Stone Wings
Grade : C+

Stone Wings is the first book in Jenn Burke’s new series of paranormal romances, The Gargoyles of Arrington, and introduces readers to the three O’Reilly brothers – Teague, Drew and Rian – who, thanks to a centuries-old witch’s curse - are condemned to live ‘in flesh’ for only twenty-five years at a time, after which they return to stone for a hundred years, until they re-awaken and go through the cycle all over again. There is only one way to break the curse, which is – in the best romantic tradition – to find true love; their eldest brother Finnian managed to break his curse at the end of their last lifetime (in 1899), but with only two years to go until their next sleep, the remaining three brothers are not too sanguine about their chances.

I really liked the premise of this story, which also features a suspense plot that begins when a new pride of mountain lion shifters arrives in the area and immediately lays claim to the O’Reilly’s territory, and while there’s an HEA for the book’s central couple, that plotline is clearly going to continue throughout the series. That, together with Rian’s search for a way to break the curse is the most compelling part of the story, because the romance is, sadly, a bit lacklustre, and the two leads are a bit bland.

After the O’Reillys saved Josh Pallesen’s great-great-great-ad-infinutum grandparents from a sinking ship, members of the Pallesen family have acted as the gargoyles’ caretakers and guardians, watching over them while they’re in their stone form and on hand to help them when they’re awake. Josh took over that job from his father and acts as a kind of personal assitant and general factorum to them all, looking after their home and helping with their businesses. In this ‘lifetime’, Teague is a cop, Rian is a tattoo artist, and Drew is a mechanic, running a successful business restoring and servicing classic cars. When the story begins, Josh has just received an invitation to his ten-year high school reunion, and is debating whether or not he wants to go. High school wasn’t a great time for him, and was made even worse when his long-term boyfriend Brandon dumped him on Prom night after telling Josh he wasn’t ambitious enough. So part of him wants to opt out and part of him wants to show that he’s doing well and stick it to all the assholes he’d grown up with. When he tells Drew about the invite and his reservations, Drew offers to be his date for the evening.

On the night itself, things are going fairly well when Josh’s prick of an ex- turns up – with a husband in tow. The husband – Arie – turns out to be lovely, the prick… well, he’s still a prick, just an even bigger one. Drew and Josh’s one fake date turns into two when Arie invites them to dinner with him and Brandon – who gets very drunk and comes on to Josh. Needless to say, Drew is not amused. When Josh’s mother finds out Josh and Drew are ‘dating’, to Josh’s surprise, she encourages their relationship. He’d expected a lecture about not letting himself get hurt; instead she says that even if Josh isn’t The One for Drew (neither of them believes he is), and as it’s going to hurt, regardless of their relationship status when the time comes for Drew to return to stone, perhaps they should simply enjoy spending time together while they can. Josh and Drew are quick to see the wisdom of those words.

Fake dating turns immediately to friends-with-benefits, but too little time is spent on developing the romance or the characters; Josh and Drew are pretty colourless and there’s little romantic or sexual chemistry between them. In the Plus column, the overall concept behind the series is inventive and the plot involving the witch and the shifter gang is intriguing – it’s this aspect of the story that I found most compelling and is likely to encourage me to continue with the series.

Stone Wings is an easy, fast read and I enjoyed it, even though the romance was disappointing. I liked enough about the plot and storytelling to continue with the series - the final chapter of this book sets up Rian’s story and I have my suspicious as to whom Teague is going to end up with – but on the basis of this one, I’ll be lowering my expectations for those romances a bit and focusing on the plot.

Buy it at: Amazon

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Reviewed by Caz Owens
Grade : C+

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date : September 1, 2022

Publication Date: 08/2022

Recent Comments …

Caz Owens

I’m a musician, teacher and mother of two gorgeous young women who are without doubt, my finest achievement :)I’ve gravitated away from my first love – historical romance – over the last few years and now read mostly m/m romances in a variety of sub-genres. I’ve found many fantastic new authors to enjoy courtesy of audiobooks - I probably listen to as many books as I read these days – mostly through glomming favourite narrators and following them into different genres.And when I find books I LOVE, I want to shout about them from the (metaphorical) rooftops to help other readers and listeners to discover them, too.
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