The Stone Prince

GENA SHOWALTER

Publisher's Synopsis:

Katie James is unlucky in love – so unlucky shes been reduced to kissing the marble statute in her own garden. But her luck changes when the statue warms to life in her arms – and turns out to be a hunk straight out of any woman’s fantasy! Well, almost...Jorlan en Sarr hails from a distant planet and like all the other men Katie's known, he comes with a lot of baggage.

Entombed in his stone skin for centuries, Jorlan has been waiting for a maiden fair to break the spell. Yet this statuesque beauty with the will of an Amazon and kisses like flame is a far cry from the obedient damsels of Imperia. And though Jorlan is tempted to abandon all for the sake of Katie, unless he can convince her to give him her heart in two weeks' time, he'll be turned back to stone. And she'll be lost to him forever.

I read a lot of paranormal romance - vampires, witches, and so forth. But aliens from another planet never appealed to me. I picked this book up at a library book sale because the cover caught my eye. From the description on the back, it sounded interesting, despite the alien part, and since it is a Harlequin romance, I figured it wouldn't be all science-fictiony.

And it wasn't, at all. In fact, it was all out steamy from the get-go. Katie is renovating a Victorian home, and there are several statues in the garden. She finds herself drawn to this one particular statue though, caressing it, and imagining what it would feel like if it were an actual man and not a statue. She even thinks she hears it whispering to her, “kiss me”. Which she finally does, only to find herself in the arms of a glorious naked man.

This is the first book I've read by Gena Showalter. My favorite authors are ones who can mix romance and humor, and Ms. Showalter does so most excellently. Some of the scenes with Katie's overprotective brothers are laugh out loud funny. Katie is a likeable heroine, though her absolute fear of falling in love and her reasons for that fear came across, to me anyway, as a little unfounded. She's never actually had a boyfriend, and suffers from what she terms “First Date Syndrome”, meaning she never seems to go on a second date with anyone. If there had been a serious boyfriend in her past who had hurt her, her attitude would seem more realistic to me.

Overall, a very enjoyable read. And I'm not sure if I'll ever look at a statue the same way.