Alright, so this teen fantasy series was a part of the gateway drug that first really flamed my love of reading and writing.

The initial was actually Pierce’s Circle of Magic quartet, but as an adult, I am not as fond of.

Her Tortall (the country that these stories happen in) series which includes quite a few quartets, a duo and I believe a few others – are ones I still read, most of them anyway.

This quartet is the quintessential girl fantasy. A young woman, Alanna, a noble, wants to be a knight so she trades places with her twin brother and disguises herself as a boy to do so. Most of the series is her figuring out how to hide who she is, train, and learning to be a knight all while navigating friendships, love interests, and interference from the Gods.

Now, I do love Alanna. I would say that her quartet is my second favorite of Pierce’s series’, but, as always, I have my issues with it. Now, her journey is great. It has great realism (for a magical world) of her training, having to work harder because she’s a girl and she’s small, the bad guys are pretty good, but I think what always hits me is Pierce’s proclivity of sex and relationships which sort of rides all the way through most of her books.

As an adult, I can’t help but see Pierce’s opinions about things burgeoning through (this is very clear in the Circle of Magic series, but I’ll refrain from THAT rant). In the Lioness Quartet and others, a sexual relationship is seen as nothing more than a meh. Sleep with whoever you want, it’s not important, women should bang whoever they want. I think anyone who has had intimate relationships know that’s really not the case, and especially your first time is important because it’s a step into adulthood and a piece of your innocence lost. Pierce’s blase attitude toward it takes away from Alanna’s relationships in the books, because the girl comes off as disloyal and a little slutty. In the third book, she sleeps with three different guys in rapid fashion that I’m left wondering how loyal she will be to the man she finally settles for.

The problem with this comes down to the fact that it goes against the grain that Pierce created about the character Alanna – who is supposed to be loyal, knightly, honorable, and very good. It’s outside of her character. I would understand if like after the first relationship she ran into a couple different relationships because she was hurt, but at the same time… The first two guys were her best friends. That’s tricky and awkward and it happened way too fast. The third one felt absolutely hollow and downright horny. Alanna had what seemed like a good relationship with the second guy, didn’t really end anything with him, and jumped into bed with another guy without so much as a ‘how do you do’. It’s just off character and it’s why the quartet isn’t my favorite one.

It is a good series, but sometimes it’s hard to let things go when you get older and you’ve been in a relationship, you’ve seen life. Pierce was a great writer but just as I’m sure I am, she is a victim of her biases, and unfortunately I don’t really find her ideas about sexual proclivity entirely appropriate for a series aimed toward young girls. It also wouldn’t be a big deal if it wasn’t an overarching theme used by most of her characters.