Friday, October 24, 2014

Review: "Stone of Destiny" by Laura Howard

Allison thought it was crazy enough when she found out her father, Liam, wasn't entirely human. But now she has to join his magical allies to unravel his former mistress's plans. Aoife wants to keep Allison's parents apart forever. Despite Allison's efforts to keep Ethan, the only guy she's ever cared about, out of this supernatural mess, fate keeps throwing him back into the mix. Will Allison be able to find the amulet that holds the enchantment Aoife placed on Liam and destroy it? Are Ethan' s feelings for Allison strong enough to endure the magic of the Tuatha De Danaan?










Thanks to Netgalley and Indie Inked for allowing me to read and review an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Once again, I find myself reading a sequel to a book I discovered through Netgalley, and once again I find myself happy that I became a reviewer so that I can enjoy these more obscure reads.  I probably would never have picked up "The Lost Ones" originally if it hadn't caught my eye on Netgalley, and thus wouldn't have felt obligated to follow through with "Stone of Destiny", both of which were fun reads for me.

"Stone of Destiny" picks up right where "The Lost Ones" finished, and as such, I needed a bit of a recap as to what had happened previously.  I thought that Howard did a decent job of carrying the story on without losing me, but I would have liked more insight into Allison's relationship with Ethan. Why was she so smitten with him, and vice versa? I couldn't really remember, and it was like they jumped from a little bit more than friendship to a full blown romance without any real development.

In this installment, Allison is trying to stop Aoife from wreaking havoc in her and her parents' lives.  She is able to enlist the help of several other characters, both human and fae, in her pursuit of Aoife, but runs into problems in that she doesn't know who to trust.  A good portion of the book is spent learning about some of these new characters and what their capabilities are and what their relationships are to everyone else.  Oh, what a tangled web we weave!  

It's not all serious, however.  There are some cute moments when Allison travels to Ireland with Ethan and Liam, her father.   It's also at this time that Howard provides us with some swoony moments between Allison and Ethan, although I was kind of hoping for more, I must admit.  Anyhoo, things quickly turn serious again with some action and tension, before there's a bit of a cliffy.  

I can't help but feel like the entire book was a bit rushed.  I'm rather torn in that I'm happy I read "Stone of Destiny" but I still want more.  That said, I'm looking forward to the next book in this series to find out what happens next!


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