This is Book One in Christine Warren's new Gargoyles series.

Ella Harrow has a secret. The twenty-seven year old woman works at the Vancouver Museum of Art and History as the museum docent and gift shop manager. Ella knows she is different, and in order to keep others safe, she keeps to herself a lot. She does everything she can to keep it locked up inside because if released, people could die. After a museum fund raising event, she is attacked outside on the terrace. Coming to her aid is the seven foot tall stone Gargoyle that sits on a pedestal on the terrace.

Kees is a 1,000 year old Guardian, and one of six more that had been created to protect the word from the evil Seven. When not in need, they sleep as statues. Only an experienced warden is able to wake them. How a trained woman was able to is something he intends to find out. Having been created to have no feelings or emotions and protect humanity, he is confused as to why he has this uncontrollable need to protect this tiny woman.

Together Kees and Ella must try to figure out what has happened to the rest of the Guild Organization and where the Warden is for the Vancouver area. As the pair spends more time together their feelings for each other get hard and harder to ignore. With evil closing in on them, Kees and Ella are in a race to locate the other Guardians in order to awaken them. In addition, Ella needs to learn how to use the magic that is inside her that she has always feared. Meanwhile Kees has been struggling to figure out why he has feelings for his little human when that has never happened before.

I really enjoyed HEART OF STONE. I have always been a fan of Christine Warren's writing and this book is an excellent start to a new series. I will certainly be looking forward to the next book in this series which is due out August 2014.