Keri Stevens
Stone Kissed

Review brought to you by OBS staff member Heidi

Delia is the last of the Steward witches.  She’s not your typical casting spells and smoking cauldrons type of witch, though.  Her “gift” is that she can animate statues, she talks to them and they talk back and can even move when she’s in the vicinity.  As you can imagine, when people see a girl constantly talking to statues, they all start to think she’s a bit on the crazy side.

Delia inherited the house she grew up in, but had left town and let her dad stay in the house.  But when she gets a call that there had been a terrible fire and her dad had been trapped inside she must rush back to take care of things.  Her father survived, but was severely burned and is in the hospital, needing lots of medical care.  He had let the insurance lapse so Delia has no money to fix the house or to pay her dad’s bills.

In comes, Grant Wolverton, rich businessman and Delia’s childhood crush.  He loves the Steward house and wants it for his very own.  So he makes an offer to Delia to buy the property for a sizable sum so that she can afford her father’s medical care.  She doesn’t want to part with her one true home, but doesn’t see any alternative.  But, she does convince Grant to let her help him restore the house as a last-ditch effort to stay close to the home and more importantly the statues she loves so dearly.
Grant and Delia find that they work great together and before they know it she has fallen into his bed.  Delia loves Grant, but knows that she like the house is just another acquisition to him, and she tries, unsuccessfully, to keep her distance.

Then, there is the matter of Cecily, who claims to be Delia’s cousin.  She is a succubus that gains energy by seducing men.  She wants to gain ownership of Steward House for her own, as she feels the ground is sacred and powerful.  She is infuriated when she discovers that Grant bought the house right from under her, making him her next target.

I really didn’t know what to expect with this book.  I thought the storyline had its charm, but I never expected it to be as good as it was.  I fell in love with Grant and at times wanted to smack Delia for not believing in his love.  And I loved the statues coming to life, each bringing their own personality to the story for some fun quirky characters that would just be boring inanimate objects in other books.

I knew that Cecily was going to come after Delia and that Grant would come to the rescue, but the scenes were done beautifully and I was never bored.  The only part of this book that I think could have been better was the wedding scene.  Something about it was just a little too out there for me, but that did not take away from this great story at all.

Reading this book, it’s hard to believe this is Keri Steven’s first novel she does what some authors can never achieve.  I loved this book and can’t wait to read what else she has in store for us.