DEADLINES AND DRYADS

Deadlines & Dryads by Rebecca Chastain
Book 0.5 of the Gargoyle Guardian Chronicles
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: ebook

About Deadlines & Dryads:

Getting the scoop might cost Kylie and her gargoyle companion their lives...

Dryads are a reclusive, passive species — or they used to be. Overnight, the peaceful woodland creatures have turned violent, attacking travelers with crude weapons and whipping the trees of their grove into a ferocious frenzy.

When rumors of the dryads’ bizarre behavior reaches journalist Kylie Grayson, she pounces on the story, determined to unearth the reason behind the dryads’ hostile transformation. Accompanied by Quinn, her young gargoyle friend, Kylie plunges into the heart of the malevolent grove. But nothing she’s learned prepares her for the terrifying conflict she uncovers...

Source: Info in the About Deadlines & Dryads was taken from amazon at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Deadlines-Dryads-Terra-Chronicles-Prequel-ebook/dp/B077ZCW1CS on 17/09/2018.

My Thoughts:

Having been hooked and addicted to Rebecca Chastain's story telling quality, of course I have to read more of her books, thus this book got bought and read. The world building has long ago been established in the Gargoyle Guardian Chronicles and the goodness of it is carried over to this offshoot series. This book also have the same lovable character development which is getting to be a trademark of this author. This gargoyle image I have with this post may not be Quinn but he sure have the same mischievous grin there! Yes, lovable characters! Unfortunately though, the TSTL (too stupid to live) element also kind of carried over too. However, it is easy for me to wilfully ignore it in this book for the wonderful reading time that it gave me!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 5
Story itself = 4.5
Writing Style = 4.5
Ending = 4
World building = 5
Cover art = 5
Pace = 5
Plot = 3.5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries

Meet The Author

About Rebecca Chastain:

Rebecca Chastain has found seven four-leaf clovers to date, won a purebred Arabian horse in a drawing, and once tamed a blackbird for a day. She has been employed as a VHS sales clerk, bookshelf straightener, government pseudo-employee, professional finder of lost sporting goods, and strategy guide wrangler in the video game industry. Dreaming up the absurd and writing stories designed to amuse and entertain has been her passion since she was eleven years old, and she’s incapable of stopping. She lives in northern California with her wonderful husband and two bossy cats. To find out about new releases, sales, and freebies, sign up for Rebecca's newsletter: http://www.rebeccachastain.com/newsletter

www.rebeccachastain.com | twitter | facebook | amazon | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
This book was purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.

GARGOYLE GUARDIAN OMNIBUS (Books 1-3)

 

Gargoyle Guardian by Rebecca Chastain
Books 1, 2, and 3 of the Gargoyle Guardian Chronicles
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: ebook

About Gargoyle Guardian:

To help gargoyles in peril, Mika will risk everything

MAGIC of the GARGOYLES (Book 1)

Mika Stillwater is a midlevel earth elemental with ambitions of becoming a quartz artisan, and her hard work is starting to get noticed. But when a panicked baby gargoyle bursts into her studio, insisting Mika is the only person she’ll trust with her desperate mission, Mika’s carefully constructed five-year plan is shattered.

Swept into the gritty criminal underworld of Terra Haven, Mika jeopardizes everything she’s work so hard for as she attempts to save the baby gargoyle from the machinations of a monster—and to stay alive…

CURSE of the GARGOYLES (Book 2)

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.

SECRET of the GARGOYLES (Book 3)

In her brief career as a gargoyle healer, Mika Stillwater has faced some daunting challenges, but none have stumped her—until now. A strange sickness infects a handful of gargoyles in Terra Haven, rendering them comatose and paralyzed. Worse, the cure she seeks is shrouded in the gargoyles’ mysterious culture and the secret they guard with their lives.

Gaining the gargoyles’ trust is only the first step. To save the sick gargoyles, Mika must embark on a perilous mission into the heart of deadly wild magic to a place no human has ever survived...

Source: Info in the About Gargoyle Guardian was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31197366-gargoyle-guardian-chronicles-omnibus on 09/09/2018.

Get book 1 for free at:

My Thoughts:

My advise is, don't read Magic Of The Gargoyles and Curse Of The Gargoyles unless you have Secret Of The Gargoyles in your hands already because books 1 and 2 ends in big whooping cliffhangers! I am soooo not a fan of cliffies!

What I'm wondering about is that, why is it with all the near death experiences of our heroine, we don't see her parents or her sister? Where are they?...

Plot is not this author's biggest forte. However, this is an urban fantasy series so I am not expecting a twisty plot like I would if it was a crime fiction, so in my point of view, it is not really a demerit.

This gargoyle image I have with this post does not really fit any of the gargoyles in the story but he is cute enough and I needed a gargoyle with a gargoyle post! So he will do.

At the end of it, I enjoyed this omnibus a lot and I would recommend it to any urban fantasy geek!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4.5
Writing Style = 4.5
Ending = 4
World building = 5
Cover art = 5
Pace = 5
Plot = 3.5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries

Meet The Author

About Rebecca Chastain:

Rebecca Chastain has found seven four-leaf clovers to date, won a purebred Arabian horse in a drawing, and once tamed a blackbird for a day. She has been employed as a VHS sales clerk, bookshelf straightener, government pseudo-employee, professional finder of lost sporting goods, and strategy guide wrangler in the video game industry. Dreaming up the absurd and writing stories designed to amuse and entertain has been her passion since she was eleven years old, and she’s incapable of stopping. She lives in northern California with her wonderful husband and two bossy cats. To find out about new releases, sales, and freebies, sign up for Rebecca's newsletter: http://www.rebeccachastain.com/newsletter

www.rebeccachastain.com | twitter | facebook | amazon | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
This book was purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.