3 out of 5 stars
I received this novel free for the purpose of an honest review. Though it is a typical paranormal romance (gargoyles instead of vampires or werewolves) I enjoyed it. It was fast and fun. I read pretty much straight through from start to finish. If you are searching for depth of plot in other areas, Stone Lover probably won’t be your cup of tea. The focus of this story is centered strictly around the romance between Melanie and the gargoyle Vaughn.
The beginning left me a bit lost. Melanie is in the process of moving into a new building and decides to go up to the roof. I ran into my first problem when she had to walk through an apartment separate from her own to get there. I wasn’t sure how she even got inside to walk through. Description of her apartment, and the one she walked through to get to the roof, could have been better to give a clearer picture in my mind. Once on the roof she spots three gargoyles and becomes fascinated with one in particular. I found it a bit hard to suspend disbelief when Melanie decides to give a hand job to one of them. I love all types of romance, but didn’t really buy this part.
Later on that night she meets the gargoyle in his human form at a club and they begin a sexual relationship almost immediately. I enjoy paranormal romance, so this part didn’t bother me. The rest of the novel follows the usual pattern for this type of story—human woman falls for a gorgeous man of a different species and they have to find a way to make it work out. Most of the story is fairly predictable and I didn’t hit any real surprises. There is one uncomfortable place involving a small child sitting in the lap of one of the gargoyles that I could have done without, but overall Stone Lover was an enjoyable read and I’ll likely pick up the next one in the series. I wanted to give this story four stars but there were a few too many editing issues to overlook and so I dropped it to three. Another round or two with an editor to help pick up typos and punctuation issues would have been appreciated by this reader.
Denna Holm 