Heart of Stone

I wasn't sure what to expect when I won the e-book of this from the Early Reviewer program but I was very pleasantly surprised to find this Urban fantasy story to be really rather good.
Margrit is a lawyer who likes to go running at night which is perhaps not the most sensible thing to be doing in Central Park. One night she meets a very tall, pale and handsome man who later appears to be the main suspect in the murder of a young woman who was killed in the Park not long after Margrit saw him. Very quickly she's caught up in events she doesn't quite understand and faced with creatures she never dreamed possible.
I found the concept of Gargoyles as supernatural creatures absolutely brilliant and one I'd never seen before in any fantasy show more book I've read, I also though the other Old Races to be equally interesting and I'm wondering whether there'll be more about them in the next book (I believe this is the first in a series which I may have to invest in). Alban is a fascinating character and his relationship with Margrit really sizzled at times without dissolving into out-and-out raunchiness. I really liked Margrit - despite her rather irritatingly spelt name which made me want to giggle quite often because if anyone's ever watched the UK comedy show Little Britain you may know what I mean ("Margrit! Margrit!) She was a real feisty gal although she was perhaps foolhardy at times with some of the decisions she made but I admired her fearless attitude towards things that wouldn't probably freak the hell out of other people.
There was something about Murphy's writing style that really grabbed me and kept me reading when I really shouldn't have been and I'm really curious to see where things will go in the next book.
So considering how earlier this afternoon I had very little idea what this book was about I really enjoyed reading it and would gladly recommend it and I'm certainly going to buy myself a physical copy in the near future. show less

Well written and enjoyable urban fantasy, with a surprising take on the whole supernatural element.

Magrit is an active impulsive person, hardly the sort of controlled logician you expect in a lawyer, but that's what you get. New York isn't the cheapest city to earn a living, but an on and off again relationship with a cop helps focus the mind on her Legal Aid clients. Mid-celebration from her latest victory, Magrit is approached by her newest client - squatters wanting help in staving off an eviction. The evictor happens to be one of the biggest names in the city, and will be a hard case for Magrit to win given the opponents vast financial clout. The very next day she's almost the victim of a hit-and-run, and only the intervention of show more her very own stalker saves her - and opens her eyes to the strangeness that lives on around us. Her rescuer is a shape-shifting, telepathic, gargoyle - one of five Old Races surviving the advent of humanity. It turns out that he too is looking to Magrit for help - in a case which, as Magrit rapidly discovers, involves the same players as her existing one.

I wasn't totally convinced by Magrit as a character - the silliness of this name didn't stop grating the entire way through. Her attitude never quite befits the professionalism of a lawyer. Her intuition is relied upon too much, without any effort to at least try and confirm her hunches, and it's also unfailingly correct, which is just stupid. She's also very very accepting of something altogether out of her experience. That said, she's feisty fun, fully of energy, almost witty a few times, not afraid to challenge anyone, and sparks with life throughout the text. Unfortunately being a very much plot centred story, none of the other characters really get much of a chance to shine. Magrit does at least have some reasonable interactions with her flatmates, and the arguments with her boyfriend were also well scripted.

I very much enjoy the world created - the five Old Races and their elemental ties. Hopefully the future books will flesh out a bit more about why those five, and why those elements, and exactly what powers they all have - and their vulnerabilities. I was quite impressed with how Albun was introduced to the reader, and how we gradually learn about the other Old Races. There are several ways to do this and Murphy has chosen to allow us to experience them through a 'normal' human gradually realising the world isn't what she thought it was. It's a tricky style to pull off, but Murphy has done so well - it's probably the best part of the book.

Apart from one or two disconcerting jumps to Albun's POV the writing was fluid and mostly gripping. The plot was well shaped without significant holes, and those details left unexplained I'm hoping will be filled in during the subsequent books. I'm glad that Murphy managed to keep the police involvement reasonable, unlike too many similar novels where the police happily hand over confidential information. Likewise other small details were mostly thought about - although I'm not too sure about the probabilities of finding a small carving amongst all the towers of a cathedral! The romance scenes are well handled, both the arguments and the making up, without the gratuitousness that frequently pervades urban fantasy. There’s a good sense of menace from the bad guys, and a reasonable explanation of their actions, rather than the all too common, “hey they’re evil” approach. I wasn’t totally convinced about the plot twist at the end – but again there is scope for further explanation in the next book.

It's engrossing, well written and enjoyable. The only major negative is that the publisher harlequin released this e-ARC as a timelimited copy, so in two month's time I'll be unable to read this again - which is likely to put me off seeking out the rest of this otherwise thoroughly enjoyable series.
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Remembered it well enough that I've bought a copy and the sequel. Found it pretty much as above, an enjoyable re-read.

Stands up very well a decade on - I came across the conclusion and so am re-reading the series. Only mobile phones have really changed since it was released! Still enjoyable and clever. show less

Posted to my Livejournal in April 2008, saved here for posterity:

I really enjoyed Heart of Stone. I liked the mixture of crime drama and supernatural romance, though I see it appealing more to women then to men. Lawyer Margrit Knight tests her mettle by running through Central Park after dark each night, aware but uncaring of the danger. There is someone watching her, however, every night she runs, and he's been watching her for years -- not to hurt, but to protect. His name is Alban, and he appears to her one night in the park just to speak with her out of curiosity, an act that ends up getting him accused of murder when a women is found murdered in the park the same night (scant hours after Margrit returns home from her run). Alban show more appears to Margrit again, proclaiming his innocence, and asks her to help him avoid the police while they hunt for the real killer. At first she wants to refuse, but there's something about him that she can't ignore -- and once he lets her in on his real secret, she's drawn into a world she didn't even know existed.

Alban, it turns out, is a gargoyle, one of the five Old Races who have hidden among us for centuries. And now that Margri's takes his case, gargoyles aren't the only of the five Old Races that she has to contend with -- there are also djinn, vampires, selkies, and dragons, all masked as human and walking among us.

Despite its wandering beginning (it takes a while to get to the real action), I got drawn in pretty quickly. Margrit is a scrappy, smart-mouthed, tough woman, and she pretty much carries the book where it needs to go. Alban is moody and gentle, yet capable of being dangerous, which are always appealing characteristics for the supernatural romantic lead. Other characters -- her roommates; her on-again, off-again cop boyfriend Tony; and the various members of the Old Races that she runs into -- are colorful enough to be interesting while keeping the focus on Margrit and Alban. (Though I have to confess that Janx, the dragon, is my favorite out of the entire book.) The murder plot is strong enough to exist side-by-side with the romance, making this book a great blend of genre. The urban fantasy/supernatural romance genre is hot right now, and adding a murder mystery makes it even better. I've got the sequel, House of Cards, on my pile. show less

A fun and refreshing read for those who enjoy urban fantasy. I've been on a bit of a UF binge so enjoyed the distinct lack of werewolves and only minor vampire appearance. Also a refreshing lack of gratuitous sex that many recent UF authors seem to deem essential to sales. It did take me a little while to warm up to the story and Magrit (not sure why), although I ended up enjoying Margrit's feisty character and was fascinated by Alban and the slowly developing relationship between the two of them.

I enjoyed the occasional switch in the narrative to Alban's point of view too and enjoyed the contrast of the quieter, calmer thoughts of the gargoyle with the lively pace of Margrit's narrative. I also enjoyed the Magrit/Tony dynamic (some of show more their arguments are stellar) and some of other side characters - while it seems most are there to be introduced and I'm sure will appear more in the later books, they still added some interest to general proceedings (Janx was a particular favourite).

Once I got into the book I was quite absorbed and if I'd had a hard copy (rather than ebook) I probably would have ended up reading the whole thing in one go. In fact, I enjoyed this read enough that I'm going to hunt out the others in the trilogy - I was pleasantly surprised to find they've already been published so there's no waiting! It was the first C E Murphy book I've read but I'll definitely try her other series now. show less

A very fun read, which kept me up most of the night.

Murphy's Walker trilogy played along the line between fantasy and chic lit, but those came down more on the urban fantasy side of the genre divide. That is not true of Heart of Stone, which feels much more like a romance--albeit one with two possible heroes. That's not a criticism, but if you're not a romance reader, you'll probably want to skip this one.

Liked:

Grit, our hero. She's mixed race, does not hesitate to point out social injustices, and wants, desperately wants, to kick some ass. She has issues about being used for her race in cases where her class makes her other than the stereotype she's been cast as, but realizes that she, herself, plays on stereotypes when they will help her as a lawyer.

Grit's closest friends and roomies, Cole and Cam. Their friendship, how they support Grit, how Grit values it, pays it back, and desperately wants to cling to it even as she feels it slipping away as she becomes more and more involved with the Old Races.

Gargoyles and their role among the Old Races as preservers of history and memory. The way Alban holds himself apart from the gestalt. show more Alban's honor.


Disliked:

Of all the old races--dragons and djinn, selkies and gargoyles, and vampires--the vampires say they came from another world. They don't make a lot of sense to me in the context of the rest of the book's mythology. Why not choose a powerful race that fits with the rest of them?

The Big Bad. I didn't like that her motivations were so simple and so motivated by gender. I especially did not like the gender aspect of this. I understand that it was done to confuse the identity of the villain, but it still felt wrong to me.

The on-again, off-again relationship Grit has with Tony. I do like the reasons they break up, because job conflicts are a huge deal as are differing ideologies, but it seemed far too easy for Grit to either leave or return to Tony. show less

A particularly fun twist on the urban fantasy / romance genre. I know every other reviewer has mentioned this, but it was refreshing to read about something other than vampires or werewolves. Having been a huge fan of the Gargoyles cartoon when I was younger, I was particularly pleased that a gargoyle was the hero.

Margrit is ballsy, brash, and her tendency to rush into situations without thinking left me alternatively amused and annoyed. I found her room mates a little odd, but the rest of the secondary characters were very well fleshed out.

I like the way her relationship with Alban developed slowly; too many romances in this genre seem to to just throw the pair together without giving them a chance to actually fall for each other, and show more sometimes the journey is much more interesting than the destination.

I was surprised to find out that the rest of the series was already available, and I guess my best recommendation is that I'm already searching out the rest of the series. show less