Review: Kinda YA, but Good
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 30, 2010
This is only the second fantasy book I have read in my adult years. I am surprised by how much I enjoyed it.It's medieval days and Aislinn is seven years old but desires to be a knight and take her dead brother's place in the king's "army." Her little seven year old self takes a coach to the kingdom and presents herself to the king. She begins training to be a knight. There is math, reading and writing, horsemanship, archery, weapons, and swimming. Aislinn overcomes every obstacle in her path from a group of bully boys to an ornery horse. She makes friends with two boys, one of them the future king. As they grow up together in this school for knights, Aislinn and Prince Caelan fall in love. But Aislinn must focus on obtaining her knighthood (she is the first woman to attempt it in this kingdom) and Caelan must marry another.There are a few battles between some group called the Speicans and a lot of good life lessons for Aislinn. There were a few fire breathing dragons doing a flyby or two and my eyebrow did go up when the half lion/half eagle creature "mind talked" to Aislinn. (What was that about anyway?? Nothing came of that at all...)I really enjoyed it, especially reading about a young girl learning to be a knight, but there were a lot of typos for a published book and a lot of things were left unexplained (There is a sequel tho). Also, Aislinn's dead brother showing up and talking about knights in Heaven was weird.Otherwise, great book, well written, and about a strong female character.