"The Protector of the Small" series by Tamora Pierce

So first of all I'm going to start off by saying that Tamora Pierce is one of my all time favourite authors. She is fucking awesome. Her stories are always great, and addictive, and don't even get me started on the characters.

So yeah. I like her a lot. And so now I'm going to try and convince you guys that you should too (and if you already do, well then GO YOU!).

Right so "The Protector of the Small" is a quartet that takes place in a fantasy medieval land called Tortall. Now Tamora Pierce has written many stories about Tortall, some of which take place before this quartet, and while you don't necessarily need to have read the previous stories it does help.

The main character of this series is a girl named Kelandry of Mindelan (but everyone just calls her Kel, so I'll do that here too), and she wants to be a knight. And so the extremely basic resumé of this story would be the following : girl wants to be knight, struggles to prove herself because she is a girl in a mans world, proves herself, becomes a knight, has adventures.

But like I said that's only if you want to be really basic.

Now like I said before reading the previous books helps understand some of the stuff that goes on. Like why is it so hard for her to become a knight? Well in previous books Tamora Pierce wrote about a character named Alanna who to become a Knight needs to disguise herself as a boy, and she ends up becoming the kings champion and proving to all the kingdom of Tortall that girls can be tough and ferocious too (God I love you Tamora). And since she's done this the King decided that if girls want they can try out for knighthood too without the whole getting disguised as a boy thing.

And this is where Kel come in. She is the very first girl to sign up for knighthood as an actual girl. And she has to put up with a shitload of prejudiced people, who think that because she's a girl she automatically sucks at anything to do with fighting, or physical strength. In the first book she's actually put on probation because no one wants her to succeed. But not only does she succeed she ends up being one of the best in her class, and ends up gaining lots of respect from her fellow Knights and from the Nobles and the common folk.

And to make things even better not only is she an excellent role model for any girl who wants to do something that is considered as typically male, she's also a wonderful character. She's extremely likable, and you really want her to do well. You want her to succeed, and you want her to be happy. She's wonderful.

And this is something that is common books written my Tamora Pierce. She always writes amazing heroines, and they prove that girls can do what boys can do. And it's great to read a book about a girl who is tough, and who is able to take care of herself.

Tamora Pierce creates amazing role models for young girls, and I for one love her for it.

So if you want to read about an amazing heroine in an amazing land filled with magic and adventure, please read "The Protector of the Small" series by Tamora Pierce. And then read all her other books. You won't regret it, I swear.