In the Hand of the Goddess Song of the Lioness: Book 2

Alanna's "secret" is clearly not as secret as she thinks it is. The older she gets the more among her friends and colleagues who figure it out. But she's useful, brave, loyal, and smart. Rules can be bent to keep someone like her around. http://pussreboots.com/blog/2017/comm...

I'd probably give this book a 3.5 overall, but I've rounded it up because I genuinely enjoyed the action and events that occurred. There was never a dull moment and, just like the first book, I was engaged right from the start. The characters grew and developed and I loved to see their progression, as well as finally being reunited with Thom. Alanna "relearning" to be a lady seemed a bit asinine and irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, but it's whatever compared to how brave she became, as well as her ability to realise that people do like her for her and all she's done to prove herself. NOW what I had the B I G G E S T issue with in this book, was the amount of kisses, touching and comments on love being forced onto an unwilling and uncomfortable Alanna. And to make it worse, she just comes to terms with it! Like "yeah, I guess I will eventually fall in love and marry like Jon and George say, even though I'm adamant I don't want to do either!" and George that slimy bastard is the worst of the pair. But yeah, this forced romance and (initially) unsolicited/unreturned kisses and affection is what dropped the half star for me, really. It was extremely uncomfortable to witness how extremely uncomfortable Alanna was made by the situation. IF MY GIRL WANTED TO EXPLORE HER SEXUALITY OR THE POSSIBILITY OF RELATIONSHIPS/EXPERIENCE THEN LET HER DO IT 👏🏻 IN 👏🏻 HER 👏🏻 OWN 👏🏻 DANG 👏🏻 TIME 👏🏻

Posting the same comments as I did for the first book in this series: Was shocked by how terrible the writing in this first series is, given how much I liked her later series, Protector of the Small. One issue was bad pacing. Another was a lack of foreshadowing of key plot points. Usually when there is a reveal of some mystery at the end of a story, you get that "Oh! I should have seen that coming!" moment. But in this story, that doesn't happen, because there were no clues ahead of time. It makes the characters' actions along the way seem nonsensical.

I just love all the relationships and camaraderie in this series. It’s such an easy world to fall into. There is something to be said for simple world building. Some fantasy stories overdo the world building, some don’t world build at all, and some like this, do it’s effortlessly and easily through the storytelling. It’s not perfect. The pacing is some times jarring but it’s got so much heart it’s hard not to love.

As great a book as I remember it to be. (It’s always nice when your childhood memories do not betray you.) Alanna is growing up (she turns 15 quite early on and 18 by the end of it) on her path to becoming a knight. Long gone are the times when she was a wide eyed eleven-year-old. We now follow her well into her teenage years and accompany her on all the challenges this brings. Now that she is well established at the royal court and serves as the squire to prince Jonathan, her tasks are somewhat matured with her. Not only is the focus drawn away from the scholarly aspect, learning in classrooms and overly stressful timetables, school bullies and the focus on keeping her gender a secret - but this part focuses more on what the future might hold as well. Unrest between neighboring kingdoms, fighting, war and everything grim and dark that comes with killing and death are central to the plot. All the while continuing the beautifully set-up plot of intrigue and betrayal at court from within. Alanna trusts her intuition and the words of the Goddess herself as she keeps clashing with the ill will of the Duke. But that would not be enough as she still also has to navigate being a girl and actually exploring what that might mean and that this part of her, she previously denied having, might hold promises and greater allure that she would have guessed. So this second book is the continuation and in some sense conclusion to the first book. The major struggles get resolved, we see Alanna protect the ones she loves and pursue knighthood — I cannot recommend this enough! For young girls and boys alike, because who *doesn’t* benefit from knowing and enjoying reading of a kick-ass, witty and smart character saving her friends and discovering hidden agendas and also actually doing something about it?! Have a quick read, enjoy this medieval-esque fantasy land of possibilities and adventure, high stakes, magic, knights, fighting, friendship and possibly some little hints at romance and love. And if you want to know what the world holds in store for the young Lady Knight and what adventures await her outside the capitol and in the great wide world that Tamora Pierce beautifully grounds in relatable reality (so far so that you think it could be a real place) you’ll have to also read books 3 and 4 (and honestly the next 4 books as well even if they’re centered around Dhaine). PS: FAITHFUL IS ADORABLE AND AWESOME AND I WANT ONE, PLEASE! 💛

I enjoyed this book. The story became less predicable for me and also included topics like sex that i loved seeing in this type of book. I love how even thought she is hiding she is a girl it had such a limited impact on the story.

** spoiler alert ** 2.5 stars I wasn’t as excited as I wanted to be, and some plot points were kinda boring (the war, I still don’t know what the purpose of this was, and I enjoy more political wars anyway). The ending was also a bit confusing and left me feeling nothing? Still an enjoyable read tho, but not as fun as the first.

This series is just what I needed right now. I'm having so much fun!

I enjoyed the second instalment of the Song of the Lioness, the story moves on and characters develop. I like the pacing though it's obvious it's a children's book in my opinion.

Still kinda towing the line between MG and YA in terms of the style/voice. I repeatedly flinched every time one of the two contending men claimed they knew what Alanna thought/that she loved them. Also I cringed every time “love” was equated to having sex, as though that’s the way to “prove” love. I’m only reading these because they are short (and free via library audiobooks). Bit of a spoiler, but it irked me that there were no consequences whatsoever for her revealing that she’s a girl. Like, the king was shocked but everyone else immediately accepted it. Quite anticlimactic after a book and a half of building it up.