Review: Gabriel's Rapture by Sylvain Reynard

I'm not a fan of the whole "obsessive love" genre that was sparked by Twilight a few years ago and soon moved into the realm of erotica with the likes of Fifty Shades of Grey, so I was pleasantly surprised when I picked up Gabriel's Inferno by Sylvain Reynard a month or so ago. While the book still contained many of the same elements that bothered me about both aforementioned novels--a naive young woman meets an emotionally damaged and brutish man who proves his love by showering her with gifts and controlling her every move--Gabriel's Inferno at least had an interesting and well researched back story, good writing and characters that I actually cared about. And with this in mind, I happy picked up and paid for a copy of the sequel. And what did I get?

Well .... It isn't that Gabriel's Inferno is by any stretch a bad book--I found it decently written--but the story itself a little soap opera-like and unbelievable. Inferno basically tells the story of how Julia and Gabriel's romance is found out by the university administration and their lives and careers are thrown into turmoil. It appears that Gabriel is a complete bastard after all and then ...

I don't want to completely give away the ending, so I'll let you guess that one. Suffice to say that Gabriel was based on Edward Cullen after all ...

In many ways, I found the sequel to be less enjoyable than the first book in this series. In many ways, the whole book seemed unnecessary and far too long. I guess like all books of this type, there are many fans out there who wanted a sequel and a chance to recapture the magic of the first novel (and no doubt, there are many fans out there who want a third book,) but I don't think it really had anything new to offer the readers. No great insights or revelations, just a chance to catch up with old friends.

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