I enjoyed the Alanna books (and also the Daine ones until her level of Mary Sueishness started to grate on me), but they're not my favourite of the Tortall lot: that's the Protector of the Small quartet. Kel is my favourite of her Tortallan protagonists, and she gets a whole book's worth of interaction with another of my favourites: Raoul.

I ordered my copy just after it came out, I think, so I got the hardback. I've very rarely seen it anywhere at all offline, so I can imagine it would be tricky to find for a sensible price.