Rating:  Summary: Thrilling Experience Review: Squire is an amazing book! It travels through the 4 years that Kel is a squire with detail! Kel goes through many changes in her life and there are many unforgetable moments! This book is fun and hooking! You won't want to put it down! I recommend this book for ages 12-15. It is wonderfull for other ages though too. This book is a great addition to the other 2 Protector of the Small books in this series!
Rating:  Summary: Probably the best of the 'Protector of the Small' series Review: At first when I started reading the 'Protector of the Small' series I was a bit dissapointed. These books were all in all a bit immature for Tamora Pierce to write. I still enjoyed them, however they lacked something that the Daine books had, and the Alanna books had even more of. When I read Squire, I was amazed at how much I enjoyed it. IT had to be the best of all the three books. I can't wait to read the next one! I recommend this book to people of all ages. It's great and writen by an author who has great talent!
Rating:  Summary: Amazing! Review: I was very satisfied with this book. I can't wait for the fourth one to come out. I loved how Raoul was incorperated into the book. He was my favorite character in the Alanna series, beating out Gary, George, and Jon, by a land slide. There were more characters introduced both funny and annoying (Wait what annoying characters. What am I talking about). As I understand it many people are upset about Kel dropping her feelings for Neal and gaining feelings for Cleon (sorry about the spoiler.) but to be perfectly honest with you, I don't think a relationship with Neal would have lasted that long. You are supposed to have 2 best friends, one to love forever, and one to love forever - but only as a friend. Neal is the latter. Cleon on the other hand, is NOT a big, dumb, red-head. He's a sweetheart and I would give the world to find somebody who existed that treated me the way Cleon treats Kel. ::big sigh:: I could see that relationship coming in Page, when he told Kel that she looked fit, and with that random hug. (I must be reading these things too much. I predicted two relationships for this book last July. Kel and Cleon and Kel and Raoul.) Anyway, overall this book is great read. Highly recommended.
Rating:  Summary: What happened to Neal? Review: Here's the thing: I bought this book seriously hoping that Neal would... you know, fall in love with Kel and everything would work out dandy. But instead I find that Neal is hardly EVER in the story, and now Cleon is Kel's focus of attention. What exactly happened here? Why is Neal suddenly out of the picture? and why is Kel falling for the big dumb red-headed Cleon? I keep asking myself these questions, and no reasonable answers come to mind. However, even though I was dismayed at Neal's sudden disappearance, this is quite a good book. I enjoy reading about Raoul, who we never really heard about much before. He seems to be the perfect knight master for Kel. I was also glad to see Daine in the story; I have missed her since the Immortals series, but Numair hasn't really shown up yet. I had to give Squire 4 stars because, after all, it IS by Tamora Pierce, one of my favorite authors. All of her books are wonderful. But I am still utterly disturbed about the whole "Where is Neal?" thing. If you are a fan of Tamora Pierce, by all means read this book, it is definitely worth reading. But if you really like Neal (like I do), then prepare yourself for disappointment.
Rating:  Summary: "Squire" review by 13-year-old reader Review: Well, first of all, I might be a bit biased, because the "Protector of the Small" series is my favorite out of all the Tamora Pierce series, but I'll just say now that I definitely recommend "Squire." In this book, Keladry of Mindelan, who has been the first openly female page at the Tortallan court for four years (since the age of 10) goes through four years of being a squire before becoming a full knight at 18. She becomes the squire of Alanna's friend Raoul of Goldenlake; faces down her old foe Joren of Stone Mountain; negotiates with the King and Queen to change laws that go against the rights of commoners such as Kel's maid Lalasa, who was wronged by Joren; falls in and out of love; and, finally, encounters the Chamber of the Ordeal. But...well, I suppose I will talk about individual things in the book. I absolutely love and admire Kel's determined, down-to-earth yet idealistic personality. However, in this latest installment, other characters' personalities became underdeveloped. For example, we barely ever see her old friends Neal, Owen, Merric and the others, and when we do, they are sort of skimmed over. I think Ms. Pierce was trying to concentrate on Kel's growth, but it was disappointing. I especially missed Neal and Owen!!! Kel has a romance with Cleon in this book. I thought that was really sweet, but I wondered...why him?!? He'd never been a fully developed character like Neal, and so it was sort of confusing why Kel was so attracted to him and why she fell in love with him after being in love with Neal (who was really more her type!) for years. I guess Ms. Pierce is doing the "well, nothing turns out the way we expect it" thing, and that's admirable... but still, it's as if Kel feels obligated to love Cleon because he loves her. Yet Kel's feelings through all of that seem realistic - the way she is taken aback and confused at first. I loved the parts about the nobles from Yaman (the islands where Kel lived for six years, from her very early childhood), which is based on Japan. (The Yamani nobles are in Tortall to introduce Princess Shinkokami or "Shinko," Kel's childhood friend, who is to wed Crown Prince Roald of Tortall.) I recently went to Japan, and the attitude of the Yamanis is much like that I observed in many Japanese. The language and names are extremely accurate, and Kel's relationship with the Yamanis ("Am I like them anymore?") is profound. Finally, I think that the way Tamora Pierce has improved her imagining of the Chamber of the Ordeal since her "Alanna" days is flabbergasting. In the Alanna books, even though the Chamber was supposed to be scary, it was hard to see just how exactly it was scary from Ms. Pierce's narrative. In "Squire," however, we experience first the visions Kel has through her squire years as she dares the Chamber by placing her hands on its doors, and then the actual experience, which brings up fears Kel thought were long since dead and buried. It also gives her a vision of a heap of dead children and a suspicious-looking man; those will no doubt come into play in the next book. It's all so well done! Well, that's about it. I think that the biggest pull of the "Protector of the Small" series is Kel's personality. In the end of "Squire," Alanna is talking with Kel. She says that though she (Alanna) is a hero, she had the Goddess and powerful magic to help her along. Therefore, the average girl can't really identify with Alanna and her accomplishments. "But you, bless you," says Alanna to Kel, "you are real." Girls in Tortall - and Tamora Pierce fans - can look up to Kel as one of them, as someone ordinary who became extraordinary. And that, of course, is a great accomplishment for Tamora Pierce in itself.
Rating:  Summary: Cool but not the best. Review: Don't get me wrong I loved the book and thought it was great but it could have been better. Tamora Pierce did wonders with this book and I'm expecting a knock out 4th book (knowing her the 4th book will rock 5X more then the 3rd book). If you loved her books so far then you msut read this. There are alot of surpises for you as you read and you won't beable to put the book down.
Rating:  Summary: ok people, here we go Review: Honestly this book deserves more than 5 stars. I could hardly expect anything less than great from Tamora Pierce....but Squire was incredibly great. If you're reading this review, chances are that you've already read some of her books and know that they are absolutely wonderful....so it'll come as no surprise to you that this one is just as good as the rest (if not better). I don't really know what to say about the book itself (except that I loved it of course)....I can't pick out any one thing that I liked more than anything else....its the perfect blend of all the necessary things that make a book so good that you can't put it down. Lady Knight comes out next year, and that seems like a long time to wait, but I have a feeling that it'll be worth it. So anyway, read this book, or buy it or whatever, you'll love it.
Rating:  Summary: hmmm.. Review: Although i liked this book, and found it a good read, I did not feel it lived up to her former books. The death of Dom was incredibly abrupt and Kel seems to move straight on with out a backwards thought. Also, I sorely missed the great characters that we met in her earlier books, especially Neal. Lastly, I did feel that Kel's romance with Cleon was unfortunate, Cleon distinctly lacking in appeal (coming across, to me at least, as unintelligent and boringly unsophisticated). Kel's thoughts can be astonishingly naive for a girl of 16: Kel wondered about those discarded tunics and half-opened shirts. Did they almost make love?" However, despite these flaws, Squire was still a great book and highly recommended.
Rating:  Summary: Like all the other books Review: I really liked this book. I have read all the other books by Tamora Pierce, and while this one wasn't the absolute best, it was certainly up there on the list. I have read the other reviews, and contrary to what some of them say, this book is not a disappointment. It is true that some of the characters change, but that happens in real life also. Changes like this occur in all the Tamora Pierce books. I think the fact that new characters are introduced and old ones take the back seats make the series more interesting and realistic. All in all, this book was very good, and all the Tamora Pierce fans out there will enjoy it.
Rating:  Summary: A great book and I'm eagerly waiting for the next one Review: I really loved this book (and read it 3 time in two days)and I am eagerly awaiting the 4th book in the series. It is good to watch Kel grow up and experience new things (romance, ways of fighting, meeting new people, helping people and animals). I am very pleased she got to be Raouls squire. This provided the framework for Kel to become her own person. Although Kel displays less Yamani "quirks" and seems to rely on Yamani etiquette and culture less and less in informal siuations, it is good to see her adapting the lessons learn't as a child to benefit her especially when fighting or on formal occasions. I look forward to the last book. Is she going to be a real live hero like Alanna and Raoul??
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