Tortall Series by Tamora Pierce - Reading from 'In the Hand of the Goddess (Song of the Lioness #2)' from August 3rd 2019

[Dr. Andy]

Yeah that helps! I was also expecting at least 23 or even older 😂😂Beka it's unique I guess!

[Linaria]

Andrea wrote: "Really!? She seems so much older 🤔🤔"

Yeah I think it's apart of how she grew up and her environment. She had to grow up pretty quickly.

[Dr. Andy]

38% (view spoiler)[ Is it just me or was anyone else getting the feeling that Beka's fiance was super controlling and kind of a dick? It doesn't sound like it was a very healthy relationship. I'm starting to really like Farmer and I'm so happy Sabine is helping them too! I love seeing Beka in action and I hope they'll find the boy before too much harm is done to him or his parents. (hide spoiler)]

[Dr. Andy]

71% (view spoiler)[ OMG Tunstall and Sabine are too cute!! I laughed so hard when Tunstall blushed. And I am totally shipping Beka and Farmer aghhh SO MANY SHIPS! I did not like the Count or Countess of that castle or whatever they stayed at. I hope the Prince isn't helping them. Maybe they're trying to force him to help with overthrowing the monarchy. So glad Tunstall didn't actually have to follow through with that bribe. I can't wait for Beka to find "No Skin" (hide spoiler)]

[Dr. Andy]

80% (view spoiler)[ WHO TF IS THIS BITCH WHO THINKS SHE CAN MAGIC BEKA AND KIDNAP HER AND THE OTHERS!?! I'm so mad, how did this happen!? How will they get out of it. I'm glad they don't have pounce. I wonder if someone from this group started the fire at the hotel before?

ALSO FARMER AND BEKA KISSED AND I LOVE THEM. And the Black God was freaking awesome!! (hide spoiler)]

[Natalie]

Ch1 (view spoiler)[Oh jeez, poor Beka... to have been engaged to someone and then fallen out of love with them (...that’s s all the info I have so far) and then having them die so you can’t get any closure at all because of what ifs, and everyone thinks you’re devastated over losing the love of your life only they weren’t that anymore and just AHHHHH.

I’m so glad that Rosto (and everyone else of course) is there for her though 💕 It honestly seems that Beka and Rosto’s relationship has turned into more of a sibling/bff one XD (hide spoiler)]

[Dr. Andy]

Finished! (view spoiler)[ HOLY CRAP I CAN'T BELIEVE TUNSTALL WAS ACTUALLY THE TRAITOR OMFG!!! That was so horrible and sad. Poor Sabine and Beka. BUT FARMER AND BEKA GOT MARRIED AND HES TAKING HER LAST NAME OMFG!! I loved Prince Gareth at the end when his father told Beka he freed the slaves in Tortall. God this was so damn good!! (hide spoiler)]

[Natalie]

I have read very little 8'D

I got so busyyyyyyy

[Natalie]

Okay, so it’s been a few days since I updated so even though I haven’t gotten very far (been busy and it feels like I have had zero time for reading @.@) I thought I should post regardless XD

Chapter 3: (view spoiler)[Does anyone else really like Farmer? Because so far he seems GREAT, and seems really likeable considering the bad rap that mages seem to get from Dogs in this series XD

I really love how he was kinda putting on a kind of ‘country bumpkin’ like persona for the high up mages and I feel he would get along pretty well with Rosto and everyone else back at uhhh... the town Beka is from.

Also, WHO THE HELL IS MELTING PEOPLE. WHAT THE HELL. Really hope none of our rescue party meet the same fate ._. (hide spoiler)]

[Natalie]

Chapter 11-12: (view spoiler)[Okay, it’s seriously suspicious that Prince Baird has been found along their hunt... he doesn’t have anything to do with the young prince’s kidnapping, right? ;-;
—
Linnet Beck is an absolute sweetheart and I hope that before this book is over that she’s freed (maybe adopted by Beka? ;D)
—
OH MY GAWD IS PRINCE BAIRD ACTUALLY BEHIND IT ALL? ITS LIKE THAT DUKE ROGER BASTARD ALL OVER AGAIN.
—
YOU IDIOT. DON’T LET ACHOO ACCEPT FOOD FROM HIM - I DON’T CARE IF HES A PRINCE. HES PROBABLY EVIL.
—
“You will never end in the slave cages, Beka, Pounce said as we entered the dining hall. Not you, not your family. You’re safe.”

LIES. ALY WAS IN A SLAVE CAGE. And even if it WAS over 200 years later, she was a descendant and thus family 😝
—
“I was here today. He knows they have stolen his nephew. He’s part of it.”

I KNEW IT. (hide spoiler)]

[Natalie]

Chapter 14: (view spoiler)[It is very important that I say once again that Pounce is the best cat ever. Because I almost had a FUCKING HEART ATTACK WHEN ACHOO WAS ABOUT TO DIE UNTIL POUNCE SAVED THE DAY.

I swear my heart just stopped for a moment there, holy SHIT.

Considering the other novels that she had written I legitimately thought Achoo was going to die and me along with her 😭😭😭 (hide spoiler)]

[Natalie]

Forgot to post thissssss 8’D

Chapter 19 (view spoiler)[

DAMMIT TUNSTALL. I didn’t want to be right but apparently you are the traitor - how could you?! D:

And all that shot about wanting to be on the winning team? THE TEAM WITH BEKA AND CO WOULDVE BEEN HOME FREE BY NOW WITH GARETH IF YOU HADNT DECIDED TO BE A FUCKING MORON.

I don’t want him to die but that’s probably what’s going to happen now ._.

At least everyone else is still alive?
(hide spoiler)]

[Natalie]

Finished! (view spoiler)[And how great is it that as a result of all this, slavery was ended in Tortall.

I’m a little disappointed there was no epilogue involving Achoo with a bunch of pups running around, or seeing Sabine’s reaction to being asked to be a godmother though 8’D

Other than that, pretty satisfying ending 💕 (hide spoiler)]

[Abi]

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Reading from the 22nd of July 2018

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[Sarah Elizabeth]

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Date changed. Restarting August 3rd 2019. Happy Reading ☺

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[Claire]

Chapter 3
(view spoiler)[Wow, this series moves so fast, I'm so used to entire trilogies taking place in under a year.

Yay a kitty! Kitties make any book better :3

It's so hard to not find George creepy now omg, I remember reading this at like age 10 and thinking it would be so cool to have an older boyfriend! (I blame Sailor Moon, that couple also had a questionable age difference and I grew up watching it).

I mean I get that this is in a medieval fantasy world but 15 and 21 is still a bit yikes. (hide spoiler)]

[Claire]

Chapter 6
(view spoiler)[I was pretty happy with the super fast pacing of the story in the first book because Alanna was younger but here I kinda wish it spent a little more time on the details. I mean yes, Alanna and Jon have spent a lot of time together in the last few years so it's reasonable that they're gotten so close, but we see so little of it.

It's interesting to have a change of scenery and have the characters out of their comfort zone. The process of the war was very easy to follow even for me, I'm not the best at understanding that sort of thing. (hide spoiler)]

[Claire]

Chapter 9
(view spoiler)[I remember reading this when I was 10 and being so scandalized! 😂

It was nice to finally get to see Thom again, it's pretty funny how he couldn't care less about what the other think of him. It's a little sad that he's so alone but if he isn't bothered by it then I ain't gonna judge! (hide spoiler)]

[Claire]

Finished!
(view spoiler)[That makes so much more sense, I was wondering why Alanna kept forgetting about Roger despite it being really freaking obvious. I've read this series before but I forgot that he'd put them under a spell.

That was a nice ending! Can't wait to continue :D (hide spoiler)]

[Dannii]

Finally starting this, today :) I'm also reading the editions you linked above. I love the covers!

[Claire]

Yes they’re really pretty, I got the box set!

[Dannii]

Claire wrote: "Yes they’re really pretty, I got the box set!"

I managed to find books 2-4 in this edition for super cheap, but had to borrow the first from the library.

[Dannii]

Finished In the Hand of the Goddess - (view spoiler)[I felt about this book as I did about the first one. It was such a fun and fast-read and I loved Alanna. She was such a feisty character and I loved that she was our eyes into the world.

I didn't really appreciate her reactions to the romantic encounters in the books. It betrays her as young and naive. I understand she is both but it feels like she goes against much of the strong, independent woman vibes I got early on. It was interesting to see her long for much of the trappings of her gender that she earlier discarded though.

I also feel like this book was WAY too fast. I was looking forward to seeing her grow but she aged to almost adulthood in a handful of chapters. I honestly would have loved a book for each year that she was Jon's squire. As far as he goes, I felt no connection to either him or George.

Really appreciated the links to Autherian legends though and excited to see where book three leads. I think she will become a great teacher! (hide spoiler)]

[Dannii]

Finished The Woman Who Rides Like a Man - (view spoiler)[ I feel like all my thoughts on this series are much the same for each book. I have so far found them all way too fast and it has really spoiled my enjoyment.

I wanted to see her bond with the characters already introduced and yet these were left behind for a new adventure. I do, however, appreciate how we got to see her strike out into the desert alone and how she defied the boundaries placed upon her gender by becoming first a female knight and then the first female shaman. She fights off both physical enemies and societal opinion of her consistently, proving she is the badass heroine I always believed her to be.

I did enjoy seeing her teach the three students and of course it is the boy who is the impatient one! Not feeling much between her and George, but I never found Jon a great love interest either. (hide spoiler)]

[Dannii]

Finished Lioness Rampant - (view spoiler)[The series, before this, was a solid three stars for me and whilst I also awarded this book three-stars it was my least favourite. I didn't really like how romance played a larger key theme and how this type of love seemed almost promoted over familial love. Thom couldn't be saved and that made me sad! He was probably the only male in this series that I found myself rooting for.

I did, however, loved how this series was a fun and fast interlude to the other books I have been reading. I read all three in one evening and never once got bored or felt like I'd sat still for too long. (hide spoiler)]

[Claire]

Chapter 3
(view spoiler)[Ok so I didn't have a issue with this in earlier books, particularly the first one where she is very young, but now I'm definitely starting to feel that the writing here skews a bit young and simplistic considering Alanna is 18 at this point, older than most YA characters. But this was written like 30+ (!!!) years ago so maybe that's just the style from back then? I have no idea, I rarely read pre-2000 books.

The change of scenery is interesting, and I like how it connects back to the events of the first book. (hide spoiler)]

[Claire]

Chapter 6
(view spoiler)[I remember almost nothing from this book but I wonder if I remembered it subconsciously, I've always hated it when guys talk about things that are 'for girls' like they're too good for them.

It's cool to see the two girls embrace their powers while still standing by their beliefs and culture, and not 100% copying Alanna. (hide spoiler)]

[Claire]

Chapter 8
(view spoiler)[Wow Jonathan is being a royal (lol) douche. I never really liked him that much to begin with so I'm not to sad to see him go. I'll admit that I felt like George was a bit of a creeper for flirting with Alanna when she was so young but I guess that in their world it isn't considered inappropriate, I like the two of them together more, even though that whole situation moved like ridiculously fast.

The stuff with exchanging letters with Thom was funny but I wonder what he's really up to? It can't be that simple. (hide spoiler)]

[Claire]

Finished
(view spoiler)[Huh. I wonder if Claw could be that bully, Ralon from the first book? I remember basically nothing about the final book in this series to be honest.

I'm so glad that these editions include Afterwords from Tamora Pierce, they give context to this series. Thinking about this series from a 2010s YA point of view, it feels a bit anvilicious but it was written in the 80s when things were very different. (hide spoiler)]

[Dannii]

Claire wrote: "

Chapter 8
Wow Jonathan is being a royal (lol) douche. I never really liked him that much to begin with so I'm not to sad to see him go. I'll admi..."

Honestly, most of the males in this series were quite unappealing!

[Dannii]

Claire wrote: "

Finished
Huh. I wonder if Claw could be that bully, Ralon from the first book? I remember basically nothing about the final book in this series t..."

It does read quite like a book of its time. It's not completely unenjoyable, but certain aspects do feel dated. Alanna herself, however, wouldn't feel out of place with any modern YA heroine.