Force

By Taylor Longford

Seventeen-year-old Force has never been interested in girls. All of his dreams have revolved around serving with honor in battle. But the gargoyle left all the great world-shaping battles behind him in another era. Now he’s just a medieval guy trying to get by in a modern world.

At this point in Camie’s life she’s convinced that you can’t count on guys for nothing. Her short-term plan is to get through high school without a boyfriend to distract her. Her long-term plan is to complete college. After that, maybe she’ll look around for a knight in shining armor…if there is such a thing…and if they aren’t all taken by the time she starts looking.

Only fate and unusual circumstance can move these two independent young people together. But when you’re talking about gargoyles, the circumstances are always unusual.

So this series has been kinda hit and miss for me, and it seems like the further on it gets the less I like it, though I keep hoping it will get better, and thus here I am reviewing the seventh book in the series. Force was interesting in that he isn’t interested in girls, and more slowly falls for our main girl. There’s a bit more at play in the character development than them being head-over-heels for each other, which was nice. Although, I got distinctly uncomfortable at the mentions of sex and how nonchalant it was, and a borderline rape (though I knew it wouldn’t happen) it was still toxic for my happiness. That being said, it was decently written, the story was average, the romance was okay. I was not happy with the ever increasing sensuality of this series that happened in the last book Victor. I’ll probably finish out the series however, because I want to get to Havoc dangit.

I give this a 2.75 out of 3 (for the sensuality nothing else)

Victor (Greystone #6)

By Taylor Longford

Think you know about gargoyles? The beautiful winged race disappeared eight hundred years ago. When they last walked the earth, they traveled in close-knit packs, their throats marked with ancient runes. Their greatest enemies were the ugly and brutal harpies that people today mistake for gargoyles.

After escaping his unwanted past as a notorious young womanizer in thirteenth century England, Victor has set his sights on modern-day Samantha Evans. But Sam’s been burned before by guys with extreme good looks. And she’s determined to steer clear of the mouthwatering gargoyle. But Victor is used to getting what he wants. And what he wants is Samantha. Only Sam’s willpower—and a meddlesome bit of magic—stand in his way.

This was on one had a good addition to the Greystone series in the form of plot and world development. Olivia was a nice surprise and made a good villain, and I liked the hints that she knew were the other gargoyles were. The problem was I didn’t really care for Victor’s story as much as I did Valor’s, Reason’s, and Chaos’. Victor is the leader, and the most handsome of the Gargoyles, but in the previous novels his character is stereotypical and stale. He’s used to getting what he wants from his looks, and he is the leader. That’s pretty much his M.O. Trying to give him more personality and justifications for his actions in the small amount of time that we focus on him in this novel felt less than credible. Not only are you focusing on the introduction of Victor’s personality, but Samantha’s as well. It makes for a very thin sheet of ice for character development. It also was a little more “adult” than I like. Victor and Sam are college aged and therefore more “mature” in their relationships. It skirted the line for me however, because it hints and dances around the fact that they were intimate. Oh well. I have enjoyed the series thus far and hope to enjoy the last few books.

This gets a 3 out of 5 for being average, and that’s a bit generous.

Chaos

By Taylor Longford

Think you know about gargoyles? Think again. The beautiful winged race disappeared eight hundred years ago. Now they’re back.

Trapped in a harpy’s lair, Chaos must choose between his freedom and the life of an innocent young girl. To save the girl, he must agree to a lifetime of captivity at the end of a monster’s leash, a bleak existence that would crush his wild spirit and impetuous nature.

Starved and abused by the same harpy, Torrie doesn’t trust anyone, especially anyone with wings. She doesn’t realized that the young gargoyle imprisoned with her is her only hope for survival. And when she finally discovers her mistake, it appears to be too late for amends.

This was more like it. The last book, Defiance, was a bit of a letdown and I wondered if I had worked through my liking for the series and it was time to let them go, but Chaos got me in my happy place. It’s told from both Chaos and Torrie’s perspectives, and because we haven’t been introduced to Chaos previously this was fun to get to know one of the three Gargoyles we haven’t met yet. Chaos is captured by a harpy, and in order to get Chaos’s venom, the harpy abducts the first human female she sees, which happens to be torrie. Torrie has no idea that Chaos isn’t just an ordinary guy, and is freaked out to put it mildly at being kidnapped by a monster. As the two are thrown together Chaos begins to care for Torrie, and Torrie can’t help but be attracted to the stoic Gargoyle. She doesn’t understand that he is protecting her and has to make a horrible decision to save her life, because against all odds, he has fallen in love with her. This is a great addition to the series and one I really enjoyed reading. It also adds a little more mystery as to what happened to the other two Gargoyles.

I give it a 3.5 out of 5

Defiance

By Taylor Longford

Think you know about gargoyles? The beautiful winged race disappeared eight hundred years ago. When they last walked the earth, they traveled in close-knit packs, their throats marked with ancient runes. Their greatest enemies were the ugly and brutal harpies that people today mistake for gargoyles.

Defiance can’t resist Whitney Anders. But the young gargoyle has trust issues where human girls are concerned. And Whitney’s a babe among her human peers in Pine Grove, so he’s going to have to work for her if wants her. And overcome his trust issues once and for all.

So this series is one of my guilty pleasures, as the plots are pretty much the same: Gargoyle falls in love, girl is unbelieving, harpy attack, Gargoyle and girl win, love ensues. This book focuses on Defiance, one of my least favorite of the Greystone brothers, so perhaps that is why this book wasn’t as fun for me. I don’t like Whitney either, her character comes across as one of those really annoying girls who is beautiful and knows it and just happens to be good at everything and basically perfect except for her lack of personality. Meh. The best parts of this book were the references to the missing Chaos and his rescue. Mystery anybody? The plot chain of the books has begun to break! Yay! Also, having an adult know about the Gargoyles was a huge plus for me and I really like Whitney’s Dad and his insistence that Defiance wait to mark Whitney until she graduates. Good call Dad.

This one gets a 3 out of 5

Reason

By Taylor Longford

When a fabulous winged sculpture mysteriously saves Elaina’s life, she travels across the country in her search to learn more about him. But the good-looking gargoyle she finds in Colorado isn’t exactly happy to see her. Too bad he’s going to be her new college roommate. New sparks fly every time Elaina and Reason look at each other.

Here’s the 3^rd installment in the Greystone novels, this one is about the over-protective Reason, who was initially fighting Valor for MacKenzie, but offered to take the place of his cousin on a seemingly cushy mission to avoid the gargoyles getting split up. In his journey he meets Elaina, a girl who is irritatingly different, a girl who Reason can’t stop thinking about, no matter how much he wants to. Elaina is off to college, an art student, and ends up bringing along an untrusting Reason, who insists that to protect his family he must watch this girl who has discovered their secret. This installment is geared toward a little more mature audience, as it takes place not with high-school aged protagonists, but with a college aged girl. It was interesting and a lot more relatable for me, as I’m in college myself.  There are some scenes with mature material, such as Elaina’s off hand comments about boys trying to “get in her pants” and another drunk boy going after her. Again, more mature, so be careful if that bothers you. I’m fairly sensitive, and this did bother me some, but I also really liked it. Not only was this one about Reason, but it also was about his missing brothers, so there was an added mystery that I look forward to figuring out.

I give it a 3.75 out of 5

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.