Scan barcode
A review by qmedna
Deceived by the Gargoyles by Lillian Lark
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
First book of 2023 and it was well spent with deceived by the gargoyles. It wasn't revolutionary but having some experience with reverse harem books, this was a pretty nice read since miscommunications were actually resolved in 1-2 chapters instead of taking the entire book to resolve. I really found Alasdair loveable with all his blubbering mess of trying to find the right words and his little love letters aww .
The bad things about the book is that world building is pretty much nonexistent, you gotta know about gargoyles, witches and the other character tropes. Grace was a librarian but it was brought up like 3 times on how well she was at going through magical historical text, but then not even show how she does magical circles/wards or anything a witch could do. It felt like she was cuddled too much by the MLs to do anything. And omg even when I said miscommunication was resolved quickly, I didn't like that the author split it up. By that I mean, in the middle section, every chapter she was discovering how she was "deceived by them" (hence the name I guess) but would have appreciated if she bundled them up into one or two chapters and resolved it all together. Sex scenes were steamy and they actually had a week long courtship which was surprising. IMO could have done without the sex and it would have been just as sweet.
The bad things about the book is that world building is pretty much nonexistent, you gotta know about gargoyles, witches and the other character tropes. Grace was a librarian but it was brought up like 3 times on how well she was at going through magical historical text, but then not even show how she does magical circles/wards or anything a witch could do. It felt like she was cuddled too much by the MLs to do anything. And omg even when I said miscommunication was resolved quickly, I didn't like that the author split it up. By that I mean, in the middle section, every chapter she was discovering how she was "deceived by them" (hence the name I guess) but would have appreciated if she bundled them up into one or two chapters and resolved it all together. Sex scenes were steamy and they actually had a week long courtship which was surprising. IMO could have done without the sex and it would have been just as sweet.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body shaming