Gabriel's Inferno

Kattia

3 1/2 stars
The first half of the book kinda dragged on for me. I thought Julia was too meek and Gabriel was a pretentious a-hole. I warmed up to him though, but then he became über cheesy. It wasn't a bad book, overall, just a tad too long and drawn out.

Briar's Reviews

Gabriel's Inferno was a sexy, sophisticated read and I am desperate for the next novel!

When I went to the book store and I wanted a Sylvain Reynard read (after reading The Raven) the book store associate warned me this was a "Fifty Shades of Grey-like novel". Man, was that associate wrong!

This novel is far from Fifty Shades of Grey! The only comparisons I could find is that: they are both not short novellas, they are full length novels. They are also both romance novels, but many novels are romance novels. 

Gabriel's Inferno follows Gabriel and Julia (Or Julianne, a la Gabriel). Julia is shy and inexperienced in the land of boys. Gabriel is her professor. When Julia and Gabriel realize they know each other from a long time ago, their history brings them together and intertwines them.

The novel starts off rather slow, but once I was into it I was hooked! The novel is very sexy and seductive! If anything, this novel could have improved on throwing more romance and drama in before the finale of the novel. The secrets characters hold are revealed at a good pace, and the characters are not one note. Each character has many layers to them, which makes this read thoroughly addicting.

I'm hooked! Five out of five stars! Sylvain Reynard can do no wrong in my books!

Kathleen Tom

I have to re-read this again to understand every single words and chapter written. The book was nothing like the movie but the movie is not that bad either. 

It expressed love, pain & lust in a different kind of way.

Elizabeth Clement

Waaaaaaay too long and I couldn't stand any of the characters. Gabriel is a pretentious jerk and I have a feeling this author is as well.

• mature language, sexual scenes, abuse, violence, overdose, miscarriage, death of a loved one & etc 

Okay lots to say here. The storyline ? Not all that great, did I like it? Sure, yeah. Was I enthralled and amazed? Yeah, no. The characters, some of them got me a little upset. Not gonna lie. What I did love though was the atmosphere. The emphasis on the beauty of Italian literature and just language in general had me reeled. (Language whore things) and the mentions of Florence and various beautiful places, I loved those. 

I didn’t love Gabriel. He was nice I guess. I loved how gentle he was, I loved that he was sweet to Julia and I liked that he was an attentive lover. What I loved most though was his affiliations with Oxford, Princeton and Harvard. Who dosent love academically rigorous institution alumnus? 

Julia. I liked her. She’s nice and kind and sweet but after reading about strong, badass and no bullshit women in books, Julia didn’t really resonate with me. I liked her though.

Okay so, what I hated the most here, was the kink shaming. Major major kink shaming that went on for pages. There’ll be a minor spoiler here:

Gabriel was involved with a dominatrix that enjoys consensual S&M. Emphasis on the consensual. Gabriel shitting on said dominatrix because Julia dislikes S&M was just downright rude. It’s understandable on Julia’s end, she suffered sexual trauma (in a sense) and Co relating sex and pain is harmful for her , BUT GABRIEL. And the way kinks were portrayed in this book? Horrible. The way said dominatrix was portrayed ? Way worse. 

It’s essential that we understand kinks are liberating to a whole lot of people, shitting on it isn’t exactly nice. 

Overall though, I did enjoy the book. Paul calling Julia Rabbit made me gag but I liked Gabriel and Julia’s relationship.

Danya <3

2 ⭐️ 

 Genre: Romance 

Age group : New Adult 

POV : Third person POV / Multiple 

Characters: 3/5 ⭐️ 

Plot: 2/5 ⭐️ 

Setting/Themes: 5/5 ⭐️ 

Writing: 4.5/5 ⭐️

• Please check TWs & CWs 

• mature language, sexual scenes, abuse, violence, overdose, miscarriage, death of a loved one & etc 

• HEA

“Apparuit iam beatitudo vestra”

Okay lots to say here. The storyline ? Not all that great, did I like it? Sure, yeah. Was I enthralled and amazed? Yeah, no. The characters, some of them got me a little upset. Not gonna lie. What I did love though was the atmosphere. The emphasis on the beauty of Italian literature and just language in general had me reeled. (Language whore things) and the mentions of Florence and various beautiful places, I loved those. 

I didn’t love Gabriel. He was nice I guess. I loved how gentle he was, I loved that he was sweet to Julia and I liked that he was an attentive lover. What I loved most though was his affiliations with Oxford, Princeton and Harvard. Who dosent love academically rigorous institution alumnus? 

Julia. I liked her. She’s nice and kind and sweet but after reading about strong, badass and no bullshit women in books, Julia didn’t really resonate with me. I liked her though.

Okay so, what I hated the most here, was the kink shaming. Major major kink shaming that went on for pages. There’ll be a minor spoiler here:

Gabriel was involved with a dominatrix that enjoys consensual S&M. Emphasis on the consensual. Gabriel shitting on said dominatrix because Julia dislikes S&M was just downright rude. It’s understandable on Julia’s end, she suffered sexual trauma (in a sense) and Co relating sex and pain is harmful for her , BUT GABRIEL. And the way kinks were portrayed in this book? Horrible. The way said dominatrix was portrayed ? Way worse. 

It’s essential that we understand kinks are liberating to a whole lot of people, shitting on it isn’t exactly nice. 

Overall though, I did enjoy the book. Paul calling Julia Rabbit made me gag but I liked Gabriel and Julia’s relationship.

Heather 

Julie D.

Kinsey

5 I'm Glad I'm Your First Stars!



The reread was even better!

I firmly believe that no matter how many times you reread a book, it's never the same reading experience as before. Each reread holds a different perspective; a separate opportunity to view the story in a new light. I knew when starting this that all the secrets, lies, and questions wouldn't be so frustrating to read because I know why characters are the way they are and I know the outcomes. I could truly just sit back and enjoy....and boy did I enjoy reacquainting myself with the Professor! 


  
    "Scars might heal and we might forget about them in time, but they're permanent. Not even Jesus lost his scars."
  




Gabriel's Inferno is a book that has everything I want in a book. This story is: sexy, sweet, tender, romantic, dark, light, humorous, emotional, and honestly just pretty much freaking perfect!

What makes this book stand out amongst all the others is the way you get pulled into Julia and Gabriel's fictional world. A world filled with passion + romance that is so beautifully written I can't possible squeeze all passages that I want to into this review. 



What's it all about? 

Gabriel is Julia's professor in her Dante seminar, and this is where the forbidden element comes in. It's forbidden to fraternize, yet something about Julia is irresistible to Gabriel. She seems familiar to him, and he doesn't understand why. Yes, this story is technically a student/teacher romance, but I never once looked at it that way. The beautiful love story was so perfect that you don't have to have the forbidden aspect to make this book good...although it didn't hurt to add some forbidden fruit. 



Gabriel is one of my all-time favorite heroes! EVER! I love him so much and I honestly wish I could marry him right now. Sigh. He is possessive, pretentious, arrogant, passionate, and just freaking alpha male awesome. Gabriel is one of those characters that has many secrets that you are just dying to uncover. He has a painful past from his childhood to adulthood and his life has been filled with struggle and pain. My heart just broke for my poor Gabriel...his love for Julia was the BEST thing that ever happened to him, and I loved reading every sentence of it!


  
    "I’m sorry I disappointed you. I wish I was the knight rather than the dragon. But I’m not.” He pulled back to stare deeply into her eyes. “Everything is up to you. You can rescue me or banish me with a single word."
  




Julia is a shy but strong heroine. While she frustrated me at times, she does have a backbone when the time calls for it; I just wish she would be a little bit stronger sometimes. Her most endearing quality is that she always looks for the good in people and if that doesn't work she lets them see their evil for what it is. Gabriel and Julia truly are each others saving grace. 


  
    "The brown-eyes angel was weeping over the demon. The angel wept because she was grieved at the mere thought of someone hurting him"
  




I loved the modern day spin off of Beatrice and Dante that this book offered. This book is written in a 3rd POV that I loved, for it offered a cast of characters thoughts. There are multiple themes presented within the story — redemption and love being the main points. In conclusion, I fell in love with this story the first time around, and I fell just as much in love with it the 2nd time around. Beautiful.




  
    "When I am an old man and I can remember nothing else, I will remember this moment. The first time my eyes beheld an angel in the flesh. “I will remember your body and your eyes, your beautiful face and breasts, your curves and this.” “I will remember your scent and your touch and how it felt to love you. But most of all, I will remember how it felt to gaze at true beauty, both inside and out. For you are fair, my beloved, in soul and in body, generous of spirit and generous of heart. And I will never see anything this side of heaven more beautiful than you."

Lynn Braden

This is the story of two tortured souls who meet in youth and unwittingly hurt each other badly. They once again meet after they are both older and wiser, but are still hurting desperately. The story is their struggle to find a way to heal.

Lacey

Also posted at Booklovers For Life

3.5 STARS

So I’m reading this series in time for the release of the third and final book, Gabriel’s Redemption (out today!), and… I’m not really sure how to feel about Gabriel’s Inferno. On one hand, I really liked the story and the characters and the writing, but on the other, it was just so freaking l o n g. It’s about 500 pages or so, and my lord, I’m not sure it need to be.

I wasn’t sure what to expect in Gabriel’s Inferno, but what I got I ended up really liking. The writing is pretty different than what I’m used to. It’s more sophisticated, if a bit pretentious at times, but overall, I really liked the feel the author gave the book. Everything was very slow and sensual, which fit perfectly for Julia and Gabriel’s story.

Julia is a very, very shy and innocent 23-year-old who is in grad school studying to become a Dante specialist. She has to take a class taught by Professor Gabriel Emerson, who is a cold-hearted, strict man, despite his charming good looks. Even though Gabriel is intrigued by Julia’s innocence and sweetness, he’s contemptuous of her. He doesn’t want to care about some lowly, poor grad student, and so he doesn’t. He was a bit hard to like in the beginning, since he’s so arrogant and cold and just a gigantic jerk, but he slowly grew on me once his and Julia’s romance started.

Julia is the quintessential pure, good, virginal girl that I had a hard time liking at first, but somehow, her shyness worked. I got used to her innocence, to her goodness, and she was a perfect contrast to Gabriel, who has a very dark past.

“Why not think that sometimes–just sometimes–you can overcome evil with silence? And let people hear their hatefulness in their own ears, without distraction. Maybe goodness is enough to expose evil for what it really is, sometimes. Rather than trying to stop evil with more evil.”

It turns out that Julia and Gabriel have already met before, and only Gabriel has forgotten that meeting. Julia was only seventeen, but she fell in love with Gabriel, her best friend’s adopted older brother. They met and talked at an orchard, and they were so sweet with each other. Gabriel called Julia his Beatrice, who was the love of Dante’s life. It was a magical, beautiful night that changed the both of them, but Gabriel has no recollection of it, and Julia is hurt. But she toughens up her heart against Gabriel, which is very difficult for her, due to both her shyness and his overbearing attitude. But they can’t fight the attraction they have for each other, and once Gabriel remembers who Julia is, they begin their romance, even though it’s against the rules for student-teacher fraternization.

Gabriel has a tragic, heart-breaking past that is alluded to throughout the book, and it’s the sort of past that shaped Gabriel into the kind of man he is now. He used to sleep with a different woman every night, get drunk all the time, but now, Julia changes things for him. He falls in love with Julia, and he’s such a romantic man. He worships Julia and treats her like a queen, even as he believes he doesn’t deserve her.

“You deserve better. You deserve everything, and that’s what I’m going to give you.”

They have a ten year age gap, which wasn’t too bad for me, and it made sense for Gabriel to be a bit older since he’s a college professor. And oh my goodness, I could go on and on about the sweet things he says to Julia. Gabriel does a total 180 from the beginning of the book, and he kept making me go Aww and blush.

“When I told you that I was intending to worship you with my body, I meant it. With all my heart. I will never take from you. I will only give. In my bed and outside of it.”

Gabriel and Julia have a whirlwind love that is so powerful and passionate. They open up to one another, body, mind, and soul, and their romance had me hooked from start to finish (even though the book was crazy long!). Gabriel’s Inferno is raw and dark and gritty, and I’m glad I read it, because it’s such a unique, captivating read.

3.5 STARS! Although I totally give a 5 for all the mushy stuff Gabriel says. Sah-woon!

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madie anne 

Farah Khaled 

This book was great but the only thing that bothered me Julia's personality. I found it kind of hard to like her, the self loathing, although justified, became too much for me. She always doubt herself

And for Gabriel... you're a bæ! I loved him! even tho he was treating her really bad at the beginning.