Book Review: Gabriel's Inferno and Gabriel's Rapture by Sylvain Reynard

Title: Gabriel's Inferno
Series: Gabriel's Inferno #1
Author: Sylvain Reynard
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Published: 04/18/2011
Publisher: Omnific
Republished: 07/31/2012
Publisher: Berkley 
Genre(s): Contemporary Romance

DESCRIPTION

From national bestselling author, Sylvain Reynard comes the haunting, unforgettable tale of one man’s salvation and one woman’s sensual awakening . . .

Enigmatic and sexy, Professor Gabriel Emerson is a well-respected Dante specialist by day, but by night he devotes himself to an uninhibited life of pleasure. He uses his notorious good looks and sophisticated charm to gratify his every whim but is secretly tortured by his dark past and consumed by the profound belief that he is beyond all hope of redemption.

When the sweet and innocent Julia Mitchell enrolls as his graduate student, his attraction and mysterious connection to her not only jeopardizes his career but sends him on a journey in which his past and his present collide.

An intriguing and sinful exploration of seduction, forbidden love, and redemption, Gabriel’s Inferno is a captivating and wildly passionate tale of one man’s escape from his own personal hell as he tries to earn the impossible—forgiveness and love.


Title: Gabriel's Rapture
Series: Gabriel's Inferno #2
Author: Sylvain Reynard
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Published: 05/22/2012
Publisher: Omnific
Republished: 07/31/2012
Publisher: Berkley
Genre(s): Contemporary Romance

DESCRIPTION

National bestselling author Sylvain Reynard continues the story of Gabriel and Julia, two lovers bound together by their darkest desires.

But those very desires may destroy them . . .

Professor Gabriel Emerson has embarked on a passionate, yet clandestine affair with his former student Julia Mitchell. Sequestered on a romantic holiday in Italy, he tutors her in the sensual delights of the body and the raptures of sex.

But when they return, their happiness is threatened by conspiring students, academic politics, and a jealous ex-lover. When Gabriel is confronted by the university administration, will he succumb to Dante’s fate? Or will he fight to keep Julia, his Beatrice, forever?

In Gabriel’s Rapture, the brilliant sequel to the wildly successful debut novel, Gabriel’s Inferno, Sylvain Reynard weaves an exquisite love story that will touch the reader’s mind, body, and soul, forever.


MY THOUGHTS

Poetic, lush, grand, passionate, heartrending, touching...

I don't believe I've ever used the words, “I couldn't put it down" in a review. I didn't want this all-encompassing feeling to go away. I didn't want the stirring of my emotions to settle. I had to continue reading until I'd finished. (I read both of the books in two days!) I'm so tired and drained, but, oh, the existing conclusion of this beautiful, beautiful story was worth my current state of tiredness. For now, I feel I can sleep, dream of Gabriel and Julianne, and yearn for the continuation of their indescribable romance in the third book, which is due in 2013! [Update: Gabriel's Redemption will be published on December 3, 2013.]


Highlights
 
Julia was a good person. And sometimes goodness doesn’t tell everything it knows. Sometimes goodness waits for the appropriate time and does the best it can with what it has. 
~ author's voice (Gabriel's Inferno)
 
~*~

"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." 
~ Julia (Gabriel's Inferno)
 
~*~

“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.” He traced his hand around her navel before dragging it lightly to the top of her lower curls. “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.” 
~ Gabriel (Gabriel's Inferno)
 
~*~

“Look at me. Look into my eyes.” His eyes fixed on hers as they fluttered open. “I’ll give you anything. My body, my soul, take them. Take everything.” 
~ Gabriel (Gabriel's Inferno)
 
~*~
 
“Many people fail to see how modesty and sweetness of temper compound erotic appeal.” 
~ Gabriel (Gabriel's Rapture)

~*~

Truth sets one free, but love casts out fear. In her twenty-three years, Julia hadn’t realized how pervasive grace was and how Gabriel, who considered himself to be a very great sinner, could be a conduit of that grace. This was part of the divine comedy—God’s sense of humor undergirding the inner workings of the universe. 
~ author's voice (Gabriel's Rapture)
 
~*~

“You are my sticky little leaf. My beautiful, sad, sticky little leaf, and I want to see you happy and whole. I’m sorry for every tear I’ve made you shed. I hope that someday you’ll be able to forgive me.” ~ Gabriel (Gabriel's Rapture)
 
~*~

"If they love one another to the exclusion of everything and everyone else, then their love is pagan. They’ve made idols of one another and their love. And they’re also very foolish, because no human being can ever make another human being completely happy. Human beings are far too imperfect for that.”
 ~ Gabriel (Gabriel's Rapture) 

Comments

Anonymous said…
I SO AGREE WITH THE "I couldn't put it down" part! They are such a passionate couple - if only a person in real life were as passionate as Gabriel :( *sigh* Oh well...

P.S: Also agree with all of your wonderful adjectives - too true!

-RG