Tamora Pierce is a lover of strong female role models and most of her books are aimed towards young women ages 8 - 16. Though there are plenty of fighting scenes and wars so it may also appeal to young men out there too. So Steemians! If you enjoy some light reading or have some young children and would like to give some wholesome reading, this is for you.
For a run down of the series/world as a whole see my review of the first book Alanna, The First Adventure. 
Lioness Rampant
At the very end of the previous book Alanna helps an old friend of the headman of the Bloody Hawk Tribe have a peaceful death after being tortured by her village and using her dying moments gives Alanna the gift of knowledge on how to mend her magical sword and also begs her take a package pack to her friend the headmen of the tribe.
This package turns out to be an ancient map with writing on it in a strange language. Due to the fact that she has nothing better to do Alanna travels to the Marenite capital of Berat to get he map translated by one of the best translators in the realms
The book opens to Alanna entering Berat with Coram at her side. Whilst waiting to arrange a meeting with the translator Alanna meets Liam Ironarm, the Shang Dragon. We hear a bit about the Shang in the previous books, but this is the first time we meet one. The Shang are children chosen ages 4 to 7, both male and female common and noble, chosen and trained so that they can use any weapon as an extension of themselves but are most deadly with there bare hands and feet, they are the ninjas of the realms. Only the best Shangs get given names of mythical creatures. Only the best of the best get to claim the title of Dragon. There is only 1 Dragon every 100 years or so. Liam and Alanna of course hit it off and Liam joins their party.
But to get there they must first pass through Sarain, a country tearing itself apart in a civil war with itself on three fronts. The K'miri, the Sarain version of the Bazhir. Native tribespeople that instead of being desert tribes, the Kmiri are hillsman forest tribes. The Commoners who hate the K'miri so much that they'd rather hunt and kill them than to man their farms. Lastly the Royal Army trying to force the commoners to go back to farming so the realm doesn't starve and also trying to rule the unruly K'miri. Liam tells Alanna to go south and take the road along the southern border as the war is further away from the coast but Alanna being Alanna decides she's prefer to save time and go right through the middle of it.
This is the story of Alannas travels all the way to the Roof of the World and back again, only to get home and find some of her hard work undone and what she has to face to set things right.
Where the other three books have clear lessons to be learned and faces a lot of matters of personal growth, this is more along the lines of a traditional fantasy novel. Adventure for the sake adventure mixed with find the weapon, get the weapon, save the realm. This book is above 30% bigger than the other three books and takes up the time frame of about 6 months. This book leans more towards what I crave in a fantasy novel. Descriptive text, the only occasional switch to another characters views, fantasy, romance and adventure and a touch of the gods giggling at us humans and finding us highly entertaining.
Finale
For children/young adults I give this a 9/10. For young peoples it's not as good, from the way it tells the story line to the few little lessons it teaches. For adult readers I give it 7/10. It's got the same level of storytelling as the previous book, it's just the book is a little longer.For my reviews on the previous books:
Book One: Alanna, The First Adventure.
Book Two: In The Hand Of The Goddess
Book Three: The Woman Who Rides Like a Man
I'll be taking one small break from Tamora Pierce. The next book I'll be reviewing is "Tower of Dawn" by Sarah J. Maas. An off-shoot from the Throne of Glass series that I've already reviewed.Once Alanna gets the map translated, they find it leads to the location of a thing of stories and legends; The Dominion Jewel. Basically a jewel that can only be used by true rulers/leaders that can change a barren land into fertile farming, cause a still born to draw breath, cause forests to come to life and that the very land itself fight against invaders. Basically can turn any struggling country into a power player. Alanna decides to go to the Roof of the World (Earth equivalent = Himalayas) to fetch the Gem from Chitrals Pass. Chitral turns out to be an elemental spiritual manifestation of the Mountains themselves.
When I finished this series I cried for hours, mostly because there were no more books focusing on alanna and her merry friends..
Alanna plays guest roles in many of the other books but yes unfortunately they are no longer the stars.