u/MakingPaperBooBoo

First Hint: Your greedy friend basically nopes the fuck out at the first sign of real danger. Luckily, you enlist the aid of a narcissist, a tomboy, a nepo baby, and an alcoholic.

Second Hint: In all fairness to yourself and your friend, no one could have expected that the twink would turn out to be a knockoff Darth Vader. He seemed so nice.

I've been trying to rediscover this book for a little over a year now. I'm afraid I don't remember a whole lot of details, but I'll share what I can.

As far as when I read it, it would have been sometime between 1997-2002. I have always been an avid reader of fantasy, and I was always looking for anything that even remotely featured medieval fantasy, knights, swords, dragons, magic, etc. I discovered this book in my school library. I wish I could say I remember details about the cover, but anything I suggest may be incorrect. I want to say the cover was mostly white, and I don't *think* it featured any characters on the cover, but again, I'm not sure. I want to say it was a hardback cover, don't know if that helps. My guess is that I read the synopsis on the back or something and that's how I knew it was fantasy or medieval related.

As far as the story itself...it's hazy, not gonna lie. The main character was female. I'm pretty sure she was described as having red or ginger hair. I believe she had a desire to be a knight, and I think a good portion of the early story was her training as a squire or page under a male knight. I think there were a lot of scenes that took place during training, like in a training hall, or something.

At some point romance does happen, and it's part of the reason that I remember this book. Or rather, have been trying to remember this book. My significant other and I were having a discussion about romantasy novels, and I was trying to recall the first time that I (as a young teenage boy) stumbled into a romance/fantasy by accident due to my obsession with fantasy stories. I remember being a bit surprised when the story starting going in that direction. I don't think the romance was the big focus of the story, but it did happen, a few times.

Now I have done the precursory google search of "Young Adult Fantasy Female Knight Red Hair". Alanna is the top result, but I don't recognize the cover. I'm not saying it couldn't be it, but I would think that if I saw a cover that is close to what I saw back then, it would spark some memory.

I also think the story ended up being more grounded fantasy than high fantasy? I don't recall anything like actual magic or fantasy races in it. Anyway, that's I got.