Stone Guardian by Danielle Monsch Narrator: Tavia Gilbert
Length: 9 hours 57 mins
Series: Entwined Realms #1
Published by Romantic Geek Publishing on July 3, 2013
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 374
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Gryphons flying past skyscrapers? Wizards battling it out in coffeehouses? Women riding motorcycles with large swords strapped to their backs? All normal sights since the Great Collision happened twenty-six years ago.
Well, not normal for everyone. Larissa Miller may have been born after the Great Collision, but as a history teacher who lives in the human-only city, she has never come into contact with any other race or species, nor has she wanted to. Her life is as ordinary as it gets - that is, until one day she walks out of her apartment and is attacked by a mob of Zombies, only to be saved by a Gargoyle.
Gargoyles trust no one outside their Clan, but due to a cryptic prophecy, Terak, Leader of the Gargoyles, has been watching over the human woman for months. While he can find no reason why the woman has been singled out, something about her stirs every protective instinct within him. When the attack confirms that the threats against her exist and are real, he convinces Larissa that though their races have never been allies, the best chance of discovering why she has been brought into his world is by working together.
In the course of their investigation Terak becomes entranced by his little human. But when he discovers why Necromancers want her and the great reward that awaits him if he betrays her, he must choose between the welfare of his Clan and not only Larissa’s life, but the fate of this New Realm as well.
There was some good action and story in this book. When the human world and the supernatural world collide, of course there are going to be many changes. There will be secrets, and there will be different groups and societies that think they can control the new world. Stone Guardian introduces some of the players in the war of the worlds. It seems to me like there were a couple of groups that all had the same agenda, so that they were having trouble coming together to work as a team left me kind of puzzled.
I was not really in love the heroine. She was so sheltered and unaware of the world around her. I kept thinking of her as one of those spoiled little daddy’s girls. I know she battles that view in this book, but it was still kind of annoying.
Terak was a little better, though he was kind of sheltered from the way things were in the current world after him and his clan of gargoyles removed themselves from society. There was tension as Terak was put in the position where he must figure out a way to have all that he wants, his clan, and his mate.
I know there is the possibility for the emotions to be more intense, I just didn’t feel it. The mystery behind why the necromancers are after Larissa was a kind of anticlimactic for me and embarrassing for her, but also Terak? Really? One big annoyance for me was Terak always referring to Larissa as “little human”. I know it’s been used in other books, but for some reason in this one it just drove me nuts. If he maybe varied his endearments a little, but “little human” just made me feel like he was looking at her as “less than”, you know what I mean?
The narrator did a good job as she kept me into the story when I could have fallen out of it a few times. I really like Tavia Gilbert from other stories she narrated and was why I chose to listen to this book club selection.
About Danielle Monsch
Born to the pothole ridden streets of Pittsburgh, PA, USA Today Bestselling author Danielle Monsch started writing in a time long ago, a time when there were not enough vampire stories to read and she had to write her own to fill the void. Yes, such a time of darkness did indeed exist.
Danielle writes stories full of fantastical goodness and plenty of action, but always with lots of romance (and a bit of woo-hoo!) mixed in. Vampires and Werewolves and Demons and Angels, Sword & Sorcery, Fairy Tales, Updated Mythologies and the like - if it's out of the ordinary, it's fair game for her stories.
When not writing, Danielle reads comic books and watches cartoons (though she says she reads manga and watches anime, because saying it in a different language makes all the difference.) She listens to music, plays D&D, follows XKCD, watches movies with the Rifftrax on, and is mom to two amazing little girls and wife to her favorite guy in the world.
About Danielle Monsch
Born to the pothole ridden streets of Pittsburgh, PA, USA Today Bestselling author Danielle Monsch started writing in a time long ago, a time when there were not enough vampire stories to read and she had to write her own to fill the void. Yes, such a time of darkness did indeed exist.
Danielle writes stories full of fantastical goodness and plenty of action, but always with lots of romance (and a bit of woo-hoo!) mixed in. Vampires and Werewolves and Demons and Angels, Sword & Sorcery, Fairy Tales, Updated Mythologies and the like – if it’s out of the ordinary, it’s fair game for her stories.
When not writing, Danielle reads comic books and watches cartoons (though she says she reads manga and watches anime, because saying it in a different language makes all the difference.) She listens to music, plays D&D, follows XKCD, watches movies with the Rifftrax on, and is mom to two amazing little girls and wife to her favorite guy in the world.
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