I love a good happy ending where everything wraps up neatly. Alanna picked the right man! I'm so happy for them. There was a little bit of sadness, but it was beautiful and made this a very well balanced novel. This is such a wonderful series, and I'm really glad I found it, even if I'm an adult now. I highly recommend this series for anyone looking for an easy to read fantasy series with very a very strong female lead!

This is the final book in the Alanna quartet. Alanna is on a quest to find the Dominion Jewel for Jonathan, who is now king of Tortall. The Dominion Jewel allows its user to form a bond with the land that includes the ability to command the land. Jonathan needs all the help he can get since most of Tortall believes his reign is cursed. He mother finally succumbed to sickness after many years and his father had an "accident" that Jonathan believes was really suicide. The worst thing is that Alanna's brother Thom has brought Uncle Roger back from the dead. Even though Alanna exposed Roger's evil plans and killed him in the second book, no one throws a fit about him being back. Alanna's quest takes her high into the mountains at the edge of the world. She also begins a relationship with Liam, the Shang Dragon, even though he doesn't like magic. Along the way she also meets Thayet and Buri fleeing from a war in their country. Thayet is the daughter of the dead king and Alanna believes the perfect match for Jonathan. She just has to get the jewel and everyone back to Corus and stop whatever plot Roger is cooking up.

I thoroughly enjoy this series. There are clearly problems with the pacing and the character develop throughout the series. I am sure if Pierce was writing these today she would do them a bit differently, but they are wonderful stories for kids. I love the fact that Alanna can kick your butt and wipe your tears at the same time. She is a girl and a warrior and doesn't apologize for either. I would definitely recommend this series to anyone who likes strong girls doing what they want to do in a boys' world.

Another book P and I read aloud. And, a rare book she would want to read not just at bedtime but during the day! She is already clamoring for the Lioness series as a birthday present and I am confident that will be delivered. We both really enjoyed the stories.

An excellent end to the series. Though we later see Alanna and her friends in the other Tortall series, it was excellent to have this reference.

I liked how fast paced this book was. All the loose ends were tied up nicely. And even though in the end there were some heartbreaking losses, I liked it a lot. Alanna truly became the hero she set out to be and she didn't compromise for it. She found a balance between a need for love and family and her need to have adventures.

I also really enjoy that Pierce does not constantly remind the reader of what happened in previous books. These books were made to be read together and the entire series is an easy transition.

It's not often I'd criticize something for being too realistic, but as this series developed, it had a very odd split personality. On the one hand, it's a nicely-done but fairly generic swords and sorcery young adult novel, with evil dukes, magic spells, and mountain gods. On the other hand, Alanna's romantic life is just as messy and complex as in a modern high school novel, with odd stops and starts and relationships that just kind of start up and/or peter out. I have no problem with those kinds of relationship tangles in a story, but it was oddly jarring in a book that also featured a purple-eyed telepathic cat, for example. This is especially true when all the secondary characters have more genre-expected relationships (everyone but Alanna meets the person they're meant to be with and is in love with them pretty much at first sight). The schism between the two tones got increasingly distracting as the series continued, and I sometimes got annoyed that "who does Alanna end up with" seemed like the most complex and important issue in the book.

As seems to be typical, this story was good but would have been better if I was younger. Instead, it felt like it jumped too far too often to warrant a higher rating.

Is it any wonder I fell in love with these books years ago? Even now they are still exciting as ever. Plus, they make me smile. Love these.

Still not my favorite in the series, but I enjoyed it more than I did the last time I read it.

Sugary-sweet conclusion to a fun series