Review Day: A Lion's Pride by P.L. Stuart

There are no major spoilers in this review.

A Lion's Pride is the fourth book in The Drowned Kingdom saga by P.L. Stuart. I absolutely love where the story takes us in this book, the midpoint of the series. However, I found myself frustrated by aspects of the writing that stalled the momentum.

King Othrun of Eastrealm seems to have attained a period of stability for his fledgling kingdom. He has acquired considerable political capital from his past strategies and hard-earned reputation as a warlord, but still can't always resist the urge to step straight into trouble (especially when it involves a pretty face). Othrun's growth as a character continues to be a compelling thread -- he faces hard truths about his destiny to spread the faith of the Single God in spite of the incongruous mysticism he has experienced during his time in Eltnia.

The previous book, Lord and King, acts as a fulcrum point and springboard, allowing the first part of Book 4 to fly out of the gate with wonderfully intense showdowns, unexpected reveals, and a deepening of the interesting lore around the witches and druids. There is a fair amount of repetition in this first part, but I appreciated that these asides jogged my memory about far-flung events from earlier books.

The second part of Book 4 is where the pacing stumbled for me. There's an overwhelming amount of introspection and recapping -- the constant reminders about who the characters are and how Othrun feels about them arrests the forward motion of the plot and left me feeling like one of Othrun's warhorses moving timidly across muddy terrain. I felt like I was sitting in on a D&D session where every player was constantly reciting the top traits from their character sheets before taking an action.

I generally enjoy reading from Othrun's perspective and hearing his inner monologues but I felt that there was just too much introspection that didn't provide any deeper knowledge than I already had. If Othrun's opinions of characters had changed over time or (even better), if Othrun's opinions changed the way I felt about the characters, the amount of introspection might have been more successful. And that definitely happens in a few key scenes! Outside of those rare examples, though, I felt like the supporting characters had become a little flatter from over-repeating their most well-known qualities.

The ending is satisfying: exciting, triumphant, and tragic all at once. The final scene involving menacing alliances in the north definitely gave me "big screen adaptation" vibes and I'm still very excited to see where the story goes in the next release, A Pack of Wolves.

Final Grade: B-

• Book 1: A Drowned Kingdom review
• Book 2: The Last of the Atalanteans review
• Book 3: Lord and King review
• Book 4: A Lion's Pride review