Gamble on a Gargoyle: A Paranormal Monster Romance by Maggie Mayhem

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fleeing her murderous ex-fiancé with a stolen dragon egg, a desperate woman finds immediate shelter with Graham. He is a fierce, highly protective gargoyle shifter who offers dangerous passion, safety, and an unexpected, magical happily-ever-after.

Gamble on a Gargoyle

He Rocked Her World

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💙💛💚❤️
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Chemistry: 🧪🧪🧪🧪
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘📙📔
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌏
Character development: 😋🙂😁😛
Narrator(s): 🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration type: Dual Narration

Character Backgrounds and Plot Summary

Meera accidentally saw her fiancé murder someone. She had wanted proof that Kareem was cheating on her with his secretary, so she was at his office to place a camera to catch him, but when he showed up, she hid in the closet and found he was guilty of much more than she thought. She did her best not to look at the body when she grabbed her gym bag and bugged out of there. Though when she gets back to her apartment, she notices the gym bag she grabbed wasn’t her own, and the one she had stolen had some sort of artifact in it that Kareem and the other man had been arguing about. They called it an egg, but it was almost as big as a basketball.

Years ago, the wall fell, a magical wall that hid supernatural creatures from mortals. So, Meera had no clue what kind of egg she had in her possession, though it could be almost anything, even a dragon shifter’s egg. When the wall fell, she found out from her mother that she came from a line of women with magical talents. Each woman in her line had a different talent, though Meera had yet to find out what hers was. Another thing that happened after the wall fell was that the town of Darlington became a place where a lot of supernaturals moved.

Graham is a gargoyle. Many of his friends and family had found their mates, and he didn’t really want to be around them when they were so happy and lovey dovey all the time, though he didn’t begrudge them their happiness. He was just lonely being the only one without a mate. He had once loved a woman named Seraphina, who betrayed him, and he hasn’t looked at another woman romantically since then. Graham works for Redrock Protective Services, and he takes on a new job protecting Meera.

Highlights and Limitations

I enjoyed the fact that the paranormal world is known to mortals and isn’t treated as some shocking new phenomenon. Meera felt more like a regular person dropped into a strange situation since even though she’d been told she was a witch, she hadn’t found her power yet, so she was still living her life as a human who happens to know paranormals are real.

I also liked that Graham and Meera end up together on the road, being chased by a bunch of people who want the egg, which Graham called “Omelet”. It’s a journey type of story and I love those, the constant forward motion gives the romance room to build in stolen moments between danger, like grabbing a meal at a roadside diner while watching the door for anyone tailing them.

Where it fell a little short for me was depth. This is book eleven in a long series, and I noticed the world has a lot of potential, dragons, witches, gargoyle mating instincts, but Graham’s backstory with Seraphina gets mentioned more than it gets explored. I wanted at least one real scene where that betrayal came up and we got to sit in it with him, instead of it functioning mostly as shorthand for why he’s guarded. I also wished Meera’s magical talent had been revealed earlier in the book rather than left as a dangling thread for most of the run, since it’s clearly meant to matter and I kept waiting for that shoe to drop.

Narration

This audiobook is told in dual point of view via dual narration, performed by Dani Soleil and Troy Duran. Troy Duran has a deep voice that is perfect for a seven-foot-tall beast made of rock. He’s one of my favorite narrators and always does a fantastic job, and here he gives Graham this steady, grounded quality even in the tenser chase scenes that suits a character who is supposed to be, quite literally, unshakeable.

Dani Soleil has a nice, slightly scratchy sounding voice that’s very pleasant. She sounds the right age for Meera and is very expressive and emotive, especially in the moments right after Meera realizes what she’s stumbled into and has to keep her composure while her hands are shaking.

Final Opinion

Overall, I had a good time with this one. If you’ve been following the Possessive Monsters series, Gamble on a Gargoyle delivers what the series promises: a steady, protective hero, a heroine in over her head, and a plot that keeps moving so the spice and the danger both land. It’s not going to be the most layered entry if you’re craving deep emotional excavation of Graham’s past, but as a road trip romance with a literal dragon’s egg as the maguffin, it’s a fun, breezy listen, especially with narration this strong carrying it. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes their monster romance with a side of cross-country chase.

Blog|Goodreads|Facebook|Instagram|Pinterest|BookBub



View all my reviews