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Stone Guardian Entwined Realms Volume 1 Danielle Monsch Books

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Stone Guardian Entwined Realms Volume 1 Danielle Monsch Books

I enjoyed Stone Guardian and think the book deserves a four star rating despite some significant reservations. The good characteristics of the book included:

-1 The balance between plot and romance was good. This is not a book with little bits of plot tucked between large bits of romance or vice versa.

-2 The characters are distinct from each other and seem to have their own agendas. Not only that, their names are pronounceable.

-3 The hero, Terak, is very devoted and macho without being overbearing and obnoxious.

-4 The heroine, Larissa, is sensible for the most part. I have a problem with one scene that I’ll mention below, but otherwise she’s likeable. Larissa, for reasons having to vaguely do with her father, never really looked beyond the end of her nose in life. After he discouraged her to learn about the other races as a child, Larissa gave up interest in anything outside the all-human city she lives in. Although she teaches high school history, she’s not all that informed about the Great Collision that brought the magical world and the mundane one together.

None of this sounds very promising, but Larissa is better than her personal history would suggest. Right at the beginning of the story she tells Terak “I’m not a warrior and tonight made that clear in large neon signage. But I deserve to know about events that concern me and help make the decisions on how to handle them.” In another scene Larissa’s father is trying to shut her down from asking any questions about how the magical barrier that should keep the magical races out of the city works. She responds “I’m asking reasonable questions and you aren’t giving me any answers.” When he accuses her of not showing respect she says “Then don’t treat my questions as annoyances.” I hate it when adult characters act like children and so I enjoyed that she responded reasonably to her father’s unreasonable reaction.

When faced with being guarded by a gargoyle, Larissa gets a book on gargoyles. I love that she makes an effort not to stay ignorant. I’m not sure why she doesn’t Google them, but there is mention that magic powers electronics after the Great Collision so maybe there’s no Internet? There are TVs and cellphones.

Ok, so here are the problems that nearly made me give this book three stars.

-1 The world is TINY. It consists of the city and the Wilderness. If there are humans anywhere else, you’d never know it. Hopefully, other books will increase the depth of the world building.

-2 The climatic discussion prior to Larissa and Terak getting together occurs when she finds out he’s scheduled to be mated to another gargoyle out of duty rather than love. Despite being a history teacher, she finds this unthinkable and calls him a coward for marrying someone he doesn’t love. There’s an awful lot of historical basis for monarchs marrying out of duty so it doesn’t make any sense that a history teacher would have so much trouble understanding the concept. I think the scene would have worked as well if she had shown her unhappiness with the situation another way.

Bottom line, I liked this book and I’m going to read the next one.


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Stone Guardian Entwined Realms Volume 1 Danielle Monsch Books Reviews

First of all, I liked the idea of the book. The story line is inventive, and the Great Collision with the magic realm and all it brought with it was really cool. For the most part, I even liked the the romance between the Larissa and Terak. The Guild members were awesome, as well. That all being said, I saw zero need for the colorful language thrown in here and there. It's like the author wanted to use the language, then decided against it, and bounced back and forth with it.

Our sheltered heroine was, understandably, a bit frightened after the first attempted kidnapping, but seemed to recover and continued to say she didn't want to be "that girl," and yet thats exactly who she turned out to be at the most crucial point. Fast forward through the carnage at The Guild, all of which was most definitely brought about by her being "that girl," and we have the war. Her escape was pretty good, and the scene containing the fight between vamp bad guy and our gargoyle hero was okay. The upcoming demise of Terak and the reason Larissa couldn't save him was pretty good. Unfortunately, none of that saved this book for me.
Paranormal Creature Check list

Gargoyles-Check

Orcs-Check

Werewolves-Check

Zombies-Check

Necromancers-Check

Vampires-Check

Oracles-Check

Elves-Check

Fairies-Check

Mage-Check

Dragon-Check

Dragon Slater-Check

Direwolves-Check

Wizards-Check

etc, etc, etc,-Check

Recipe for Awesomeness?? Ehhh...not quite.

26 years ago, the world was changed FOREVER! The Magic Realm and Human Realm collided, *BAM* creating the new world that Larissa lives in today. Larissa is a high-school history teacher that has no clue of the world around her. NO CLUE! She's heard of magic, it powers her car, her TV, and her everyday life, but doesn't know of creatures in the magic realm. She lives in a humans-only area of the world. Then there is Terak, he is the leader of the Gargoyle Clan, and his mission is to watch over Larissa. Something the Oracle says needs to be done. Larissa leaves one evening to visit her dad when a group of zombies attack her in hopes of taking her back to their master. Terak swoops in a saves her and their relationship take off from there.

Now the whole idea of the Magic Realm and Human Realm is original. Lead male a gargoyle, original. I just felt like I needed more? Better put together? That's what I get for having my last two books be high fantasy. I am still up in the air with this one, and I just felt like too many characters too soon. Fallon is pretty badass, she reminds me of Red Sonja, and I looked forward to a scene with her in it. Larissa is too weak for me, and I found her pretty annoying at times. And the "little human" nickname Terak gave her, it wasn't cute either.

In the end it was good. Not great, but good.
I enjoyed Stone Guardian and think the book deserves a four star rating despite some significant reservations. The good characteristics of the book included

-1 The balance between plot and romance was good. This is not a book with little bits of plot tucked between large bits of romance or vice versa.

-2 The characters are distinct from each other and seem to have their own agendas. Not only that, their names are pronounceable.

-3 The hero, Terak, is very devoted and macho without being overbearing and obnoxious.

-4 The heroine, Larissa, is sensible for the most part. I have a problem with one scene that I’ll mention below, but otherwise she’s likeable. Larissa, for reasons having to vaguely do with her father, never really looked beyond the end of her nose in life. After he discouraged her to learn about the other races as a child, Larissa gave up interest in anything outside the all-human city she lives in. Although she teaches high school history, she’s not all that informed about the Great Collision that brought the magical world and the mundane one together.

None of this sounds very promising, but Larissa is better than her personal history would suggest. Right at the beginning of the story she tells Terak “I’m not a warrior and tonight made that clear in large neon signage. But I deserve to know about events that concern me and help make the decisions on how to handle them.” In another scene Larissa’s father is trying to shut her down from asking any questions about how the magical barrier that should keep the magical races out of the city works. She responds “I’m asking reasonable questions and you aren’t giving me any answers.” When he accuses her of not showing respect she says “Then don’t treat my questions as annoyances.” I hate it when adult characters act like children and so I enjoyed that she responded reasonably to her father’s unreasonable reaction.

When faced with being guarded by a gargoyle, Larissa gets a book on gargoyles. I love that she makes an effort not to stay ignorant. I’m not sure why she doesn’t Google them, but there is mention that magic powers electronics after the Great Collision so maybe there’s no Internet? There are TVs and cellphones.

Ok, so here are the problems that nearly made me give this book three stars.

-1 The world is TINY. It consists of the city and the Wilderness. If there are humans anywhere else, you’d never know it. Hopefully, other books will increase the depth of the world building.

-2 The climatic discussion prior to Larissa and Terak getting together occurs when she finds out he’s scheduled to be mated to another gargoyle out of duty rather than love. Despite being a history teacher, she finds this unthinkable and calls him a coward for marrying someone he doesn’t love. There’s an awful lot of historical basis for monarchs marrying out of duty so it doesn’t make any sense that a history teacher would have so much trouble understanding the concept. I think the scene would have worked as well if she had shown her unhappiness with the situation another way.

Bottom line, I liked this book and I’m going to read the next one.