Customer Reviews

Flesh and Stone (Les Gargouillen, Book 2)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The second book into Vickie Taylor's unique world of gargoyles was, for me, extremely disappointing and boring. I'm somewhat astounded that this is her second book in a series I thought would take off without a hitch. The story picks up basically where "Carved in Stone", the first book, leaves off and even though readers are somewhat clued into what is going on, there's not that much as far as plot or character development to keep this installment going.

Conner Rihyad, a secondary character from the first book, is the main focus in this story. If readers remember, he had a huge hang-up with Nathan Cross for Cross's wishes to modernize the gargoyle culture. Conner has gone undercover to find out why the gargoyles of the Minnesota congregation have been after their children. When Conner gains their trust to a point and he is installed at their remote farmhouse he discovers something even more horrifying - the woman they are keeping as slaves. Mara Kincaid is one of these women. She herself is hiding her own secret, so she's not there by chance either. She and Conner form a tentative relationship, kind of a you-help-me and I'll-help-you routine. Together they concoct a plan to help the women enslaved by the Minnesota congregation as well as figure out who their mysterious wizenot leader is. There is an evil taint lingering over this clannish group and the evil is spreading, reaching for the gargoyles of Chicago.

Points I did like about the book were relatively simple. The small amount of plot that is doled out is somewhat essential if you've become a fan of the series. We see more of Rachel, Nathan's wife, from the first book and we get to find out more about her missing brother Levi, whose story will be featured next and is entitled "Legacy of Stone". That was all this book had going for it though - as a setup for the next book. Conner and Mara's relationship was stilted and stale, with no underlying tension between them or any real chemistry. They felt underdeveloped. Their reasons for becoming intimate with one another were very unromantic, Conner simply having the gargoyle drive to procreate, while Mara just seemed to go along with it. Her acceptance of Conner's gargoyle nature was just too easy and I did not buy into their "relationship" at all. While I have to respect a guy that will go to bat for a group of women he doesn't even know, I still wished he and Mara's characters had been more fleshed out. Conner was kind of a bad guy in the first book (he does try to kill Rachel in book one), but there's a complete turnaround in this installment to the celebrated hero status, without much of an explanation as to how and why (except if you think about the gargoyle's basic ingrained nature to protect humans). Even the captured women acted as a mere backdrop despite their horrible situation, with very little effort put into conveying their supposed fear and desperation. The Minnesota gargoyles made for terrible villains, most of them being about as interesting as your average couch potatoe. The most interesting part of the book was Rachel's continued search for her brother, the mysterious wizenot of the Minnesota congregation and why he wants Rachel and Levi. It would have made more sense to continue the series on that note. Conner's mission and rescue of the women by no means came through as interestingly. For the most part, this was a waste of my hard earned money. I definitely want to find out what happens to Rachel's brother, but wouldn't have been as hot to buy it with this lackluster predecessor paving its way. Only the strong first installment, "Carved in Stone" will guarantee that. Three stars for at least somewhat keeping my interest in the third book to come, minus the others for the boring characters in this installment.

Vickie Taylor's second Gargoyle book is just as intriguing as the first. For those unfamiliar with the series, the Gargoyles are a race of men cursed to be the protectors of humans while in the guise of beasts. Connor Rihyad has always subscribed to the Old Ways where the Gargoyles remain hidden from humans yet protecting them even at the risk of his own life. Connor agrees to go undercover after the Chicago congregation's home was decimated by the Minnesota congregation (see CARVED IN STONE). The Minnesota congregation, led by their Wizenot, has eschewed the role of protector for humans and is instead kidnapping women to use for breeding purposes; the Wizenot hopes to create his own powerful army of Gargoyles. Mara Kincaide is one of the kidnapped women, but like Connor, she also has a secret mission- to find and rescue her best friend, Angela. Mara breaks through Connor's barriers and together they formulate a plan to keep the women safe while Connor completes his mission. I won't spoil the story but I will tell you that Nathan and Rachel return to play pivotal roles while the mystery behind the Minnesota Wizenot and the search for Rachel's brother is revealed. Highly recommended!

The cover grabbed my attention; however, the first chapter held me captive until I finished the book with an "Aahhhh." Conner Rihyad came across as the intelligent, loyal stud committed to protect the children of his congregation. His newly found ally, Mara Kincaide is equally committed to finding and saving her friend. Female slavery, violence, and evil zeal for human domination push their steadfast commitment to the edge. Commitments that slowly merge into a sizzling commitment to each other. Taylor kept me on the edge and hooked to point I just order the previous book to learn more.

The sequal to the very original Carved in Stone, this book was good & took the series in an interesting new direction.

Our Gargoyle hero's know that they are up against a nest of Minnasotan bad guys. But when edgy rebel Connor, from the previous book, infiltrates the baddies lair pretending to be one of them he isn't expecting what he finds. First, the bad gargoyles are breeding an army on kidnapped women. Then Connor ends up falling for one of those women after ten lifetimes of solitude.

And ultimitly he finds out who has started the evil that has pervaded his species. With a surprising twist, you'll never believe who the puppet master is!

Like I said this was a good book, not a great one. It was interesting & the next book will be with Rachel's(heroine of Carved in Stone)brother Levi as our hero in a battle for his soul. I'm interested to see where this goes.

Undercover gargoyle Connor Rihyad "kills" his former Chicago leader Nathan Cross in order to join the Minnesota sect that recently tried to raid his home group. He is to learn from inside why they wanted to steal the male children. He succeeds to a degree though his new associates do not trust him.

His covert work has several immediate hitches as he detests that this gargoyle sect has kidnapped women to rape as breeding sex machines so that they can have many male offspring and he feels especially connected to human Mara Kincaid. From the start, she impresses him with her courage that the other gargoyles fail to notice as she like all women are beneath them. He vows to protect her even as she too is furtively trying to learn what happened to her friend Angela. To his shock Connor soon concludes that an unknown mastermind has a plan to use the Minnesota group to change the world as gargoyles will no longer follow their ethical reason for living by protecting humanity and instead rule the world.

FLESH AND STONE is an intriguing paranormal romantic fantasy that makes believers out of readers that gargoyles exist. The action-packed story line starts off with a shocker at least to fans who read the previous novel (see CARVED IN STONE for his tale) when Connor "kills" Nathan and never slows down until he knows what his desires are and confronts mano a mano the nasty Devlin. Vickie Taylor (apropos name for a writer of gargoyle thrillers) provides her audience with a fabulous suspense filled thriller.

Harriet Klausner

this is another book good to read. its very romantic and interesting. once you start to read you cant put it down.

I really like this series.

It shocked me, though, when the book started with the hero of this book killing the hero of the previous book! Yikes.

There's a nice conflict for the hero between his way of life, which he fervently believes in, and his heart.

I read the first book in this series, Carved in Stone, and I must say it was a better book. This book didn't have a lot of depth to it. The love story was lacking, the characters didn't have a lot of pizzaz, but this is a fast and easy read and fairly entertaining. I will buy the next book, because I have looked forward to finding Rachel's brother, Levi.

I really enjoyed this book. There was a great plot, whereas so many romances have none at all. Conner has infiltrated a rogue gargoyle camp when he meets up with Mara, a human woman that is also purposely there to find answers of her own. Mara is definately an admirable character with her own skeletons in her closet that she was strong enough to overcome. She and Conner make an amazing pair.

Something else I liked about this book is that many times authors try to recapture the same story as the first book, especially if it was successful, but basically repeating the story with different characters. Taylor, instead has an altogether new story with new characters. The only thing in common is Conner is from the gargoyle community.

I found the story fast pace and fun to read. I look forward to more from this series, which we will get when we finally meet Levi, the younger brother from the first in the series.

I bought this book with great anticipation as I had loved Vickie Taylor's first book in this series Carved in Stone. I must say that I was somewhat disappointed. I loved the first book and had found those main characters very strong and fascinating. I was left empty with the main characters of this second book. I just never felt any real spark between them. They both had good strong unique personalities but there was nothing to bring them together. It was almost like they lived in a parallel universe. It was nice to have the characters from the first novel have a strong part in this book and I look forward to the next story about Levi.