After coming off of my 50 Shades of Grey high, NOTHING could keep my attention. Here was a trilogy that I finished in 2 days, couldn't put them down and was so absorbed in their world that I found myself having to FORCE myself to get through a page of any other book. So I did some digging and found a little list of books that was titled something like "What to read after 50 Shades of Grey". The first book on the list was Beautiful Disaster....it was SO recommended...but when I FINALLY finished it I was like WTF? People wanted me to read THAT after the eroticism of 50 Shades? Sure, it was an ok book, but I had no clue why it was a recommended one for the genre I was looking for. Thankfully, though, I didnt give up. On that same list was an author I had never heard of: Sylvain Reynard. And the more digging I did, the more and more this name kept popping up on different suggested reading lists. So after reading the description of the book I decided to give Gabriel a try.... Le sigh....Gabriel is the perfect infactuating mix of asshole and sweetheart. Every girl's fantasy gorgeous bad boy they wish they could change. But the real reason I absolutely loved this series, is because of the unbelievable amount I LEARNED from these (currently) 2 romance novels! I retained more information about the art and literature described in these books than I did in ALL of my Art History and College English Lit classes! And they were so beautifully written that I found myself Googling and Wikipedia-ing EVERYTHING...and all of it was REAL! Every painting, every reference...so fascinating!
Gabriel and Julia's story is parrallel with Dante's. (Google it, OR just learn all about him in these books! lol) Their romance will drive you to delirium. I was SO frustrated at times I would literally throw my book down and yell at whoever was being STUPID and self-destructive at the time whether it be Julia or Gabriel. They were both idiots at different points. I wanted to be a character in the story just so I could knock some sense into their heads! But their characters are totally convincing. Being put in the different situations, one WOULD act that way. But being an outsider you're just like... "STOP IT! GIVE IN! BE TOGETHER!" All the jealousy, self-conciousness, doubt.....understandable. But still frustrating. But not frustrating to the point I wanted to stop reading. It PUSHED me! I couldnt put the book down until something would just GIVE. I was strung so tight by the end that when it FINALLY happened I "SQUEEEEEED!!!!" like a little giddy girl (in the middle of the night, mind you, while hubby was sleeping beside me....poor guy) Yeah, I totally spazzed out....lol! I haven't given anything away; all I've said here you could decipher from reading the backs of each book. I wouldn't do that to you, these books are BEAUTIFUL and leave you with a feeling of relief and completeness in the end. Well....now knowing that there's a 3rd book ;-D
Another AMAZING (to me at least) fact about this series: Sylvain Reynard is a GUY!! I had never read a series written by a man before! And actually I had no idea until I had finished reading the books and was looking up more titles by the author. So GOOD JOB DUDE! For real, one of the most romantic and heart wrenching stories I've ever read. Cannot WAIT for the 3rd one to come out!
Gabriel's Inferno
Gabriel's Rapture
3rd book in the works, no title yet!
For a teaser of the 3rd book, check out Angie's site: awholelotofnothing.net
Then take a look around, this chick is HILARIOUS!
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