The Protector of the Small Quartet

by Tamora Pierce

Whew! Finally finished. It's quite a read, definitely. For those of you that haven't read it yet but would like to, here's the order:
First Test
Page
Squire
Lady Knight
I'll do a review on all four at once.

Keladry of Mindelan has nerve. She wants to be a lady knight. Now that girls are allowed to become pages, which is the first step to becoming a knight, she goes to join the ranks of the boys and train to be a true knight. However, Lord Wyldon, the training master, puts her on probation for a year since she's a girl, so she has to be even better-behaved than the boys. Life's tough when you're trying to be a pioneer. The well-written quartet views Keladry from ages ten to eighteen, growing up and experiencing life as The Girl in an all-male world.

I began the series and thought that it would be a good read for anyone around the age of twelve or so, but as it goes on, it becomes... questionable. I can see why it's in the young adult section of the library, now that I've finally finished all four. Since it's utterly addicting and makes you want to keep reading, I'd recommend it to female audiences around fourteen or so. That way, anything questionable is understood.

The first two books were amazing, but, in my opinion, they sort of went downhill from there. I really enjoyed First Test and Page, though I think First Test was the best one. The only reason I kept reading is because I wanted to know what happened to Kel, and was hopeful that maybe the books would get better and equal in quality to the first one. While First Test may be the smallest, it is by far of the highest quality and definitely worth reading.