Stone Heart

Rating:
Summary: A terrific fantasy romance
Review: His parents and he were driven out of The Order into the realm of the Outsiders for violating the prime directive of not sharing magical solutions with the humans. The adults died not long afterwards leaving five years old David Angus MacGregor struggling to survive. He becomes an acrimonious hateful soul punishing anyone for the slightest supposed affront. Finally disgusted with his malicious behavior, the Lead Sorceress changes Angus into a hideous statue and he will remain that way until someone frees him from his stone coffin.

When he was still flesh, Angus did a kind deed for a child. She vowed to repay him and over the next three centuries that debt has passed down from her to her descendents. In the present, a dying Aunt Aggie asks her niece Karen Matthews to go to Scotland to free the soul inside the statue. Though thinking this is foolishness, Karen, in spite of also dying from a defective heart and not believing, completes her deathbed vow freeing Angus. They immediate fall in love, but how will he react when he realizes that his beloved is ironically dying?

STONE HEART is a terrific fantasy romance, the third tale in the Order universe (see GRYPHON'S QUEST and THE GAZING GLOBE). Karen is an inspirational person embracing life while near death; Angus has a second chance to redeem his soul, but life's cruelty hits home when another loved one is near death. Will he choose salvation as his cherished redeemer is dying or will he turn bitter and angry at fate? Candace Sams enchants her readers with a fabulous magical story in which the strength of sorcery seems genuine but feeble next to the power of love.

Harriet Klausner



Rating:
Summary: 1/2 Lovely, Enchanting!...Good fantasy romance!
Review: The third book from 'Tale of the order'. Although I think it can stand alone, I highly recommend you to make yourself familiar with the first two books (Gryphon's Quest/ The Gazing Globe) before starting this one.

The theme of the book is very touching. A villian druid warrior, Angus MacGregor was cursed by the Sorceress of the ancient to spend his tormented eternity as a stone statue... However, of all horrible things he did when he lived, he actually unintentionally did one tiny good deed... and that little good thing was the only thing that saved him from the cursed three hundred years later. The heroine, Karen Matthews was born with heart defect and the knowledge that she would never have a chance to live a normal life and grew old with someone she loved... However, because of a-three-hundred-year-old promise passed in her family line, she lifted the curse placed on Angus... however one problem still remained. With her time running out from her heart condition, she needed to find a way to help the first man she came to love with all her life to get back to the world he really belonged...

As a die-hard fan of 'Tale of the order', I'm still confident to say that Candace Sams still did an excellent job with this book. Karen was a very adorable character and her vision to the world in the eyes of the one who's dying can bring tears to your eyes. If you're already familiar with the first two books, this one will let you learn more about the secret of the ancient order and all the magical creatures from the ancient world. However, if you never read the first two books before, as mentioned previously, I recommend you to read at least one of them in order to familiarize youself with this enchanting world and to make this book a lot more fun. So if you're looking around (and reading this review) in order to help you decide whether or not you should buy this book, I say, go for it!... and you will learn that, even 'The stone can cry'... It's worth every penny you spend.. .Happy reading!