Hard to Handle by Christine Warren is the 5th book in her Gargoyles series. This is the first book I am reading in this series, and it did read very well as a standalone, as Warren does give us information on the some of the other characters from the previous books. In the first 4 books, the hero is a male gargoyle , who is a restored from stone, when the threat of demons and hell become real. They are considered Guardians to protect humans from the darkness. For each Gargoyle, there is a Warden, who helps them.

In Dublin, Ireland, Michael Drum (Drum)mond is pulled away from the pub he runs, becuase his sister, Maeve, has a vision of extreme danger from monsters. On the way home, the earth quakes and it is not an earthquake. What they perceive is a monster with wings, is actually a Guardian being summoned to life, as a terrible darkness is about to endanger all their lives. Ash, our heroine in this story, is the first female Guardian, and she enlists the aid of both Maeve and Michael to find the warden who requires her help. Wheras, Maeve, who has the sight and sees visions of the future, is more than ready to help Ash; but Drum wants nothing to do with monsters, demons and wants to head back to his pub. But then they are attacked, and Ash is able to save them. Ash is able to take a form of human female, when not being the Gargoyle. In a short time, she will discover that Drum, who treats her rudely, is in fact the Warden she has been looking for. I thought that early on, Drum was easy to dislike, and even though he is being pulled into something he knows nothing about, I did feel he went overboard in his distaste for Ash, or her quest.

What follows is a very exciting action packed adventure, where Ash and Drum must try to find and kill the demons, and along the way they both begin to have feelings for each other. When the danger escalates, Maeve will find information on the other Guardians/Wardens, and some will come from America to Ireland to help with the war. I loved meeting two of the previous heroes, and it was fun to watch them learn about each other. The last third of the book was intense, with lots of action and dangerous situations, which had you sitting on the edge of your seat.

Hard to Handle has a nice ending, but the war has just begun. Drum and Ash’s romance heats up with a happy conclusion. The Demons are still around, and all the Guardians and Wardens will find themselves together at some point in future books. Excellent suspenseful adventure, written very well by Christine Warren. One day I need to go back and read the earlier books.

As a long time fan of this authors Others series it was a no brainier for me to read this her new Gargoyle series and what fun it has been so far. With this the fifth instalment though she takes a whole new departure and introduces the very first female Guardian! Yep there have always been seven male Guardians to rise up alongside their human Wardens and battle the evil Demons but this time surely someone has made a mistake? Well Ash looks and acts like her Gargoyle brothers and she too knows her sacred duty but how can she proceed without a Warden to guide her?
Well allow me to introduce Drum. He is part of an Irish family who have what I can only describe as 'talents'. Powers, abilities if you will that his family have found pretty useful. Yet when Drum and his young sister Maeve get caught up with Ash it's clear she is going to need more than just human help , she will need to find her Warden and luckily Drum has the ability to somehow find things so perhaps a person won't be too difficult? It's going to have to be quick though as the Order of Eternal Darkness have just decided to step up their game!
I really liked the idea of a warrior woman stepping up and upping the ante. Yet I just found the first half of this slightly less frantically paced than usual. It took me a while to realise what was wrong and then after a situation occurs that necessitates other Guardians and Wardens getting involved I knew what had niggled away at me. You see Ash whilst brave and driven isn't as snarky or funny as previous heroines. So when they appear and it's all lets get cheeky, wind each other up and generally be humourous whilst trying to save the world the lighter touch just worked.
So much more happening in the second half which definitely worked for me. Drum and Ash are clearly going to be a good team but he did kind of spring things on her. One minute she's a stone creature who can become flesh and the next she's being kissed by an inebriated Drum with no idea why he wants to kiss her! A slight spoiler in that their physical relationship takes off quickly with the innocent Ash suddenly giving barrel racing cowgirls a run for their money and I was kind of tempted to shout yeehaw !
I did enjoy the story and I'm left wondering if any of Drews siblings will feature again. Maeve was certainly interesting but the rest of Drews family with the possible exception of his mum didn't seem to be as vivid which given their 'talents' seemed a shame. Luckily though with two Guardians and their mates popping in it turned out to be a book that entertained me and Ash finally got to see that love could conquer all
These are my voluntary thoughts on an advance reader copy and is my honest opinion

Hard to Handle is book five in the Gargoyles series by Christine Warren. In this installment the battle continues against the evil that is threatening mankind and all we hold dear. But the newest addition to the band of Guardians is not another sexy male guardian but a female.

Michael Drummond or Drum, owns a bar called Skin and Bones in Dublin, Ireland and lives a happy if not uneventful life. If you can call uneventful when you are the brother of four sisters. The Drummond family, though, do have gifts that set them apart from others. Drum can find things, something he considers a silly parlor trick. But his sister, Maeve, has the gift of sight. The Drummond family is tight knit, the bond of love that ties them together goes deep. That is how this all began, Drum not wanting his sister to be out alone that night, the night his life changed. The night he met Ash.

In the previous books we have met four guardians, gargoyles that were awoken from their stony slumber by their female wardens who would eventually become their mates. All four of these guardians were hot, sexy and alpha males. Historically, guardians were always male, until Ash woke up. She is just as shocked. She knows she is the first of her kind. She has no idea why she was awoken or who woke her. Michael and his sister, Maeve, are the only ones present and neither of them are wardens. But she has no choice but to accept their help until she can figure things out.

“She was a warrior who couldn’t find the battlefield, and off it, her purpose became unclear. The only foe she could see at the moment was uncertainty, and against that, her axe was useless.”

It doesn’t take long for the evil to seek out Ash and it becomes clear in the heat of battle that Drum possesses gifts he wasn’t even aware he had. It also becomes clear that Drum is her warden. In the beginning their relationship consisted of bickering and anger. Drum did not want this. But the more time they spent together, the attraction became stronger until they could no longer fight it.

“His last thought was that the woman above him had just changed his life forever. After this, he would never have to watch her walk away, because wherever she wanted to go, he would go right behind her.”

As Ash and Drum gather forces for the epic battle, their bond continues to grow. Ash, though, believes that the fate of her four brothers finding their mates would not apply to her. She believes that after the evil has been vanquished, she will be sent back to live as stone until she is needed once again. But she can’t imagine the pain of leaving Drum. She is determined to absorb every bit of joy from their bond as she can in the time she has with him.

“Somehow, in the last few days full of chaos and fear and danger, this unhuman woman had become Michael Drummond’s true north. Whenever he looked around, his compass pointed straight at her.”

I have to say that with this one, I missed some of the humor I enjoyed in the first books. But as always, the last twenty percent of this one was intense as the showdown was upon them. During this time the bond between Ash and Drum had grown so strong that I finally really felt their connection. There are a lot of details regarding the dark forces at work. Perhaps it’s the length of time between books but I did have a bit of trouble keeping the details straight. There are supposed to be seven guardians and since five have awoken so far in this series, I assume there will be two more books. I look forward to the guardians finally winning over evil and getting their chance at living happily ever after with their mates in peace.

I really enjoyed this book and i cant wait to read the rest of the series.I just loved Drum and Ash they were great together a super book that you wont want to put down cant wait to try more from this author

A different Gargoyle story.
It was okay.
Had some drama ,action,little mystery and romance.
Couldn't really get into the story.

I truly have enjoyed all in this series. These books are creative and and wonderful examples of what paranormal romance should be. I would definitely recommend this entire series.

Christine Warren continues in her Gargoyle series with Hard to Handle. With a female gargoyle a plot set in Ireland and all the usual wonderfulness of a Christine Warren book, this one is a winner. I would recommend reading the others in the series first. Highly recommended for readers who enjoy Ilona Andrews books.

Post goes live 22 Feb

I've been reading the books from the Gargoyles and I've loved every single one of it but I have to say that I started the book with mixed feelings. I mean, it's the first female Guardian. However, the evolution of the story develops perfectly smooth. I can understand Drum's initial reluctance to get involved in all of it. I got a bit surprised the moment he decided to help, although it was meant to be. The "final battle" looks more and more imminent, though.
It's also a nice touch the fact that there's a change in the scenery, so now the Guardians/ Wardens are international!

I was excited to see that another Christine Warren novel was out! But after starting this novel I realized that the reason it feels like it's been so long since I've read one of her novels is because I've missed the last two books in this series! It was a bit of a shock, but that didn't take away from the suspense or fun in this book.

I really liked the turn around that the Guardian is a never before seen female Guardian. And that she was inexplicably called forth as a female because her Warden and mate were one and the same. Even if he didn't know he was a Warden in the first place. I really liked Michael (Drum)'s character. It was great to see this from the male perspective. Not only that but even though he's a male of power and his family has abilities he's almost a skeptic on top of that. It was fun. Until he starts shooting electricity he is of the 'leave me out of it' mentality.

I wasn't as big of a fan of Ash, but I think it was because I'm used to the Guardian being male and I liked Michael so much that it made it harder to get behind Ash. She also had some weird mental quirks based on how she interpreted the knowledge/memories that she had that threw me off.

All in all, a decent book that makes me want to go back and read the ones I've missed. Kylie and Dag's book sounds like it was super good!

http://fkrants.blogspot.com/2017/01/some-other-books.html

Hard to Handle twists the series formula by doing a gender swap in the leading roles. No rock hard gargoyle hero this time around, instead the first ever female Guardian and a hunky Irish pub owner who doesn't acknowledged his own magic take center stage in the fight to save the world.

I liked this for the most part, even though I am a nut for gargoyle guys, the warrior woman leading lady was awesome when in fighting mode. I liked less her angst-y moments of lamenting that she won't get the 'mate' promised to all of her brethren - it didn't seem as needy/vulnerable when the guys went through it. And I missed seeing the awakening to emotion that the guys went through too, since this was her first rodeo she doesn't hae those eons of detachment to overcome. I did like the reluctant hero and liked even more his family - his mom was awesome.

I was also mixed on the cameos of past leads (I still find the Yiddish spouting techie Warden annoying) but overall I still am looking forward to the next but don't see how this series can get stretched out for too many more books unless the romances start taking more of a back seat to the back ground arc.

ARC via NetGalley

The next installment of Christine Warren's Gargoyle series starts of with an interesting twist. Guardians are supposed to be male, until this moment when a female guardian called Ash is summoned. This brings around some interesting developments including a male counterpart. Michael is there when she is reawakened along with his sister however he is very hard headed and strong willed to believe at first what is happening.. This leads into a story of discovery and two people who must fight to overcome what they believe. This story had some great scenes of good battling evil and generates towards the overall story arc that goes across this series. There is great passion and some memorable family members alongside some fantastic writing by Christine Warren, it is certainly keeping me counting down the days to see what happens next