The Recruit by Debra A. Kemp

The day one of the Pendragon's equites recognize her, Lin is freed from her torturous life as a slave. But when her newly found father goes off and leaves her with her cold and unloving mother, expected to bend her will to that of the court and the life of a royal woman, Lin wonders if she hasn't fallen into a different sort of slavery. As she could never stand down when she faced Mordred, Lin cannot and will not change herself now. she must follow her heart, and it is not in sewing and arranged marriage. She longs for freedom, the kind she would have were she born a man. But does she ask too much of her father? And could she make it in the life she thinks she wants?

The Recruit is the sequel to The Firebrand. The readers return to Lin's epic tale of her childhood and life, as she recounts to her family the past she has covered up for years. 

I still am not a big fan of the way Kemp book-ends the story, beginning and ending it with Lin as an adult and after the fact of everything. My full rant about that can be found here in a previous review. I will say for this second book it was much smoother than the first one. I was grabbed in right away by the story and finished it quickly. Some of this I can account to knowing where and what was going on in the beginning before the real story got started. In the first book I was just lost and as a reader I was doing a lot of 'help! where am I?' until the story finally got started, especially with the triple beginning (Lin after battle, Lin older with children, and then finally FINALLY Lin as a child with the proper beginning of the tale). In this novel however it starts right where the last one left off so I was on solid ground as a reader. When the story launched in fully I was geared up for the ride. 

In retrospect, I suppose one could say that the way the story is set up mimics how stories were told back then: through oration to a group.

For all my issues with the set up of The Firebrand, I was still interested in its sequel and i was not disappointed. I really like Lin's character and I like the theme of her story. She is so firey and she will never back down. For being modeled after Arthurian lore, the story is rather feminist in the respect of Lin and her need to do what her heart pleas for, even is that means donning pants and fighting. I also really like the twist Kemp did in making this story. The series is worth the read, especially for The Recruit. I hope to read another book in the series and finish Lin's story. However it has been about 7 years since this last book's publication so I'm not sure I should be holding my breath.