Gargoyle

*** Gifted in exchange for an honest review ***I was intrigued by the synopsis of this book so I chose it as one of the Woodland Creek Novella's to review, Having already read [b:The Beast Within|27832032|The Beast Within (Woodland Creek)|Rachel M. Raithby|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1447563743s/27832032.jpg|45655608] by [a:Rachel M. Raithby|7123176|Rachel M. Raithby|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1370495590p2/7123176.jpg]I had some idea of the world that these stories are themed on. So I think in someways this was an advantage, but if I had read this book first, I think I would have been a bit lost.I am going to break this down to my thoughts as I read. A shifter made of stone. And wings.A human bent on free love. And drunk.Any joke could be made with those two lines.But the town of Woodland Creek, it's no laughing matter. Hostile and magical residents guard their secrets. It's too easy to be found out.When Isaac Stone first meets Kennedy Kirk, he's tempted to shove her off the clock tower. After all, she is gripping his private parts to lean over and see his town. One little push is all it would take...Isaac never anticipated he'd be the one to fall.Beginning - Started off good, the prologue had me wanting more and I was eager to read on, having started it at night, I ended up reading later than expected. The gargoyles sounded arrogant and superior to the silly drunk human grappling over them as they sat on watch over the town up on the tower, and when Kennedy falls and is saved, I wanted to carry on and see what the prophecy was supposed to mean.It sort of went downhill after that really.Chapter 1 opens with Kennedy delivering a package, no time frame is given, it could have been a few days or a few months after her drunken fall?But obviously Kennedy is wary of being around these 'shifters, witches and other paranormal beings' that she can now see. The 'wave of lust' that hits the town just as she was delivering the package reminded me of a scene out of the True blood series, when the Maenad who gets the town drunk on lust to bring about the rising of the of Dionysus. As Erotic scenes go it was OK but after they sneak out to their own lives, the storyline seemed to drift.its only half way through the book we find out more about Kennedy, on how she was delivering the package in the first place ( she has 2 part time jobs one as a courier and then also working in a flower shop) both were used as reasons to why she went unnoticed as a human at first.The story went way off base for me during the scene where Kennedy's estranged boyfriend finally comes over to her apartment - and I really didn't get why he deliberately took their dog and made a fuss over it.I don't want to spoil the story, so I can't go into it too much.I will finish in saying that I loved the overall idea of this story, but that I feel that the backstories could have been better placed at the beginning of the novella, rather than later, and that if written into a Novel, with more time for character development, back stories about the characters, ie Boyfriend and also the 'Baddie' causing all the magic upheaval in the story it would make a 4 or 5 star read. This is the first book I have read from the author, but a friend loves [a:Scarlett Dawn|7141792|Scarlett Dawn|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1444451324p2/7141792.jpg] PNR books so I will be checking out her full Novel series. I do think the idea of this series is a very good one and I am looking forward to reading more from the collaborating authors.