REDEMPTION (Hearts of Stone #1) by Veronique Launier

REDEMPTION (Hearts of Stone #1) by Veronique Launier

BLURB: Guillaume: For five hundred years I’ve existed as a gargoyle. Perched atop an old Montreal church, I’ve watched idly as humanity wanders by. With the witch Marguerite gone, there is no one left to protect, nothing to care about. I never planned to feel again. But then a girl released me from my stone restraints, allowing me to return as a seventeen-year-old human boy. I must find out all I can about this girl’s power . . .

REDEMPTION is the first storyline (September 8, 2012 release) in Veronique Launier’s new YA Hearts of Stone series-Four gargoyles whose life essences have been frozen for 500 years in stone only to be released from their prisons by a young woman with power that even she is not aware. Aude Vanier is a 16year old girl still in high school hoping to make it big with her band the Lucid Pill and while her friends Patrick and Lucy continue to brush her off, Aude soon realizes that something is different than it was the night before. Danger seems to follow Aude wherever she goes. The world is changing and Aude is at the center of it all.

Escape was her only option as Aude Vanier found herself on the run, in the streets of Montreal from a group of strangers she never knew. And the beautiful and haunting Native drums and chanting only intensified her need to escape. And the mysterious voices in her head led her to believe she had been hallucinating the entire event. But a second attack in less than two days has her senses on alert when she is told that she can force the prophecy-The Prophecy of the Seventh Generation.

Guillaume De Rouen and his ‘brothers’ (Garnier, Vincent and Antoine) were free but Guillaume’s curiosity meant he needed to find the young girl as soon as possible and Antoine’s concern meant shelter and money. Their recent release following 70 years of captivity was fraught with anxiety and stress, which lent to personal attacks and mistrust. With no one to protect-no witch to guard-their lives were without purpose and power. To survive in the present they would need to find an Essentialist to help replenish their essence but not knowing where to look would put the friends in a fight for survival.

Guillaume’s quest to learn more about Aude will figure prominently throughout the story. Her power and ability to chant and call the drums is something that concerns them both. But Aude’s visit to a Native Shaman would reveal more to Guillaume then he could ever had imagined-A connection to the past- a connection to the witch. But when a sudden gig for Lucid Pill is next on the horizon for Aude, Guillaume is sure that it is one of the many omens and warnings that are currently following Aude. An ancient Gargoyle is looking for Aude and Aude will soon discover that she is not quite human.

Following the revelation about her familiar roots, Aude continues to encounter varying ominous warnings. But when Guillaume finds Aude beaten and near death, he blames himself for not protecting the young woman with whom he has fallen in love. And Aude believes that his love has been misplaced for another. Aude needs the Gargoyle’s protection as much as they need her to survive. Only Aude will find herself the unwilling sacrifice that heralds the prophecy’s foretelling and one of their friends will die.

Throughout the novel there is told a story-a history of the DeRouen family- of Alice and Mary, of Marguerite and the love that she shared with Garnier and Guillaume 70 years before. Of the curse and the essence and the gargoyles of stone, and how they had come to be over 800 years ago. The history of the witch and the gargoyle and their symbiotic relationship is the premise of the storyline told.

REDEMPTION is an interesting novel. As the first storyline in the Hearts of Stone series the copious amount of background information is almost overwhelming. A family of gargoyles hoping to find their familiars is interwoven with native lore and fables. The relationship between Aude and Guillaume starts out of necessity for one, but by the end of the book, there is love for both. And Aude’s link to the gargoyles will be as close as blood when a familial connection is revealed.

Copy supplied by Netgalley.

Reviewed by Sandy