Title: Gabriel’s Redemption
Author: Sylvain Reynard
Series: Gabriel’s Inferno #3
Genre: contemporary erotic romance
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Format: ebook/print/audio
Release Date: 12/3/2013
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.
Publisher Summary:
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.
My Review:
This review contains spoilers for Gabriel’s Inferno and Gabriel’s Rapture, the first two books in the trilogy. You could try to read Gabriel’s Redemption as a stand-alone, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
When we last saw Julia and Gabriel, they had just reconciled and married after a tumultuous time during which they were forcibly separated after the scandal of their illicit relationship had nearly cost both of them their academic careers. Now safely wed, they are working on how to navigate a marriage between one imperious Dante specialist used to having his own way and one equally stubborn Dante specialist-in-training who loves her man but wants to make her own way in the field they both share. Julia has a very important lecture to present at Oxford and it’s that lecture which sparks their final journey through their not-so-distant past, with nearly every friend and foe reappearing for one last hurrah.
Sylvain Reynard has stated publicly that a third book in the Gabriel’s Inferno series was never planned, and that Gabriel’s Redemption is the direct result of the fans requesting it. I’m always wary of books that are produced as a love letter to the fans, as the need to please can either result in something that’s just a repeat of the previous book(s) or worse, a plot that abandons everything readers had loved before and ruins their memories forever.
I am so very relieved and pleased to report that Gabriel’s Redemption is neither a boring rehash, nor is it a betrayal of the series. For a huge fan like me, reading this book was like coming back to a place that you have always loved but haven’t visited in quite some time. There was drama (the good kind that doesn’t make you want to throw the book against the wall) and humor (the Professor is finally able to laugh at just how much of an ass he can be) and suspense (whatever happened to all the incriminating photos of Julia with the Senator’s son?). The enemies who had previously threatened Julia and Gabriel’s happiness all got to come back for one more shot, while the dear friends and family who had aided our lovers in their triumph over evil returned to help once again. All the loose ends from the past were addressed and resolved, and by the end of the book, I knew that our Dante and his Beatrice were finally going to live Happily Ever After – no epilogue required. Gabriel’s Redemption is the best gift to those who love Julia and her Professor and it made me love the whole series even more. 4.5 stars
