Stone Guardian (Entwined Realms, #1)

by Danielle Monsch

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.

• ASIN: B00DNKTE3I
• Publish Date: 26 June 2013
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Romantic Geek Publishing
• Format: eBook (Kindle)
• Pages: 382
• Language: English

Reviews

[EBookObsessed]

In Stone Guardian, Danielle Monsch recreates our world in a time after the Great Collision when the world of man collided with the realm of magic and has created a new reality where humans now live with creatures of magic.

In this first story, Terak, the Lord of the Gargoyle Clan has been advised by The Oracle that he needs to protect a human woman named Larissa Miller as she would be important to the future of his Clan. To Gargoyles Clan is everything, and although he has no desire to serve at the beck and call of The Oracle, not putting faith in their cryptic foretellings is foolish.

For several weeks Terak has watched over Larissa and yet he still doesn’t understand her importance to his Clan. The pretty little human teacher lives a quiet life. Although she is kind, gentle and very loyal to her own Clan — family, she does not have much contact with any creatures of magic and certainly none with the gargoyles.

When Larissa becomes the focus of a necromancer, Terak must finally make himself known to her, and Terak is not the only one who wants to protect Larissa. The Guild also wants to know why a powerful necromancer is sending armies of zombies and Orcs after a simple human teacher.

For centuries there has been mistrust between the human and the different species in the magic realm and the secretive Gargoyles are still not trusted by many of the other factions. Terak must protect Larissa from the necromancer and keep her out of the safe keeping of the The Guild, who would choose to lock Larissa away for her own safety.

As the danger to Larissa increases, can Terak and The Guild work together to keep Larissa safe and determine why someone is trying to capture her?

THOUGHTS:

Stone Guardian introduces very clever world building. I loved the premise of the different dimensions (or realms as they are called here) colliding to add the paranormal creatures into our world. The collision occurred less than 30 years ago on the day that Larissa is born and there is still a lot of mistrust between the humans and even between the different paranormals. It is a very tentative truce as everyone tries to live together, and some who prefer to keep each race segregated.

The story begins as Larissa’s father, a police officer, is on duty and the world goes crazy on a single moment, Orcs are overrunning the city, and he is helped by werewolves, as he tried to get to the hospital to be with his wife since she has gone into labor. As he approaches, the hospital, he gives us our first view of the strange creatures which are now flooding into our world, and how quickly their reality is changing, such as do you trust hairy beasts who are fighting by your side when you don’t even know what they are?

I was drawn into this story from the very beginning as were are introduced to several fabulous characters, not only the ones who make up part of The Guild, but also some of Larissa’s human friends who are definitely hiding their own secrets.

You can’t help but love Terak, a strong warrior who would sacrifice his own happiness for his people, but becomes hopelessly drawn to a human woman, and Larissa, who is loving and sweet, and although she isn’t a warrior, she has a warrior’s heart.

You definitely know there is an interesting story between Guild warrior Fallon, with her special sword and her snarky attitude, and the Master Vampire Reign. There was only about 3 or 4 pages of confrontation between them, but my Nook was smoking with the sexual tension between those two. That is a story I am going to look forward to reading.

Overall, the storyline was intriguing, drawing you into the mystery of why everyone was after Larissa, and the romance blended well with the story, growing naturally between the main characters; add to that the world building and the secondary characters, and you have the basis for an exciting new paranormal romance series.

I have to kick myself on this one. When this novel was available as an advance review copy, I kept coming back to it and reading the book jacket over and over until I finally determined I didn’t have the time to toss it onto my constantly growing TBR list. A co-worker purchased a copy when it released and was telling me how much she enjoyed it. When I saw it on sale a few months ago, I treated myself to a copy. This was so good that I am so sorry I didn’t grab this one last year.