I never put up a review for the final book of the Protector of the Small series because, frankly, Pierce doesn't do so well with her endings. I felt very "meh" about the whole story, and honestly have a hard time remembering details of it. For all of my vivid memories of the other installments, I have to call that a failure, or at least a fall-back from the highs of the series up to this point.
I would not go so far as to not recommend it - it is the finishing point to the series, but by now, Kel is grown, she's overcome her fears completely, she's dutiful to a fault (even in her interior monologue) and the story is stretched much farther than it should have been to cover a hum-drum posting, a crisis of conscience, and a new stray rescued.
Because Kel has developed into such a good well-rounded person, she's not as interesting anymore. Heck, even Alanna is more interesting in her bit parts because she still has her temper! It's hard to root for someone you don't think will ever fail, or ever struggle, or ever show doubt, and has perfect faithful companions and subordinates who would die for them.
So, while the writing and the plotting aren't bad, they are much too flabby, and do very little to disguise a burgeoning Mary Sue, and an uninteresting one at that. Sadly, reading Lady Knight made me glad that this was the last book of the series - I was afraid of what would happen if it went on any further.
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