Gryphons flying past skyscrapers? Wizards battling it out in coffeehouses? Women riding motorcycles with large swords strapped to their backs? All normal sights since the Great Collision happened twenty-six years ago.
Well, not normal for everyone. Larissa Miller may have been born after the Great Collision, but as a history teacher who lives in the human-only city, she has never come into contact with any other race or species, nor has she wanted to. Her life is as ordinary as it gets - that is, until one day she walks out of her apartment and is attacked by a mob of Zombies, only to be saved by a Gargoyle.
Gargoyles trust no one outside their Clan, but due to a cryptic prophecy, Terak, Leader of the Gargoyles, has been watching over the human woman for months. While he can find no reason why the woman has been singled out, something about her stirs every protective instinct within him. When the attack confirms that the threats against her exist and are real, he convinces Larissa that though their races have never been allies, the best chance of discovering why she has been brought into his world is by working together.
In the course of their investigation Terak becomes entranced by his little human. But when he discovers why Necromancers want her and the great reward that awaits him if he betrays her, he must choose between the welfare of his Clan and not only Larissa’s life, but the fate of this New Realm as well.
Danielle Monsch's Stone Guardian is the first in the Entwined Realms series and what a fascinating read it was! Danielle combines the two separate worlds and mashes them together, quite literally, in this world where The Great Collision occurred when another world collided with Earth and now there are gryphons, vampires, zombies, gargoyles and more running about. Our world no longer belongs to just the humans (and animals!)!
Larissa is your typical young woman, she finally was able to leave the protective clutches of her father and brothers. She's a high school teacher and loves her job, things are going just great for her. Until the night she gets attacked by zombies and is rescued by a gargoyle.
Everyone in this world knows about the creatures that go bump in the night, but they don't always know everything. Larissa is a little scared at first at this realization that she's had a gargoyle rescue her. And not only that but the leader of the gargoyle clan! It becomes clear that the necromancers--the ones who control the zombies--want Larissa for something, why else would the zombies attack her of everyone in the city? Let alone in a human only part of the city?
The world-building to this series was really intriguing! I liked the idea that basically all our supernatural faves are from other worlds and that it was only to some bizarre cosmic event that they are even in our world. It was definitely an intriguing twist! There were other characters of different "variety" in this one. I can't be quite sure what they are exactly, but something other is definitely a given. There's even a sort of secret supernatural police force that works to protect humans from bad supernaturals. Some of those details got a little muddied for me, but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't follow along. I was just a bit confused as to where they came from, in a sense, and why they were getting involved with Larissa. But as I said, it wasn't a huge complication that prevented me from enjoying this one!
Terak was quite the surprise though! The leader of the gargoyles watching over a mere human. And for what? Well, we learn that eventually. In a way, it was sort of creepy having him watch over her for so long and she never knew. Definite creeper vibes, but once he reveals himself when he rescues her from the zombies, you kind of forget all that! Terak was definitely a swoonworthy hero. He sort of has this innocence about him when it comes to humans and it was endearing, but don't think he's a total softie because this guy is pretty badass too!
The pacing was a little on the slow side, but for some reason, I found that it really works for the storytelling and world-building. We learn more about the world and the characters in these slower moments and naturally, romance develops alongside the greater plot! It was a remarkable read! Now my only trouble is going to be in trying to find where to buy the others because it doesn't look like many of my usual sources sell anything but the first, in ebook. A challenge ensues!
If you're looking for a different kind of read, one with a hot gargoyle, then I highly recommend this one! It really was marvelous world-building and I look forward to reading more in this series!
Overall Rating 4/5 stars
This is sort of going to be random, but when I was younger I used to watch this animated tv show on cartoon network called The Gargoyles. Reading this review just brought back so many memories :)
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