Review: Stone Wings by Jenn Burke

Posted November 14, 2022 by Lola in Fantasy, Review, Romance / 0 Comments

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Stone WingsStone Wings (The Gargoyles of Arrington #1)
by Jenn Burke

My Rating: 3 stars

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

Blurb:
His curse can only be lifted with true love, but can true love come from a fake date?

Being the personal assistant to a trio of cursed gargoyle brothers who sleep for a hundred years and wake up for twenty-five wasn’t a career proposed by Josh’s high school guidance counselor, but it’s a job that he’s eminently suited for. Not to mention a job his family has been doing for generations. The brothers are truly excellent bosses, but Josh is surprised when Drew offers to pretend to be his date for his high school reunion. And even more surprised by a supposedly fake kiss that feels as real as a kiss can get.

Drew and his brothers owe Josh and his family for watching over them each time they turn to stone for a hundred years, and for helping them reintegrate into the world when they wake up. The least he can do is pose as Josh’s boyfriend for a night. Even though true love can break his curse, he knows he won’t find it with Josh. Nothing that real can come from a lie. Or can it?

When the fake boyfriend situation stretches into two nights, and then more, Josh and Drew can’t fight the attraction blazing between them. There’s no harm in exploring it, right? No expectations. But when paranormal danger comes to Arrington, Josh and Drew are going to have to battle for every moment of peace…and maybe a real happily ever after too.

STONE WINGS is a 50,000 word male/male paranormal romance featuring a mechanic who happens to have wings and is a literal monster in bed, a personal assistant who’s always had a crush on him, stone skin or not, and a relationship that’s going to take a leap of faith to give the fairytale a happy ending.

My Review

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

I really like Jenn Burke’s books and excitedly jumped into this one, unfortunately this one didn’t hook me as much as some of her other books. The start of this one felt a bit slow to me and it started off with a high school reunion as well as the fake dating trope that aren’t really things I like to read about usually. After that the pace picked up and there were other elements added to the plot. I liked seeing things play out but wasn’t as invested as I would’ve liked.

The story is told from dual point of views by Josh and Drew. Drew is the gargoyle and Josh is the personal assistant for Drew and Drew’s brothers who are all gargoyles. Josh’s family knows about the gargoyles and helps them out. Drew and Josh start fake dating when Josh needs a date for his high school reunion, but they find out it turns into more. There is mutual attraction and their romance has that phase where they go for hot and fun before realizing there is more to it. Due to that there wasn’t as much time to really see them together, which was a shame.

I didn’t really feel the romance in this book. I liked Josh and Drew. It was clear they were close, but I just didn’t really feel that connection. The fake dating trope isn’t one that often works for me and here it didn’t really work for me. Then there was the whole let’s have some fun together, but we know it won’t last, which also isn’t a trope that doesn’t really work for me. There are some sweet scenes between them, but I just didn’t really feel their romance which made it hard to really feel invested.

Besides the romance there is a plot line with some shifters causing trouble as well, which wasn’t as interesting to me either. I did like a reveal later in the book and the way we learn more about the gargoyle curse. There’s a set up for the other two brothers getting their own romance and I liked we got to know them a bit and see how close the brothers are.

I haven’t read a lot of books with gargoyles, so that was interesting, although in this case there are humans who are cursed to be gargoyles and have a stone skin form as well as a human skin that they can switch between when awake. Due to the curse they turn to gargoyles statues for a hundred years and then are awake for 25 years. If they find their true love they can break the curse and return to human form. I thought this was an interesting take on gargoyles. As it’s a curse there isn’t as much lore or things we learn about the gargoyles as a species which I had hoped for, it’s pretty straightforward with them being stronger in their stone skin form and having wings, horns etc depending on the brother. There are other supernaturals, but there isn’t a lot of information about those.

To summarize: This is the first book in a new series by Jenn Burke. Unfortunately this one didn’t quite work for me. I liked the concept with the gargoyles and there were parts I liked, but it failed to fully grip me. The romance had some tropes that I am not a fan of and I didn’t really feel the romance and connection between the two guys. I liked seeing a bit of the other two brothers as well and the set up for the next brother’s romance. I thought it was interesting to read about gargoyles and the curse, but there wasn’t as much lore or info about them as a species as it’s caused by a curse.

3 Stars

Links:
Goodreads
Bookbub
Amazon

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.

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