The 3rd book in the Lionness Quartet moves the knighted Alanna out of the comfort zone she's developed in the capital and into the desert lands as she deals with the events of her Ordeal and what it truely means to be a Gifted female knight.

This book is more a story of personal growth than an adventurous build to an epic confrontation, as book 2 was. But that is not to say that either the magical or sword fighting elements are missing and things that begin building here lead into the deft plotting of the 4th book.

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My daughter is a Huge fan of this whole series. Tamora Pierce is up there as one of her favorite authors. She started reading these books when she was 12. It is nice to have a strong heroine who has adventures and is not typecast into the "girl" role of makeup, clothes and gossip.

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Not my favorite book in this series. I abhor fanatical desert people and any story that includes them. The way they treat their women is hateful. Had I know this book revolved around this topic, I may have passed it up third book in the series or not....

That said, for the most part I did enjoy this book. Though the desert people and the time Alanna spent with them (which was 3/4 of the book) was beyond boring and aggravating. I enjoyed her time with George and most of her time with Jonathan. I'm not sure I like the ending but with book 4 still left of this series, there is time for Jonathan to make amends

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