BOOK REVIEW: Gabriel's Inferno by Sylvain Reynard

BOOK REVIEW of Gabriel's Inferno by Sylvain Reynard

First of all, I got this book because of the explosion of new novels following the 50 Shades success. I made it my mission to read everyone of them in the little ‘If you liked 50 Shades, you’ll love this’ area of my local bookstore. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

I went into this expecting sexy hijinks and not much else. I was very wrong:

One man's salvation, one woman's sensual awakening . . .

Gabriel Emerson is a man tortured by his dark past. A highly respected university professor, Gabriel uses his notorious good looks and charm to lead a secret life of pleasure where nothing is out of bounds.

Sweet and innocent, Julia Mitchell enrols as Gabriel's graduate student and his immediate attraction to her, and their powerful and strange connection, threatens to derail his career.

If the tortured professor hadn’t caught my interest, the references to Dante in the first few pages definitely did. Now I won’t lie, this was not an easy read for me. I got angry, a lot. I got book whiplash, and wanted to throttle both characters on numerous occasions.

Julia is very meek, she’s shy and innocent and a little damaged, and she lets people walk all over her. She isn’t prepared, and I believed, not strong enough to handle Gabriel Emerson. He’s a very angry hurricane, and she takes the brunt of his verbal aggression, a lot. For apparently no reason, he hates her, and she can’t stop thinking about him.

That aside, I strangely liked this book. The Dante elements were woven in brilliantly, the writing style is engaging and evocative, and there is so much UST and angry passionate want that I found myself yelling ‘Just fuck her already!’ rather loudly and often on public transport. You get caught up with the edgy storytelling, the broody, intense professor and the innocent woman who stirs him to madness.

And the sex: I’ll admit, there isn’t a lot of sex. But this is so much more evolved than 50 Shades, and so much hotter, despite the lack of orgasms, that you really don’t care. When you get it, it’s sweet, it wasn’t world changing, I preferred the build up, which is odd for me, but it’s written beautifully and leads on to much more in its sequel. Which you should also read.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to anyone looking for something intelligent, beautifully written and provocative.

I awarded it 4.5 Throbbing Hearts and a heat rating of 1 Saintly Sweet

 

Some quotes, because I’m a sucker for loving on words:

“If he thought this disgusting display of food porn was going to get her attention and maybe make her a little hot and bothered until she was putty in his hands……he was right.”

“Sometimes people, when left alone, can hear their own hatefulness for themselves. Sometimes goodness is enough to expose evil for what it really is.”

Disclaimer: Reviewer bought copy

Available from Amazon