Title: Stone Kissed
Author: Keri Stevens
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Carina Press
Number of Pages: 234
Found through Netgalley
Release Date: December 27, 2010
After an arsonist torches her ancestral home with her estranged father still inside, Delia is forced to sell the estate to pay his medical bills. Her childhood crush, Grant Wolverton, makes a handsome offer for Steward House, vowing to return it to its former glory. Delia agrees, as long as he’ll allow her to oversee the restoration. Working so closely with Grant, Delia finds it difficult to hide her unique talent—especially when their growing passion fuels her abilities. But someone else lusts after both her man and the raw power contained in the Steward land. Soon, Delia finds herself fighting not just for Grant’s love, but for both their lives… (from Goodreads)
I find myself saying this a lot lately, but this blurb really doesn't do this book justice. There is so much more to it then just trying to find an arsonist and restoring a house while winning the guy.
For starters, the statues that Delia talks to are cute! They totally made the book for me. The statues become important side characters and I found myself loving their voice and inclusion in the book.They tell Delia stuff like how she is acting stupid and shouldn't let Grant get away because he's such a great catch-and they should know as they've been around forever. They also tell her what to wear, where their position in the house should be and how they liked to be cleaned.
All this is great for Delia's job as a stone conservator, but not so great for her social life. It's hard to have a boyfriend or friends when every statue on the street is singing to you and trying to get your attention. People just think she's weird when she tells the statues to shut up already. Hence her hesitance with working Grant, the guy who she's had a crush on forever since he faced the wrath of her dad for her when she was younger and was caught talking to statues in his warehouse.
When Delia and Grant start working together on the house, they are thrown together a lot and find that there is a chemistry between them. Delia though doesn't give into Grant right away-she's still upset that he bought the house from her and the fact that he thinks that her dad is the person who burned down the house. Grant tries to convince Delia that he really isn't as bad as it seems he is, but it's hard with her long lost cousin Cecily hanging around him all the time trying to get him to go out with her. While all this is happening, two men from town go missing and statues are becoming more animated...making Delia unsure of her powers and how it will affect those around her.
Delia was such a great heroine. She was likable, strong, yet at the same time had these vulnerabilities about her power to overcome. The best thing about her was that she was normal. She didn't have some horrible tragic past other then dealing with her power of talking to statues. One of my favorite parts of the book was when she tried to seduce Grant with a cherry tomato and ended up choking on it instead. Grant was such a jerk in the beginning-everything was about him. It was nice to see him grow through out the book and realize that other people did have feelings and their needs were just as important as his was. Cecily was such a great villainess. There is more to her then meets the eye, and I for one was happy how fate turned out for her. However, even with all of these great characters, the statues were still my favorite part of the book. :) I'd love to see another book that featured Grant and Delia!
This is one paranormal romance that has a little bit of everything in it, and Keri Stevens really is an author to watch out for. (I'm not just saying that because she's a twitter friend either!)Come back on December 7, 2010 (tomorrow!) when I interview Keri and we give away an EARC copy of her book.
One of my favorite statue lines comes in the opening paragraph:
“Yes. Right there, again, please!” The marble satyr moaned his pleasure as Delia scraped away bits of lichen from the groove of his outer thigh. “Just shut up.” She reached for her boar’s hair paintbrush. For the past two hours she’d been in Mrs. Hansdorf’s Bethesda, Maryland, garden maze cleaning the lewd little flirt, and he was relentless—as were most statues.
Curran Crush Meter: Medium
Sigh Meter: High
Ethan/Merit Sizzle Meter: Medium
Barrons Hero Hotness Meter: Medium
