Thursday, March 7, 2013

Valor

By Taylor Longford

When gargoyles last walked the earth eight hundred years ago, the proud race traveled in close-knit packs and could turn to stone at will. They were strong, beautiful creatures whose throats were marked with ancient runes. Throughout time, their greatest enemies were the ugly and brutal harpies that people today mistake for gargoyles.

Like all gargoyles, and the rest of his pack, Valor is driven by instinct to protect the people he cares about. So when he encounters a human girl for the first time in almost a thousand years, his first impulse is to keep her from harm. But Valor soon discovers that the greatest risk to MacKenzie’s safety is himself. Just one scratch from the poisonous barbs on his knuckles…and she’ll be lost to him forever.


I sat for a while trying to decide why I liked this book so much, I mean, really the romance was pretty rushed and some of the plot development had holes that didn’t really make sense, but as a whole, I really really liked this book. It’s probably my latent love of gargoyles from watching the cartoon growing up…Valor sorta became Goliath for me, I’ll admit it. But also, I really enjoyed what the author did in creating her own mythology about Gargoyles, admittedly I don’t really know that much about the mythology, so she could’ve stolen it, but hey, I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. I loved the story behind the beautiful gargoyles, their ‘hackles’ which made me smile, because when they raise you want to be far away.  The venom was particularly interesting, and the fact of the runes and choosing someone to wear their rune was romantic and symbolic of the female taking the male’s name. I really enjoyed the characters, I’ll admit that Havoc was my favorite character. She did a good job making a guy for every girl depending on their preference. It made me smile. Really though, the basic gist of the book is the relationship between MacKenzie and the Gargoyles, especially Valor (Awesome name by the by), and finding the rest of their family/pack. It has a bit of action in the end, but I felt the romance was a little too rushed, and I wanted to like MacKenzie’s character more than I did. There were also moments were the gargoyles were a little too romantic and unreal for me, but my brain just justified it by saying, ‘these aren't human guys, these are gargoyle guys.’ Weak I know, but I wanted to like it.  This is a good read for you who like paranormal romances. Lovely little thing to read; no sex, just some kissing. Violence wise, it is pretty run-of-the mill. Nothing over the top. Broken limbs, bruises, mention of torture, but no actual torture.  A little cussing. Farmer words.

I give it a 3.9 out of 5 because it is sooo close to a 4, but I can’t do it. I just liked it for unknown reasons.

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