The Quest for the Temple Key

A young girl. A diabolical gargoyle. A sacrifice to save the world.

About
The Book
The Book That Drags You Into the Realm of Gargoyles
From the multiple award-winning teen author Brandon King comes the first volume of his YA series inspired by the classic works of Tolkien, and the spirit of Riordan, Sanderson, Locke, Carr and Myers. Perfect for teens and young adult readers who yearn for contemporary epic fantasy adventures that remind them of Narnia and Middle Earth.
Hunted by the Gargoyle Renegade, Can Danielle Believe in the Powers She Just Learned She Possesses?
A smart young girl is unwillingly thrust into a frantic quest to save mysterious people and bizarre creatures from a deadly foe, determined to destroy everything—and everyone—she cares about.
Thirteen-year-old Danielle Wheelen had never thought of herself as adventurous until, alone, she must face two enormous gargoyles, Ercen and Kimar, and decide whether she trusts them. Was she kidnapped, as all the evidence indicates? Or was she rescued from doom, like they say? Can she believe their assertion that she has a power to save the entire world from a diabolical gargoyle and his minions? How can a simple girl break the monstrous power of the key to the enemy’s ghastly temple, crafted from the very soul of a broken, elderly woman?
Danielle’s epic journey will captivate readers as she confronts powerful threats, and finds perplexing friends along her dangerous path. With the help of a gargoyle named Lohxnahr, Danielle fights against forces beyond her worst terrors. She must dig deep to find enough courage and resilience to challenge the rogue gargoyle commander of the renegade army, bent on seizing control of the human race.
Full of wonder, suspense and adventure, this novel is a fun, page-turning fantasy that also asks serious questions about the true meaning of love, faith and friendship.
The Quest for the Temple Key is the 1st volume in The Gargoyle Chronicles series. It blends together Norse, YA, and NA genres.
AGE RANGE:
Middle-Grade, YA and NA
NEW COVER RE-RELEASE:
Coming May 2022
If I would have had more than 15 minutes to read each night, I would have read it all in one sitting. So many interesting characters. Great idea for an appendix! Be sure to look at the appendix for the Gargoyle names as you are reading – that would have been helpful for me to keep the names straight. Plot was really good.
~Zimley

What’s Inside
Great pacing
A nasty bad guy
Hilarious dialogue
Epic characters
World building!
MANY gargoyles 😮
Chapter 1:
The House
With The Portico
~an excerpt
As Danielle marched between the fence-high stone walls,towards the door, she glanced at the walls and thought it very curious that each wall had a single, amber-colored circle of glass, about the size of a quarter, embedded in the surface. So intent was she on making her final collection, she failed to notice the house number above the door was not on her list. As she reached up to use the door knocker, she was startled by a rustling noise behind her.
Spinning around to look for the cause of the sound, she saw feathers littered all around the sheltered area, between the portico walls and the front door of the house. She’d never seen feathers so big, and she thought they might be as long as her arm. However, now that her attention was on the walls, she thought they looked odd. Why would someone go to the trouble of carving wings into them, on both sides? she wondered.
The sun was glinting off of both amber-colored glass circles. With a shudder, she realized they looked almost like eyes. As she looked down again at the feathers, one gently fell from the top of the right wall, landing with the same rustling sound she’d heard.
Relieved to find the source of the feathers, Danielle turned back to the door, happy she was nearly through with the collections and eager to hurry home to count the money. She was already visualizing her father helping her sort out the bills, dividing what she could keep and what had to be paid back to the newspaper. So when she lifted the knocker away from the door, her attention was only on the door, not the peculiar portico behind her. The portico walls quickly collapsed without a sound, dissolving, melting into weird, grotesque shapes.
Chapters

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About
the Author
Brandon King lives in Southwest Idaho, near to the kinds of mountains his gargoyles like to call home. He shares his home with his wife (who is also an author) and two aging cats. He’s enjoyed several careers throughout his life, but his great love is writing.
Want to learn more about Brandon? Then ⤵
Brandon King