Review Tuesday: Stone and Chains by Aurelia T. Evans -- #UrbanFantasy #Angels #Demons #ReviewTuesday

Stone and Chains by Aurelia T. Evans

Totally Bound Publishing, 2022

Abby is a night owl. As the offspring of a union between an angel and a human woman, she has a miraculous power to heal which she quietly applies in her job as an after-hours clinic nurse. When she’s finished with her shift, she walks the streets of Meridian until dawn, alert for people who need her help. She doesn’t seek out trouble, but if she encounters anyone threatened by the city’s ubiquitous demons, she’s ready for battle. Her healing abilities extend to her own body, giving her a sense of cautious invincibility.

She’s convinced she’s fulfilling her purpose in life, until she meets Charles, a devastatingly attractive incubus who claims that the father she’s finally located, imprisoned in stone on a cemetery monument, is in fact “nephil”, a fallen angel. To avoid succumbing to Charles’ sex magic, she has forbidden him to touch her, but he is both devious and seductive. Before long, she starts to believe that she harbors the same sort of darkness Charles himself represents.

When Abby discovers a cult devoted to incarnating one of most dangerous demons in existence, she crosses paths with a second supernatural being, the gargoyle Zekiel. By day he’s a winged statue, a frozen ornament on one of Meridian’s baroque buildings. By night he flies free, fighting the many evil denizens of the city as a path to his own redemption. Together, Abby and Zekiel take on the vicious and depraved worshippers of Moloch. Their mutual attraction flourishes despite Abby’s secret trysts with Charles and Zekiel’s tendency to turn to stone in the middle of an erotic interlude. But Zekiel has a secret that ties him to Charles as well.

Aurelia T. Evans’ Arcanium books are long-time favorites of mine. Hence I was eager to read the first book in her new Meridian series. I know few authors who are so expert in blending eroticism and horror or in exposing the ambiguities that arise when we try to label someone as good or evil. Thus, I stepped into her new, magic-haunted city with high expectations.

I must admit to a certain level of disappointment. Meridian, with its intimate blend of the heavenly and the hellish, provides a fitting backdrop for one of her tales. Abby’s questionable background presents many opportunities for the sort of moral twists that distinguish Arcanium. The erotic connection between her and the incubus Charles is stunningly vivid, crushingly arousing. Likewise, the history he shares with Zekiel ramps up the intensity and draws these three main characters into a intricate web of love, hate and lust.

I was hoping to see Ms Evans exploit this triangle with the deftness she’s shown in her other books. Without presenting any spoilers, I’ll just say that this is not the way things play out. I was disappointed that she didn’t develop the tricky erotic and thematic possibilities inherent in the situation, but opted for a more traditional resolution.

Romance readers might be pleased with her ending, but I felt that the inspired creator of Bell Madoc and the Ringmaster could have pushed the envelope and given us something that would linger longer in the mind, making us think more about values and choices.