"intriguing paranormal romantic fantasy"

Undercover gargoyle Connor Rihyad "kills" his former Chicago leader Nathan Cross in order to join the Minnesota sect that recently tried to raid his home group. He is to learn from inside why they wanted to steal the male children. He succeeds to a degree though his new associates do not trust him.

His covert work has several immediate hitches as he detests that this gargoyle sect has kidnapped women to rape as breeding sex machines so that they can have many male offspring and he feels especially connected to human Mara Kincaid. From the start, she impresses him with her courage that the other gargoyles fail to notice as she like all women are beneath them. He vows to protect her even as she too is furtively trying to learn what happened to her friend Angela. To his shock Connor soon concludes that an unknown mastermind has a plan to use the Minnesota group to change the world as gargoyles will no longer follow their ethical reason for living by protecting humanity and instead rule the world.

FLESH AND STONE is an intriguing paranormal romantic fantasy that makes believers out of readers that gargoyles exist. The action-packed story line starts off with a shocker at least to fans who read the previous novel (see CARVED IN STONE for his tale) when Connor "kills" Nathan and never slows down until he knows what his desires are and confronts mano a mano the nasty Devlin. Vickie Taylor (apropos name for a writer of gargoyle thrillers) provides her audience with a fabulous suspense filled thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted May 25, 2006

Summary

Ancient gargoyles take wing—and human form—in this second in the series.

In the dazzling novel, Carved in Stone, an extraordinary ancient race of immortals was introduced. Now, a woman used to protecting others finds sanctuary in the arms of a brooding guardian, who could be the man of her dreams—or her worst nightmare.