A review by bloomingrose92
Lioness Rampant by Tamora Pierce

1.25

Worse of the bunch. Just a bunch of once-beloved characters making horrible choices and becoming horrible people.
And Thom resurrecting Duke Roger just being swept under the rug? Is that really a forgivable offense? And we can't do anything because the old king pardoned all of his many, many crimes. And they don't even try to assasinate him? Or put him in prison? And they say they are watching him but he is able to meet with his followers whenever he wants? And when did Alex become evil? He was just being controlled in the first two books! And whatever George says about not assassinating Claw because he needs to get the person behind him, but then they do kill him and there really was no one behind him? And why is Johnathan keeping all these old lovers who are conspiring behind his back in his court? Send them home! In the author's note it said the Pierce was convinced by her ex (who was the inspiration for Roger), to bring Roger back as the big bad because of something about evil and how it always returns even beyond death. I think he was more like Roger than she realized, because it seemed like a total stab in the back. Having Roger come back wouldn't have been horrible, but the motivations and circumstances surrounding it were so ill-contrived that it made all our main characters seem totally weak and stupid. Not sure what I was expecting from this book, and I haven't liked a lot of the choices Pierce has made in this series, but I think this was a conglomeration of the worst possible choices for the conclusion of the series.