published by Berkley in November 2012
Before she met Dragos, half-human/half-Wyr Pia Giovanni was alone and on the run. Now she’s mated, pregnant and heading south to repair the Wyrs’ frayed relationship with the Elves. Being separated from Dragos is painful, but for the good of the Wyr demesne they need to figure out how to be partners—in more places than just the bedroom.Genre: Paranormal romance
In New York to preside over the Sentinel Games, Dragos is worried about his mate, but knows that finding two replacement sentinels is essential to show the rest of the Elder Races just how strong and brutal the Wyr demesne can be. But as the Games heat up, Pia’s negotiations with the Elves take a turn for the dangerous, straining her bond with Dragos and threatening everything they hold dear...
Series: The Elder Races, Book #5
What do you need to know? Well the story is pretty much as the blurb described. After losing two of his sentinels, Dragos needs to replace them, hence the Sentinel Games. All of his current sentinels have to enter as well, to show that they are the best of the best. There is only one rule and it is not to kill. At the end, the seven that will be left standing will get the prized positions.
While all the attention is focused on the Sentinel Games and New York City, Pia thinks it's the perfect time to conduct a diplomatic mission of her own. So she sets of with a group of canine Wyrs who act as her bodyguards to visit the High Lord and his lady to repair treaties and better their relationships with the Elves. However, this mission won't be easy. First, Pia has to compose with her new bodyguards who don't know her, have misconceptions and are not thrilled to miss the Sentinel Games to protect Dragos' new mate. In addition, perhaps Pia's timing is not as good as she thought because something is clearly going on in the Elven demesne.
Why this book? Hmmm, because it's part of a popular series and there was a lot of buzz for it. I probably shouldn't have though considering I didn't love Pia and Dragos in Dragon Bound ^_^;
What did I like? Well, Pia continued to impress me as an heroine in Lord's Fall. The maturity, the way she handled herself and everything that was thrown at her. Her confrontation with Eva at the beginning of the novel was the perfect example. I also appreciate that Pia is different from most heroines, that she's not a predator. It makes the way she's dealing with Dragos even more admirable. I also applaud Ms Harrison for her consistency with Pia's character, that Pia didn't undergo out-of-character changes in personality.
The premises of Lord's Fall had a lot of potential in my opinion and the ending is intriguing, pointing at changes to come.
What didn't work for me? Overall, I think my main issue with Lord's Fall was that it fell flat. As I just mentioned, Lord's Fall had a lot of potential, but Ms Harrison failed exploiting it. I was actually really looking forward to the Sentinel Games - the description for them so grand, but in the end, it wasn't exciting at all. The Sentinel Games turned out to be like background noise, a filler to keep Dragos occupied and justify the separation between Pia and Dragos. Also, the results were totally anti-climatic since Dragos' five sentinels did not meet each other and easily survived. Ms Harrison also had something with the Elven storyline, but I feel she couldn't fully develop that storyline because she was too busy with other elements. And once again, there was no excitement to it, most of the time, Pia was kept waiting or stone-walled...
I know a lot of fans were looking forward to Lord's Fall for the romance, to see Dragos and Pia together again... and I hope they were satisfied. As I was not a huge fan of their romance to begin with, this continuation didn't do much for me. I mean, the two of them are already together, there is no real issue between them and Pia continues doing a good job at managing Dragos' uber-alphaness. So really, their romance was just there to please the fans.
My Grade? C-. Lord's Fall wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't great either. While I continued enjoying Pia's character, she couldn't make me overlook the fact Lord's Fall definitively lacked omphf.
