Curse of the Gargoyles by Rebecca Chastain

Someone created a magic device to separate the elements, but it’s powered by the lives of gargoyles. The elite team of magic enforcers calls Mika in to help. Can she save the gargoyles? Can she save the city?

FTC Notice: This book was provided free in exchange for an honest review. This is no way impacts my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Title: Curse of the Gargoyles
Author: Rebecca Chastain
Series: Guardian Gargoyle Chronicles Book 02
Publish Date: May 18, 2016
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Provided by the author

Publisher’s Description: Mika Stillwater isn’t known for her skills with combat magic. As a gargoyle healer, she spends her days mending broken appendages and curing illnesses in the living-quartz bodies of Terra Haven’s gargoyles. But when a squad of the city’s elite Federal Pentagon Defense warriors requests her assistance in freeing a gargoyle ensnared in a vicious invention, Mika jumps into the fray.

No one could have predicted that her involvement would ignite a chain reaction set to destroy the city, the world, and magic itself.

Nervous Nellie’s nervousness necessitates knowledge of the novel (or, in other words, SPOILERS).

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Nervous Nellie says…

This is a novella length fantasy story with a lot of magic. There is no sex, a lot of quick thinking and ‘pull it out of your shorts’ technique but no blood and gore. There is a bit of relationship building and no cliffhanger.

A few months have passed and Mika is called to diffuse a ticking time bomb attached to a gargoyle that is dormant. Some stupid, jealous inventor has decided to make her own boost using a poor, sick, defenseless gargoyle for power.  Mika uses her magic to try to work with the “fab five” (my special name for the Federal Pentagon Defense full-five squad) in saving the lives of first the gargoyle and then when the situation turns for the worst, the whole city.

I liked the story because of the unity of the gargoyle family.  I loved to see how everyone worked together to solve a huge problem BUT I felt like Mika, who was really out of the league of the ‘fab five’, was pushed to work magic she had no idea how to work.  It’s like a seamstress trying to sew up a wound.  She could work the magic, but she has no experience to know how the magic will react.  That’s just me, though.  Someone else reading the story may have a totally different spin on the story.

I enjoyed the story and I’ll get novella #3 to see what happens, but the intense description of how the magic was used and how it reacted was way over my head.  That means the author had really thought out how everything worked which makes her a good writer but it also means that I was a reader that was overwhelmed by description.

Invested Ivana says…

What drew me to this book: I really enjoyed The Magic of Gargoyles, so I was excited to see what was next for Mika, Kylie, and all the baby gargoyles rescued in Book 1.

Why I kept reading: This installment is packed with a lot more action than the first! Mika is surprised to be called in by the elite magic team for her assistance with a deadly problem. She struggles hard with feeling competent in this group of high-end magic users, waffling between insecure and competent. When things go bad, they all have to run fast to avoid being killed by the chaotic landscape caused by the rogue magic and to save the town and the gargoyles from destruction.

I will admit that I struggled to picture the magic system more in this book than I did in the first. I can tell it is an incredibly well thought-out system, but I had a hard time wrapping my head around what it would look like or feel like. That might be something I’d pick up more in a second reading.

Why I recommend it: It’s another fun adventure in this fantastical world! No *baby* gargoyles this time around, but Oliver, one of the rescued gargoyles from Book 1, stays with Mika throughout all the danger. And Mika is still working hard to ensure that all the gargoyles in her city and safe and healthy.

Our reviews in this series…

• Magic of the Gargoyles, Book 01
• Curse of the Gargoyles, Book 02
• Secret of the Gargoyles, Book 03

Other reviews…

• Feeling Fictional
• Lore Lush
• Tome Tender

If you like this book…

For other adorable gargoyles and great stories, try the Allie Beckstrom series by Devon Monk, the Black Wings series by Christina Henry, and the Hollows by Kim Harrison.

FTC Notice: This book was provided free in exchange for an honest review. This is no way impacts my opinion of the book or the content of my review.