I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
"A Dream of Stone & Shadow"
by
Marjorie M. Liu
paranormal romance in eBook edition that was published by Avon Publications on March 13, 2012 and has 100 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Darkness Calls, A Wild Light, In the Dark of Dreams, Huntress, Wild Thing, Within the Flames, Never After, An Apple for the Creature, Mortal Bone, Holidays are Hell, The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination, Labyrinth of Stars
Fourth in the Dirk & Steele paranormal romance series revolving around a detective agency of supernatural beings. The couple focus in “A Dream of Stone & Shadow” is on Aggie Durand and Charlie.
My Take
Geez, it starts out so exciting with lots of action, ramming cars, shooting out tires, and then we learn why Aggie and Quinn are after these people. That’s one thing. Then to see Rujul and what he’s been freed from…
Our introduction to Charlie is less action-oriented and not quite as gruesome, as long as you don’t mind a touch of the Hannibal Lecter and his food choices.
Interesting angle on the purpose of gargoyles, and so sad about their reasons for stopping. I guess you can only take so many centuries of ingratitude and being hunted down before you withdraw.
I can’t believe this. I just had a public orgy with a disembodied gargoyle.”
Damn, the witch catches Charlie, but she does raise an interesting idea. One I don’t like, but it does make sense of why some people are so incredibly, horribly cruel and vicious.
My father once said that it’s our inability to change the past that helps us make better futures.”
It’s not one of Liu’s best, but it does make my heart go pitter-pat with its big-hearted people and their determination. It’s almost cozy in spite of what Aggie and Quinn are hunting, and it’s that stony gargoyle who makes it so cozy.
Hearts go blind. … it takes courage to help others.”
The Story
Dirk & Steele are focusing on child porn rings, and Agatha and Quinn have been on a stake-out for an expected meeting. The aftermath has Roland demanding that they take a break. Have sex with each other. Quinn reckons he’s cool with that…
But Aggie’s passion finds a different outlet, pulling Charlie to her — she’s what he needs to free Emma.
The Characters
Aggie Durand is a pre-cog and can see the future, and it’s not always pretty. Her parents live in a small town in Idaho where Dad is a lawyer.
Quinn Dougal is telekinetic and a crack shot. He’s also Aggie’s partner at Dirk & Steele.
Dirk & Steele is…
…a private detective agency of supernatural people whose focus is on doing good. Roland Dirk is the boss, a clairvoyant with the ability to read your mind over the phone. Dean; Koni; Amiri, a shapeshifting cheetah from Kenya; and, Rik are more of them.
Charlie and his three brothers are gargoyles imprisoned by a witch. Gargoyles were created to be demon hunters back at the dawn of humans.
Emma is the ten-year-old the Kreers are currently abusing. Rujul is the twelve-year-old they rescue.
Special Agent Warwick was in on the Yarns bust, and he shows up later as well.
David Yarns is an international child smuggler and films pornographic video with children.
Mrs. Kreer and her son, Andrew, are pillars of the community. They also kill mothers and kidnap their children to use them in child pornography. Sarah??
The Cover and Title
The cover is shades of blue as a dream-like landscape of a stone domed folly reached via a flight of stone stairs flanked by a stone balustrade and urns as newel posts reach up to another urn on a plinth. Fog shrouds the ground and rises up to reach the full moon, a raven waiting, perched on a stone railing that surrounds the folly. Pink pushes the title and author’s name to the fore.
The title is what Charlie is, “A Dream of Stone & Shadow”.
