Review: Terrier

Goodreads Summary: Tamora Pierce begins a new Tortall trilogy introducing Beka Cooper, an amazing young woman who lived 200 years before Pierce's popular Alanna character. For the first time, Pierce employs first-person narration in a novel, bringing readers even closer to a character that they will love for her unusual talents and tough personality.

Beka Cooper is a rookie with the law-enforcing Provost's Guard, and she's been assigned to the Lower City. It's a tough beat that's about to get tougher, as Beka's limited ability to communicate with the dead clues her in to an underworld conspiracy. Someone close to Beka is using dark magic to profit from the Lower City's criminal enterprises--and the result is a crime wave the likes of which the Provost's Guard has never seen before.

Let me just give a little preface to this review by saying that Tamora Pierce is one of my absolute favorite authors, I absolutely adore her books and therefore have never tried to review any of her books before despite how often I reread them. But since I feel the same way about Sarah Dessen I thought I'd give it a go and Terrier was a new one for me anyway. 

Also, it was AMAZING to be back in Tortall even if it wasn't with the cast of characters that dwell there that I already know and love. I mean, even yet, when I finished this novel I could NOT stop grinning. 

It took me a bit longer to get into this one because it was so different from Pierce's other novels; for one thing it was epistolary, meaning it was told as a sort of diary/journal, and therefore in the first person. Both of which are new to me! At least from this particular author. Once I got into it though I hated to put it down. Every time I picked this book up I just plowed through pages upon pages upon pages. I had to know what happened next!

Tamora Pierce has a way of writing a cast of characters that just makes you fall in love with them, well, maybe not all of them. Some of them you just really want to have crowd around you as friends. And the way she writes her animals! Its no wonder that I’ve been hunting down fantasy novels that have animals in the starring roles, she really makes you see how they come alive as “human”. Needless to say Pounce was my absolute favorite character with Rosto and Beka, our heroine, tied for second.

I think what really won me over about Beka was the fact that she was horrifically shy just like me! I've never met or encountered a fantasy heroine who would be terrorized by the idea of public speaking. Who had difficulties with strangers because she was shy. JUST LIKE ME. And yet despite her incredible shyness she was able to do great things. She worked at overcoming it. And she was just kind of awesome in a quiet sort of way.

Great start to a series, gave it a four out of five stars and I can’t wait to start the next one in the trilogy.

Also, if any parts of this review seem familiar to you its probably because you caught sight of my tumblr account where I reviewed this first albeit in a shorter fashion. Just didn't want any of you to think I was plagiarizing!