Hi friends! Happy Monday, I hope you’re all doing well. Today I’m going to be posting my review of the second book in the Song of the Lioness series, In The Hand of the Goddess by: Tamora Pierce.

You can read my review of book one: Alanna: The First Adventure

In the Hand of the Goddess by: Tamora Pierce: Still disguised as a boy, Alanna has become Prince Jonathan’s squire, although things between them keep changing. On her way to becoming a knight she’s learning new skills and growing magical powers that will be used to protect Jonathan from an evil sorcerer who is set on destroying them both. This novel was just as action-packed as the first. Again, so much happens in this short novel. This one takes place over the course of three years and Pierce does a good job of keeping pace so things move well, but there were times when events would just happen and it left the reader a little confused. One minute something was happening the next something else; stories did flow together but it was more of a boom, boom, boom succession. The added romance, love triangle plot that Pierce started at the beginning of this book was strange, jarring and just felt out of place. There was never any mention of anyone having feelings, then all of a sudden all the feelings just happened. The reader understands that adolescent lust and love come and go so fast, but it didn’t feel like it was a gradual progress to the story, it just, again, happened. Unfortunately, the ‘not like other girls’ trope was used in this novel and that turned the reader off of this a bit. The plot was still interesting and managed kept the reader invested and surprised throughout. The addition of magic cat was great, the reader totally loved this dynamic between it and Alanna. This really moved the story and gave us another side to Alanna, making her a stronger character, as well as all that she goes through in this novel. We got to see more of Thom in this novel and the reader couldn’t be happier. Learning what he was up to and seeing him in action was great. Overall, this book had its problems, but it was still good enough to want to continue reading the series.