Wednesday, August 21, 2019

2 stars-- Gabriel's Redemption (Gabriel's Inferno #3) by Sylvain Reynard

Oh my word. It took me for freaking ever to finish Gabriel's Redemption. Goodness but I do not understand the fan girl reviews for this at all.

The Gist: Academic types city hopping for work, school and fun. All while picking ridiculous fights with one another.

Gabriel and Julianne were, at best, mediocre characters. Pretentious and just people I wouldn't care to be around in real life. Julianne especially. Selfish and unreasonable. I did not care for her one bit. Add in the other characters (friends, family, co-workers) and, really, no one was all that likable. Addicts, cheaters, users, whiners. Pretentious and irrational.

For a book that's over 400 pages there wasn't much substance to it. They city hopped all over the world. Sometimes vacationing. Sometimes working. With endless clips of poetry and dissection of text. It was mind numbing. The sex was, too. I don't think I've ever read a book with so much no-sex sex. They were constantly going at it but barely anything on page. Just 'oh our sex life is so fabulous! let me do you on the counter' type proclamations then the next sentence being the next day/hour/city/etc. Enough already. I was rolling my eyes by the end of things.

Add in a ridiculous number of arguments between the two and multiple overreactions or protests that had no merit. AND multiple pointless threads that involved other characters with no impact on the main storyline and it was just a slog.

I really didn't enjoy the writing style, either. (It could be said that this book desperately needed a new editor) <---- That is the most obnoxious style and used constantly.
She would have been content to purchase all the furnishings for the nursery from Target, but Gabriel had insisted on Pottery Barn. (Parenthetically, it should be noted that Julia referred to Pottery Barn as Protestant Barn, for it featured fine furnishings that were WASP-ish in the extreme. Furnishings that she was enamored of but thought were too expensive.)
Overall, Gabriel's Redemption could have been cut down to 200 pages and no one would have noticed. This was, unfortunately, not the book or author for me. From characters to a lack of storyline and the insistence of using every word...ever.

Professor Gabriel Emerson has left his position at the University of Toronto to embark on a new life with his beloved Julianne. Together, he’s confident that they can face any challenge. And he’s eager to become a father.

But Julianne’s graduate program threatens Gabriel’s plans, as the pressures of being a student become all consuming. When she is given the honor of presenting an academic lecture at Oxford, Gabriel is forced to confront her about the subject of her presentation – research that conflicts with his own. And in Oxford, several individuals from their past appear, including an old nemesis intent on humiliating Julia and exposing one of Gabriel’s darkest secrets.

In an effort to confront his remaining demons, Gabriel begins a quest to discover more about his biological parents, beginning a chain of events that has startling repercussions for himself, Julianne, and his hope of having a family.

Amazon | Goodreads | Sylvain on HCBS
*covers link to Amazon


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