the series is a lot of fun, and I look forward to finishing it.

The Woman Who Rides Like a Man:
Alanna finally sets out in pursuit of adventure after earning her shield and stumbles into the hands of a tribe of the Bazhir who have very distinct ideas about the roles of women. Alanna must earn their trust and learn to trust herself with her magic if she is to be successful in this third adventure of Alanna of Trebond.

This book had many of the same old characters to love, but I really enjoyed the addition of the Bahir, as well. I'm now especially dubious of all Alanna's suitors but I suppose we'll see. I'm looking forward to finishing the series, but I'm at the mercy of John' library schedule as he is checking them out of Fairhope PL for me since MPL doesn't have them.

Lioness Rampant:
Alanna the knight of Tortall has become restless and sets out on a quest to acquire the Dominion Jewel to aid her kingdom. Along the way she makes news friends of a Shang Warrior, an exiled princess, and her fiercely loyal servant. But soon, Alanna feels that she might be needed at home. She returns to find Prince Jonathan has been made King of a land that is becoming harder to rule by the minute, George the Rogue's rule is also being challenged, and her brother Thom is very ill after restoring life to her old nemesis Duke Roger.

I really enjoyed this end to the series. I had a few small gripes about relationship stuff, and if Thom is going to be so important to the series, I would have liked to have spent more time with him, but all in all I couldn't wait to see what happened, and I'm looking forward to continuing on with Tamora Pierce's other series. ( )

I read the first book in this series in 6th grade and it left a strong impression, I read the whole series over while traveling and thoroughly enjoyed it. ( )

In the Hand of The Goddess is my favorite book in the series. I love Alanna's internal fire! Go strong women!! With that said, I was disappointed with the rest. Alanna's choices became to predictable, as did the other characters. The last books almost could've been written by the reader. ( )

I thought these books were well written and exciting, but they weren't the most exciting books. ( )