protector of the small – Damsel in Delight

13+

In the final installment of this epic quartet Tortall is at war and Keladry has been sidelined.

The war has been brewing for most of the series and with her battle experience with the Kings Own, Keladry expected to be assigned to the front lines. Instead, her dour once training master assigns her to command a refugee camp. Keladry is furious at first, she is being picked to be a nursemaid in chainmail to a camp instead of fighting like she should. However because Kel is one of the most balanced heroines i have ever read she goes at her post with diligence and loyalty despite lack of funds.

I love the realism of the war, we get the interactions between Kel and Sir Wyldon the overall commander of that area and we really understand just how difficult it is to make the decisions. Wyldon knows that people in Kels camp die because he cannot send more than two squads of soldiers but he also has to make decisions that will make sure that Tortall isnt invaded completely. This realism of war, refugee camps and strained resources made more difficult by selfish nobles is something that Pierce has created extraordinarily and I just love it.

Keladry has also been given an assignment by the Chamber to find the ‘rat man’ who enchants the killing machines and her assignment is keeping her from doing this so that adds an extra level of worry and also a dilemma – should she abandon her camp for the Chamber and Tortall?

We also have the refugees themselves – finally a none noble perspective who is not a servant! and all the dogs and cats and birds (with a supernatural intelligence because they have been around Daine) with their own loyalties. The pets are just the sweetest and Pierce writes the best animal sidekicks.

World – 1000000000/5 – i just love it, in this final part of the series we get to see Sranca and Tortall in all their amazingly detailed worlds.

Romance – NA

Characters – 5/5 – I love Kel, she is just everything that a classic heroine should be and the rest of the cast support the story and have their own stories so well its seamless.

Plot – 100000000/5 – so good, it flows, it has all the world-building details i need but there is never a moment of boredom.

Things to be aware of: its a war, there is death and fantasy violence.

13+

This is the third book in the Protector of the Small series and I absolutely love this one to bits.

We start with Keladry walking through a near empty palace as all the knights have come and picked their Squires already. As the only girl she hasn’t even got any interviews with potential knight masters and has to acknowledge the fact that despite all her struggles she might end up being assigned to a desk knight. That is one of the things that Pierce does so well, she really shows how slow change is and how even the most powerful people inciting that change sometimes struggle against the tide of opposition and yet it never feels like a lecture or even a large facet of her characters.

This book takes us so much further than the palace complex, introducing us to the difficulties that had never been discussed with the pages at the palace among the privileged elite. Travelling under Lord Raoul and working alongside the Kings Own Keladry gets to experience why she wanted to be a knight so much – to protect people and achieve justice. I feel like Keladry’s experience really grows throughout this book, she gains the battle knowledge and experience that she is going to need and we get to see her take on some leadership.

This book also has the terrifying caveat of the Chamber at the end – all the work Keladry has put in, all the sacrifices she has made of her future will all be for naught if the Chamber finds her unworthy. Squires die in the Chamber, she is the first female knight to openly go through the Chamber in a few hundred years and all eyes are on her.

World – 5/5 – I love it so much and we get to see such a wide range of different terrain across Tortall.

Romance – 5/5 – Sweet Romance – there is a little romance in this one, Keladry has an adorable relationship with someone we have met in previous books. However it never becomes the focus although we see Keladry thinking about how it relates to her career as well as how people view her (the small adknowledgement from Raoul that it will always be harder for her to court among her peers because she is a woman and there are a lot of people eager to besmirch her reputation was a delightful small detail.)

Plot – 5/5 – it never drags, there are multiple different subplots and plots and so many different characters that interact with Kel but yet they never feel bland.

Characters – 5/5 stars – I love the characters. They are so realistic even the ones I hate and they all have such depth to them.

Happy Reading!

Tag: protector of the small

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