Ratings: V4; S4; H3
Publisher and Titles: Berkley Sensation
Dragon Bound (2011)
Storm's Heart (2011)
Serpent's Kiss (2011)
"True Colors" (e-book novella, 2011)
Oracle's Moon (3/2012)
"Natural Evil" (e-book novella, 2012)
"Devil's Gate" (e-book novella, 2012)
"Hunter's Season" (e-book novella, 2012)
Lord's Fall (11/2012)
Novel #6 (11/2013)
In the modern world, the Elder Races have lived openly among mortals since the 1500s. The Races are extremely territorial and maintain seven distinct demesnes in the U.S.:
Oracle's Moon (3/2012)
"Natural Evil" (e-book novella, 2012)
"Devil's Gate" (e-book novella, 2012)
"Hunter's Season" (e-book novella, 2012)
Lord's Fall (11/2012)
Novel #6 (11/2013)
This post was revised and updated on 1/19/13 to include a review of the fifth novel in the series: Lord's Fall. That review appears first, followed by an overview of the world-building and reviews of the the four e-novellas and the first four novels:
In the fifth novel, we check back in with Pia and Dragos, the romantic couple of book 1. The lovers are settling into their mated relationship with lots of love, but with some rough spots. Not all of the Wyr have accepted Pia, and they resent the fact that she will not reveal her Wyr form. As the story opens, Pia is seven months pregnant with their son and looking forward to another year and a half of pregnancy. Yes, that's right, the gestation period for dragons is about two years, give or take a few months.
If you remember what happened in book 1, you'll know that when Dragos was tracking Pia down, he invaded the demesne of the Elves, almost instigating a war, and the relationship between the two bordering demesnes has been rocky ever since. The Elves accept Pia, but hate Dragos. Pia is determined to negotiate a treaty with the Elven ruler, Calondir, so she takes a road trip down to South Carolina accompanied by a crew of Wyr bodyguards. In the meantime, Dragos has his hands full back in Manhattan where he is hosting the Sentinel Games in Madison Square Garden. Dragos lost two of his best Sentinels (Tiago and Rune) when they met their soul mates and quit their jobs. He has set up a huge competition that will provide him with seven finalists—all of whom will be his new sentinels.
When Pia gets to the Elven demesne, she learns that Calondir is deep in the Lirithriel Wood (a huge magical Elven forest) with some unexpected Elven visitors from another realm. When she and her escorts go into the Wood to meet with Calondir, they run into the book's villain, a deranged Elf whose voice Dragos heard at the end of Serpent's Kiss—a voice that prophesied the end of days—the apocalypse. "It had spoken of stars dying in agony, and the nature of evil, of Light and Dark as creatures, and Lord Death himself having forgotten he was a fraction of the whole." (p. 99)
The story follows Pia and Dragos as they find themselves in danger and strive to keep the prophecy from coming true. Oh, and don't forget about the baby, who has his own surprise planned for his parents.
Don't try to read this book if you haven't been following the series. The cast of supporting characters is large, and the references to events from previous books are frequent. If you're familiar with the series, though, you'll probably enjoy this book. Pia and Dragos were a great couple in book 1, and they're still fascinating to watch, as Pia tries to tame the beast within her mate, and Dragos finally realizes exactly how much Pia means to him. As usual, Harrison gives us a peek at what will probably be the romantic couple in the next book: the Harpy Aryal and Pia's best friend (and former boss) Quentin, who despise each other so much that you just know that they are destined for a soul-mate HEA.
This is, for the most part, a well-plotted story, but I have to mention one improbable scene between Pia and Dragos that takes place in a pup tent in the middle of a frigid, snow-covered war zone. Right in the middle of things—with the villain's magical fire roaring just a few tents away and battle-weary Wyrs and Elves resting all around them before the big battle to come—the couple has a major make-out session and plans their wedding and honeymoon. I realize why Harrison did it this way (It's one of the few scenes in which the two are physically together in one place), but really, it's a bit far-fetched. Otherwise, though, this is a nice addition to the series and brings some resolution to Pia and Dragos' love story.
NOVEL 5: Lord's Fall
If you remember what happened in book 1, you'll know that when Dragos was tracking Pia down, he invaded the demesne of the Elves, almost instigating a war, and the relationship between the two bordering demesnes has been rocky ever since. The Elves accept Pia, but hate Dragos. Pia is determined to negotiate a treaty with the Elven ruler, Calondir, so she takes a road trip down to South Carolina accompanied by a crew of Wyr bodyguards. In the meantime, Dragos has his hands full back in Manhattan where he is hosting the Sentinel Games in Madison Square Garden. Dragos lost two of his best Sentinels (Tiago and Rune) when they met their soul mates and quit their jobs. He has set up a huge competition that will provide him with seven finalists—all of whom will be his new sentinels.
When Pia gets to the Elven demesne, she learns that Calondir is deep in the Lirithriel Wood (a huge magical Elven forest) with some unexpected Elven visitors from another realm. When she and her escorts go into the Wood to meet with Calondir, they run into the book's villain, a deranged Elf whose voice Dragos heard at the end of Serpent's Kiss—a voice that prophesied the end of days—the apocalypse. "It had spoken of stars dying in agony, and the nature of evil, of Light and Dark as creatures, and Lord Death himself having forgotten he was a fraction of the whole." (p. 99)
The story follows Pia and Dragos as they find themselves in danger and strive to keep the prophecy from coming true. Oh, and don't forget about the baby, who has his own surprise planned for his parents.
Don't try to read this book if you haven't been following the series. The cast of supporting characters is large, and the references to events from previous books are frequent. If you're familiar with the series, though, you'll probably enjoy this book. Pia and Dragos were a great couple in book 1, and they're still fascinating to watch, as Pia tries to tame the beast within her mate, and Dragos finally realizes exactly how much Pia means to him. As usual, Harrison gives us a peek at what will probably be the romantic couple in the next book: the Harpy Aryal and Pia's best friend (and former boss) Quentin, who despise each other so much that you just know that they are destined for a soul-mate HEA.
This is, for the most part, a well-plotted story, but I have to mention one improbable scene between Pia and Dragos that takes place in a pup tent in the middle of a frigid, snow-covered war zone. Right in the middle of things—with the villain's magical fire roaring just a few tents away and battle-weary Wyrs and Elves resting all around them before the big battle to come—the couple has a major make-out session and plans their wedding and honeymoon. I realize why Harrison did it this way (It's one of the few scenes in which the two are physically together in one place), but really, it's a bit far-fetched. Otherwise, though, this is a nice addition to the series and brings some resolution to Pia and Dragos' love story.
WORLD-BUILDING
Here is a paragraph from Storm's Heart that explains the mythology of the series in a nutshell: "Time and space had buckled when the Earth was formed. The buckling created dimensional pockets of Other land where magic pooled, time moved differently, modern technologies didn't work, and the sun shone with a different light. What came to be known as the Elder Races, the Wyrkind and the Elves, the Light and Dark Fae, the Demonkind, the Nightkind, human witches and all manner of monstrous creatures, tended to cluster in or around the Other lands." (p. 2)In the modern world, the Elder Races have lived openly among mortals since the 1500s. The Races are extremely territorial and maintain seven distinct demesnes in the U.S.:
> Wyrkind in New York: all of the shape shifters
> Elven in Charleston, South Carolina
> Dark Fae in Chicago: black haired, gray eyes, metallurgists
> Light Fae in Los Angeles: blond, green eyes, aversion to iron
> Elven in Charleston, South Carolina
> Dark Fae in Chicago: black haired, gray eyes, metallurgists
> Light Fae in Los Angeles: blond, green eyes, aversion to iron
> Nightkind in San Francisco Bay Area and Pacific NW: Vampyres
> Demonkind in Houston: includes Goblins and Djinn
> Human Witches in Louisville
NOVEL 1: Dragon Bound
The heroine of book 1 is Pia Giovanni, a half-breed (Wyr/human) who has manifested a small amount of magic (she can open any lock without a key), but has never been able to shift. Pia grew up moving from place to place with her mother in the hope that no one would ever discover her true Wyr form (and the reader isn't let in on the secret until near the end of the book). As the story opens, Pia has been blackmailed into stealing an artifact from the hoard of New York's billionaire leader of the Wyrkind, the dragon Dragos Cuelebre. Dragos is tens of thousands of years old and his security system has, in all those centuries, never been breached. Even though the stolen object is of little value, and even though Pia replaced it with an object of equal value, Dragos is determined to catch and punish the thief—it's a male pride issue. Many reviewers have compared Dragos to Raphael, the hero of Nalini Singh's GUILD HUNTER series, and that's an apt comparison. Both are rich, powerful, alpha males who are accustomed to getting their own way, and both are brought down (in the romantic sense) by modern American women.
Pia leaves an apologetic note behind, and when Dragos reads it and gets a whiff of her scent (wild sunshine—whatever that smells like), he is immediately attracted to her. (If you hadn't already guessed the identities of the loving couple, this is the first clue that Dragos and Pia are soul mates.) Of course, we need a conflicted plot to provide a few interruptions in the bumpy romantic journey, and that is provided by the Dark Fae king, Urien, who is Dragos' bitter enemy. Supporting characters include mostly members of Dragos' security team (aka sentinels) and Thistle "Tricks" Periwinkle, niece of Urien and heir to the Dark Fae throne. In this book, Tricks works as the public relations director for the widespread Cuelebre Enterprises and is one of the first to befriend Pia.
This is a fairly typical paranormal romance series: big, strong, macho, alpha males and cute, smart, sassy, trying-to-be-independent women (who love to be dominated in the bedroom). It's all about a group of immortal warriors fighting against evil and falling in love/lust along the way. If you love immortal warrior love stories (and who doesn't), you might also enjoy reading some similar series I have reviewed. Click HERE to go to CREATURE SEARCH. Then, scroll down to "Immortal Warriors" and click on any series title to go directly to my review.
The heroine of book 1 is Pia Giovanni, a half-breed (Wyr/human) who has manifested a small amount of magic (she can open any lock without a key), but has never been able to shift. Pia grew up moving from place to place with her mother in the hope that no one would ever discover her true Wyr form (and the reader isn't let in on the secret until near the end of the book). As the story opens, Pia has been blackmailed into stealing an artifact from the hoard of New York's billionaire leader of the Wyrkind, the dragon Dragos Cuelebre. Dragos is tens of thousands of years old and his security system has, in all those centuries, never been breached. Even though the stolen object is of little value, and even though Pia replaced it with an object of equal value, Dragos is determined to catch and punish the thief—it's a male pride issue. Many reviewers have compared Dragos to Raphael, the hero of Nalini Singh's GUILD HUNTER series, and that's an apt comparison. Both are rich, powerful, alpha males who are accustomed to getting their own way, and both are brought down (in the romantic sense) by modern American women. Pia leaves an apologetic note behind, and when Dragos reads it and gets a whiff of her scent (wild sunshine—whatever that smells like), he is immediately attracted to her. (If you hadn't already guessed the identities of the loving couple, this is the first clue that Dragos and Pia are soul mates.) Of course, we need a conflicted plot to provide a few interruptions in the bumpy romantic journey, and that is provided by the Dark Fae king, Urien, who is Dragos' bitter enemy. Supporting characters include mostly members of Dragos' security team (aka sentinels) and Thistle "Tricks" Periwinkle, niece of Urien and heir to the Dark Fae throne. In this book, Tricks works as the public relations director for the widespread Cuelebre Enterprises and is one of the first to befriend Pia.
You may struggle a bit to get through the exposition-heavy first section of Dragon Bound, in which the author strings together paragraphs full of short subject-verb sentences and seems never to have met a clichéd simile or tortured metaphor she doesn't like. She even uses that old favorite "like a knife slicing through butter" (p. 11). And what does this one mean: "The Cauldron [the magic district] flaunted caveat emptor like a prizefighter’s satin cloak" (p. 2). How does a prizefighter's satin cloak flaunt "let the buyer beware"? Keep reading, though. If you can get past the first chapter or two, you'll get pulled into the story. Dragon Bound is strongest in its action and adventure scenes, especially when Pia is fighting back against her captors. The lighter scenes, like those between Pia and the sentinels, are also well written. Dragos and Pia's relationship scenes get a bit melodramatic at times, but that's fairly typical in paranormal romance, so I'll give that a pass. Click HERE to go to links on Harrison's web page to free excerpts from Dragon Bound.
NOVEL 2: Storm's Heart
In this book, the romantic hero is Tiago Black Eagle (a Wyr sentinel), and his heroine is Tricks—now known by her Dark Fae name, Niniane—who is soon to be crowned queen of the Dark Fae. We got a few hints about their attraction to one another in the previous book. Tiago is a Thunderbird (from Native American mythology). He is thousands of years old, and his nickname among the Wyrkind is "Dr. Death." Try to imagine Conan the Barbarian hooking up with Elle Woods from Legally Blonde (but with black hair), and you'll get the picture. As the story opens, Niniane has gone to Chicago with three Dark Fae escorts who attack and stab her in an alley. Tiago immediately takes off for Chicago to rescue her. The plot follows the couple as they try to discover which of the Dark Fae is behind the scheme to murder Niniane and take over the throne. In the meantime, they must also figure out how to deal with their flaming hot attraction to one another. In general, the Dark Fae have no love for the Wyrkind, so no one in Chicago is happy about their relationship. As Niniane meets each of the Dark Fae leaders, she and Tiago must be very cautious, because one or more of them is a traitor who wants them both dead. Additional supporting characters include Rune, another Sentinel; Aryal, a Wyrkind Harpy; and Carling, the Vampyre Queen. Here is a quotation from Storm's Heart in which Niniane takes a good look at Tiago: "Her gaze bounced around his dark saturnine features. The force of his presence was such that the tiny hairs on her arms rose....He had the extreme physicality of an apex predator, his body tempered by years of fighting, the thick muscles corded with sinew and veins. His Power was a heavy, sulfurous force that pressed her into the mattress." (p. 25) (And, believe me, there is a LOT of "mattress pressing" going on in this book!)
During a climactic moment, Rune Ainissesthi, one of Dragos's sentinels, promises Vampyre Queen Carling that he will owe her a favor if she will save the life of his friend, Tiago. Carling delivers, so now Rune must reciprocate. The couple has a lustful moment near the end of the book Storm's Heart when Rune watches Carling bathing in a brook, so we already know that there's an attraction between them. Click HERE to go to links on Harrison's web page to free excerpts from Storm's Heart.
E-NOVELLA 1: "True Colors"
This one tells the love story of Alice Clark, a chameleon Wyr school teacher, and Gideon Riehl, a wolf Wyr who is a detective in the Wyr Division of Violent Crime where he reports to the Sentinal Bayne. Gideon was formerly the captain of Lord Dragos Cuelebre's Dogs of War. The two meet and fall in love after three of Alice's friends are murdered and Gideon investigates the crimes.
NOVEL 3: Serpent's Kiss
As the story opens, it's pay-back time as Rune, a gryphon, heads out to Carling's other-worldly island home off the coast of San Francisco. The favor turns out to be minor, but he sticks around when he learns that Carling is dying. She is having daily "fading" episodes in which she goes into a catatonic state for short periods of time, placing her in an extremely vulnerable position. When Rune is accidentally drawn into one of Carling's fades, he does some inadvertent time traveling back to her childhood. The two spend much of the book in conversation about Carling's devastating situation, the meaning of the time-travel incidents, and the possible outcomes of their obvious attraction to one another. Up until the last 50 pages, this book is entirely about the romance, but with the exception of a few sexy scenes relatively late in the story, the romance is all talk and no action, which results in a big bog-down that's sometimes hard to plow through. Eventually, the action does kick in, typically fueled by betrayal and greed, but the secondary plot thread is so thin that it doesn't quite save the book from being a bit tedious. In terms of characterization, Carling's character is well drawn, and her situation certainly arouses our sympathy, but we don't really learn much about Rune's history. He seems nice enough, with his god-like good looks and his typical alpha ways, but we don't see much deeper than that. For me, this is the weakest book of the series so far. The next book heads off to St. Louis for a romance between the Oracle of Delphi (Yes, that's right, she lives in St. Louis now) and a Djinn. We meet them near the end of Serpent's Kiss, and already they are snarling at one another—a sure sign of true love. Click HERE to go to links on Harrison's web page to free excerpts from Serpent's Kiss.
NOVEL 4: Oracle's Moon
We met the hero and heroine of this book at the end of Serpent's Kiss when Khalil, a Djinn prince, accompanied Carling and Rune to the home of Grace Andreas, the Oracle (formerly of Delphi, currently of St. Louis). It was hate at first sight (always a sign of eventual lust/love), and as this book begins, that relationship isn't going any more smoothly. Grace was never meant to be the Oracle; that job went to her sister, Petra. But when Petra and her husband were killed in an automobile accident three months ago, the Oracle power transferred to Grace, as did the responsibility for raising Petra's two young children, three-year-old Chloe and 9-month-old Max. On the night that Khalil first visited Grace's home, he vowed to protect the children, and a Djinn never reneges on a vow. So...Khalil is still hanging around, making friends with the kids and driving Grace to distraction in any number of ways. The plot is mostly focused on the development of their romantic relationship as Grace struggles to take care of the children, figure out how to pay her overdue bills, and recover from her own injuries suffered in the accident, all the while dealing with an arrogant Djinn who has a very low opinion of humans and to whom she is lustfully attracted. About halfway through the book, a secondary plot kicks in when Grace gets some major backlash from a coven of witches about her burgeoning relationship with Kahlil. Apparently bigotry is alive and well in the supernatural world just as it is in the mortal world. When an attempt is made on Grace's life, the action ramps up and some important and heart-breaking secrets are revealed.
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| Yul Brynner in The King and I |
This is a great addition to the series, with well-drawn protagonists and a compelling story line. The more I read about Kahlil, the more I kept picturing Yul Brynner as the King of Siam in that classic movie The King and I. Both have similar mannerisms and colloquial language and the same ignorance of the social customs of their heroines. Kudos to the author for a wild, multi-dimensional love scene that is unlike any I've ever read—very inventive. (Who knew that djinns had that kind of talent?)
Book 5 will take us back to the Pia-Dragos relationship that began back in book 1. Events take a turn for the worse when the two are separated, with pregnant Pia going off to South Carolina to mend fences with the Elves while Dragos stays in New York to handle other important matters.
E-NOVELLA 2: "Natural Evil"
This one tells the love story of retired Green Beret Claudia Hunter and Wyr dog Luis Alvarez, who is a peace keeper with the Elder Council. Claudia is on a road trip in the Nevada desert when she finds Luis in his dog form near death by the side of the road. Mix in a corrupt sheriff and a raging sandstorm, and you've got yourself a romantic suspense story with an HEA. The tarot cards from "True Colors" are the link among these novellas.
E-NOVELLA 3: "Devil's Gate"
This one tells the love story of medusa Dr. Seremela Telemar and lawyer Vampyre Duncan Turner, who appears in Serpent's Kiss as Carling's legal advisor. Seremela is a coroner whose niece runs off to the lawless, magical town of Devil's Gate and gets in big—potentially fatal—trouble. (The niece previously appeared as the tarot cards thief in "Natural Evil.") When Seremela heads off to Devil's Gate, Duncan goes along to help and fall in love along the way. Seremela appears briefly in Storm's Heart and Serpent's Kiss.
E-NOVELLA 4: "Hunter's Season"
This one tells the love story of palace guard and Dark Fae assassin Xanthe and Chancellor Aubrey Riordan. Both are members of the Dark Fae Court of Queen Niniane. You'll remember Aubrey from Storm's Heart, where his crazy wife tried to assassinate Niniane. When someone tries to kill Aubrey, Xanthe becomes his protector and cupid takes over from there.
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