Grab Redemption (Hearts Of Stone, #1) Translated By Veronique Launier Accessible As Digital

thought this one was ok, It's going to be hard finding book, I hope I will someday be able to get it, This review originally appeared sitelinkHERE on my blog, My Life is a Notebook,

Yeah, you heard that right, this book is about GARGOYLES, Awesomesauce, right Well, that was what I thought when I saw that there description on NetGalley and decided it could be the answer to my prayers for uniqueness.
And you know what

It kinda was,

Reading about something as new and exciting to me as gargoyles was amazing, I dont know about you, but in a market saturated with vampires, angels andcoming soon!mermaids, I just couldnt take it anymore, Trends bother me SO MUCH, but I digress, Anyways. Launier has certainly done her homework in her world building, She sets it up, she lays it out and shes got an answer for everything, There are no plot holes here, The magic is also pretty awesome, because youre working with gargoyles, French witches and Native American shaman, I dont know about you, but I have never seen that combination before, Yet somehow Launier manages to connect it all,

However, the new type of world also does this book a disservice, You see, its almost like Launier feels she needs to spend so much time setting up her world that nothing else happens, Until the last fourth of the book or less! I was becoming more and more bored about the outpouring of exposition on the magic system, gargoyles and even the family history surrounding almost all of the major characters.
Im not an exposition type of girl, I like to be given answers, but I prefer they happen around the action, not the other way around, Yes, to be fair, there WAS other stuff going on around the exposition, but just not enough for me,

The characters also fell a little flat for me, There are four gargoyles, neither of which seemed to be very different from the others, and Audes best friends were rather stereotypical, Aude herself just frustrated me, especially when she proved unwilling for CHAPTERS to find out more about her strange powers and why people were attacking her.
Im sorry, but if people were after me and there was Mohawk chanting in my head, Id want to know!

In the last fourth of the book, though, things HAPPENEDand I mean they HAPPENED.
Multiple things HAPPENED. The problem I had was that they happened too quickly, and they felt mashed together, Some things just didnt make sense, andworsea lot of them just kinda resolved themselves in a snap, There was so much potential in that section that I felt disappointed,

Dont get me wrong: I adored this world, I even liked that I was able to immerse myself so far into it, But the exposition got to be a bit much, and wasnt really carried off by interesting characters, The last part of the book had a ridiculous amount of things happening, but a few of them just seemed to resolve themselves abruptly, All and all, though, Id be curious to read the next book as it seems to be set up for, There cannot possibly any more exposition anywhere within this story unless they bring in a whole new round of characters, which means that there would just be STORY.
Done right, Launier has a fantastic idea here with great potential, I could see a second book easily becoming a four star or more if she applies the energy from the last fourth of Redemption over the whole manuscript.
Kurang seru sih menurutku. Sinopsisnya menarik tapi alur ceritanya biasa aja gak ada adegan atau klimaks yang mengejutkan, The inclusion of gargoyles is interesting in a market saturated with other types of paranormal creatures, and it's neat that the book alternates between Guillaume and Aude's POVs.
However, the characters were flat, I felt like I was reading another teen paranormal story with the teen trying ot figure out their abilities while simultaneously preventing a largescale disaster.
What drew me to this book was that it was about Gargoyles, something that we have not seen much of if at all in young adult.
Add ayear old boy that was trapped in stone, and I could not wait to read Redemption and started it

the day that I was approved on Netgalley.


The firstof the book, I kept waiting for something to happen, I was hoping for explanations, Every time I thought we were going to learn something, it turned out the character changed it's mind about explaining things, I spent most of the book confused and by the time the book was over, half of my questions weren't even answered! This kept my from fully enjoying the book.
I also think my issue was that from the synopsis, I was expecting a different kind of story, I assumed Guillaume was a regular teenage boy andyears ago was cursed to become a gargoyle, Nope, not the case. Him and his brothers are overyears old or it could beI'm not sure if that was a mistake on the ARC or not and choose to become stone monsters.
I can't really tell you why, because I am still trying to figure that at, Also, Guillaume is a master at the piano, He was amazing at it even before he became immortal, Pianos didn't even existoryears ago

I did like Aude though, She was pretty cool and had a very interesting background, I liked how accepting she was of everything that Guillaume told her, I enjoyed Guillaume and Aude together, I thought they were very sweet and I liked when they were being all cute with each other, Sometimes the two of them had stupid moments though, like when Guillaume left Aude at the cemetery at night because he got emo over an old girlfriend.
Dude, monsters are after your current girlfriend!!! Why the hell would you leave her alone, at night, in a cemetery Idiot,

I have to say though that I loved the setting of Redemption! Set in Montreal, Canada, I really had a feel for the streets and the buildings.
I loved the descriptions and I felt like I was there!

Overall, the fact that there were too many things left unanswered really turned me off.
had so much potential and I am really disappointed that I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted too, Posted on Reading Lark: sitelink blogspot. com

I was so excited going into this one it sounded like such a creative idea, Witches, Gargoyles, and a Native American prophecy equal a lot of potential in my mind, I have long been compelled by a well done witch tale and I have to give Veronique Launier bonus points for making her witches different from the traditional ones.
Her variety wield essence rather than spells, In addition, I don't think I've ever read a YA book that doesn't mean they don't exist out there somewhere that featured Gargoyles as main characters.
Finally, after living in the Pacific Northwest for two years and teaching Native students, I am drawn to anything with Native lore fictional or otherwise attached to the plot.
There aren't many stories which feature Native characters so I'm always excited to find a novel that uses a rich tribal culture, There was so much potential for this to become one of my favorites of, but sadly it missed the mark,

One of my biggest complaints with this one is the pacing, Some trivial moments seemed to drag on forever while really crucial components happened in the blink of an eye, From a reader's standpoint, this was frustrating and really kept me from enjoying the story more, Knowing that this is Launier's first novel gives me hope that the future books in the series will be a bit more polished in this regard.


While I found the lore in this book to be fascinating and unlike anything else I have ever read, I was disappointed that releasing this information occurred in info dumps instead of more gradually.
Characters would sit down to have conversations and just say everything, Some readers might enjoy this sort of thing, but I prefer to learn the lore behind stories in a more authentic way, I did feel like this started to happen some with the introduction of the journal, but it was a bit too little too late,

My last major issue concerned some inconsistencies in the text, Keep in mind I was reading an ARC so perhaps these issues will be resolved before the book comes out in final print next month.
One major example of this is when Guillaume leaves Aude alone in a graveyard in the middle of the night after he's spent virtually the entire novel talking about how important it is that she be protected.
It made no sense to me, There were also other little moments like that from time to time that just made me shake my head, There were also a few instances where things didn't seem to be connected in logical ways,

Another minor thing that really irked me is that Aude is obsessed with chai as am I but she kept calling it coffee when it is NOT coffee it is a type of tea.


In spite of my criticisms, I did enjoy this one, It was refreshing to see something enter the YA paranormal realm that felt new and exciting, I loved the Gargoyles and the prophecy, There is so much potential lurking here and I would certainly encourage YA paranormal junkies to dive into this one,

My reaction to this book was in part due to the fact that I had such high expectations, I think if I had known what pitfalls to expect, I would have appreciated the reading experience more, It is obvious how much creativity and research went into this book, I just wish the execution had been a little smoother,

One Last Gripe: Some of the dialogue didn't sound realistic,

My Favorite Thing About This Book: The connection between the witches and gargoyles

First Sentence: Humanity wondered by, the way it always had.


Favorite Character: Aude

Least Favorite Character: Stan courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales,

Quick amp Dirty: A gothic love story with the potential to become an interesting series,

Opening Sentence: Humanity wandered by, the way it always had,

The :

Redemption is a gargoyle love story with some potential, As a teenager I would have probably fell in love with this book but as an adult not quite so much, Aude, pronounced “Ode” but everyone calls her “Odd” is a musically talented young woman who is looking forward to a future in music with her band.
She is basically a loner, her only two friends are her bandmates who have just recently begun dating, Her dating bandmates have her believeing her band will fall apart and with the new tension she doesnt believe she can confide in her friends about the strange things happening to her.


An attack on Aude ultimately releases Guillaume and his gargoyle brothers from stone, The gargoyles can turn from stone to human flesh but to do that they have to rely on essence fed to them by an essentialist basically a witch.
It has been overyears since Guillaume has been in human form, the last essentialist he knew died, and he cant help but follow Aude to find out what power she holds.
It doesnt take him long to confront her but he knows he is going to slowly have to gain her trust if he wants to find out why she was able to bring him back to flesh.


Aude is being followed by Guillaume almost wherever she goes, she isnt a huge fan of it but then she begins to be attacked by a stone man.
A few times she relies on Guillaume to save her but she does save herself a couple times too when he isnt around, Aude and Guillaume begin to unravel a prophecy about the destruction of Montreal and they have to figure out how to keep it from happening.


I liked Aude most of the time and I really enjoyed her enthusiasm for music but I felt she was way too stubborn at times.
She didnt want to listen to people and when her friend finally gave her a wakeup call about who was really destroying the band, she begin to trust in other people.
Now Guillaume is a different story, I really liked him at first but when as his backstory was revealed there was just something about his character that I couldnt quite feel for.
And for having no emotions he was certainly quite selfish, As for Aude and Guillaumes relationship, I was rooting for it off and on, I would add more but I feel like Id be spoilery about it,

The setting for Redemption is the Montreal, Quebec, Canada and Veronique Launier pays close attention to detail about the buildings of that city, past and present, and how they affect the story.
The atmosphere to the story has a bit of a gothic feel with little twists of humor,

Redemption jumps back and forth between Aude and Guillaumes point of views, It is easy to know who is speaking since it is labeled at the beginning of every chapter, I had a few issues with the plot, mainly at the end of the book, I did have to read the end fight scene twice because after I read it the first time, I couldnt remember what just had happened and why the following scene was like it was.


Overall, I think Redemption has some potential to be a good series, I like the originality to the gargoyles and their backstory, There is also a interesting set up to a Persian gargoyle that I would love to read more about and learn his story, He definitely added some extra conflict to Audes feelings and Id like to see where it goes, As of right now, I cant find any information on a sequel except for Goodreads listing Redemption as part of a series,

Notable Scene:

Finally, I felt the bitter wind against my bare skin and I knelt beside her, Her eyes were closed again, I made a small gagging sound as I tried to swallow past a lump in my throat, Her eyes opened a slit and she watched me, her breath rasping, In my imagination, I saw the corners of her lips raise slightly at the sight of me, I knew this wasnt real but it was enough to pierce through the walls Id kept up for centuries,

Here she was, this girl Id come to love, dying in an alley, and it was my fault, I stroked her hair as I choked back a scream, I wasnt meant to feel, This is what happened when I went against my nature, First Marguerite and now Aude, I was responsible for both, Instead of protecting them, I had to watch them both die,

“Guil ” Her words sounded like a dry cough,

“Shhhh, dont speak, ” I put my finger on her lips in a gesture for silence,
“Dont ” She let out a couple of broken breaths before continuing, “ cry. ”

It took me a while to understand what she meant, Tears streamed down my cheeks, I wiped at them ith the back of my hand,

Whatever light was still in her eyes dimmed slightly,

“No! You cant die on me! You cant abandon me like she did, ” Like she abandoned all of us, My heart was so heavy I thought it would fall out of my chest, It hurt.

“Hang on. I need to get help, ”

“Please ” She made a small sound and her eyes rolled a little, She closed them and I saw the tears streaking down her cheeks to mix with the blood and dirt that covered her face, “Please stay. ”

FTC Advisory: Flux provided me with a copy of Redemption, No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review, .