Review: Stone Skin by Jenn Burke

Stone Skin (The Gargoyles of Arrington #2)
Jenn Burke

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: MM

Blurb:
Can he break his curse before time runs out?

Despite being cursed to sleep as a gargoyle for a hundred years, and awake for only twenty-five, Rian O’Reilly is an optimist. He knows he can find a way to break the curse through the tattooed runes he’s spent years mastering. No need to wait for this true love crap. But he hasn’t found the right combination of magic and his time is almost up. Rian isn’t ready to lose everyone and everything. Again.

Professor Logan Davis knows about loss. In the past year, he’s lost his mother, his twin, his werewolf pack, and he’s on the verge of losing his mind. So when he’s invited to Arrington to learn about a legend he’s never heard of, he jumps at the chance for a working vacation. He doesn’t expect to find a handsome gargoyle who needs his help to break a centuries-old curse—and he certainly doesn’t expect his grief to finally overwhelm him.

As Rian comforts Logan, he starts to wonder if there might be something to this true love crap after all. He’d give anything to help this gentle giant of a man, but Logan needs time to heal…and time is the one thing Rian doesn’t have.

STONE SKIN is a male/male paranormal romance featuring a magical tattoo artist gargoyle who doesn’t want to go, a werewolf professor who needs time to rediscover himself beneath his grief, and a budding love that might be the answer to everything…if only it has time to bloom.

My Review

I received a free copy from the author and voluntarily reviewed it.

Stone Skin is the second book in this paranormal gay romance series with three cursed gargoyle brothers finding true love. While the first book wasn’t my favorite I was still eager to continue the series and read Rian’s story. Rian is researching alternate ways to break the curse as he doesn’t think he has the time to wait for true love, he’s falling in longer slumbers more and more often and is afraid he’ll turn to stone earlier this time. After another long sleep hee asks professor Logan to help research.

This was a lovely romance, Logan and Rian were great together and I really liked their romance. I liked how Rian made the time to help Logan and take him out for a fun day instead of focusing on the research as he knew Logan needed a break. Logan just lost his mother and brother and has been pushing his grief away. He is not in a good state when he arrives here to help, but slowly with Rian’s help he starts to feel his grief and deal with everything he’s been through.

These two were so great to read about. I liked how their romance has a slow burn vibe with them getting to know each other, they are kind to each other and connecting from the first scene together. There is no drama or angst and I loved reading about these two growing closer. It was everything I enjoy in a romance. I also liked Logan was already aware of the supernatural world as he’s a wolf shifter himself. I really liked these two together and seeing them grow closer and find their own found family here was awesome.

I thought this book was a strong sequel too with how it delved deeper in the curse and we find out more about why the pride is after them. It liked how it added some depth and logic to why the pride was here and I liked how Logan contributed to figuring things out. It was interesting seeing the pride situation play out and there were some interesting twists. I thought it was interesting to learn more about the Fomori who cursed them and I am eager to see how everything gets resolved in the third and last book. The world came more alive in this book as we learn more about shifters as well with Logan being one and some other details come to light.

To summarize: I really enjoyed this book. Rian and Logan’s romance was awesome, it was sweet and had some steam later on as well. It took time to develop and I liked seeing these two getting to know each other. I liked how they liked each other from the start and are there for the other right away. I loved seeing their romance develop and grow into more and was glad to see Logan heal and deal with his grief. This book also does well in deepening the world building, we learn more about the gargoyles, the curse, the pride and why they’re after them as well as shifters. This was an awesome second book in this series and I look forward to book 3!

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.