Review & Giveaway: Gabriel's Rapture by Sylvain Reynard

Gabriel's Rapture
Author: Sylvain Reynard
Publisher: Omnific Publishing
Release date: 5/22/12  
Author's website:  Link

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 rapture 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 be forced to share Dante’s fate? Or will he fight to keep Julia, his Beatrice, forever?

Gabriel's Rapture begins right where the previous book ended.  Professor Emerson and Julia are vacationing in Italy while he gives a lecture on what he knows best, Dante.  If you've read the previous book Gabriel's Inferno, then you know how important Dante is to the storyline as well as the characters. There are lots of beautiful written scenes involving the intimacies between Gabriel and Julia.  His main goal is to worship her with love and try his best to move on from what has happened in the past.  But the past doesn't seem to want to let him go and their new relationship has to face many challenges. They also have to deal with the issue of how their relationship came to be.  When word gets out about them being together to the administration of the university things become extremely tense.  In their eyes Gabriel and Julia have broken the rules and everything about the future of their careers may be jeopardized.  It doesn't seem as if it's going to end well for this couple that is so deeply in love.  There's also some trust issues that they have to deal with as their relationship becomes a more serious one.  You just don't know if these two are going to be together by the end of the book and that mystery adds to this already well written story.

Gabriel and Julia's relationship changes throughout the book as the discover each others more intimately and as they discover more about one another.  Gabriel's character really blew me away in this book as his love for Julia is truly shown in some many different ways.  He would do anything for his Beatrice, even if it meant that he had to sacrifice himself.  He is so selfless and giving to so many people as we get to see his character mature.  Julia also matures as she discovers her inner strength during the difficult times.  This newly found strength also allows others to see her in a new light.   Despite all of the bad there was so much good.  Lots of love scenes as these new lovers discover what makes each other tick.  Gabriel is extremely generous as his pleasure comes from giving Julia pleasure.  Gotta love a man whose man mission is to make his woman happy!

I'm giving Gabriel's Rapture a rating of: 

Sylvain Reynard's writing is the star of this book! I found myself hanging onto his every word while I was reading. He has a way of making the reader feel as if they are a part of the book. While I enjoyed the book for the most part, I didn't enjoy some of the parts with the villians of the story.  I'm not mentioning exactly what happened as I don't want to give anything away, but I wanted to see some better conclusion to it.  These issues were too conveniently dealt with for me.  They were some of the main causes of the issues between Gabriel and Julia.  Other than that, I felt that the author did a great job of wrapping up the storyline and I was happy with how everything else was handled.  If you read book one, you'll want to read Gabriel's Rapture so you can continue the journey with Gabriel and Julia to see exactly what happens.  The journey of love is never and easy one and these 2 had a lot to deal with on that journey, but it was a worthy one.

Giveaway

Omnific Publishing is generously giving away a mug with the Gabriel's Rapture cover on it as well as a copy of the ebook!  Open to US/CAN only.  Please leave an email with a comment if you are interested in entering the giveaway.  Giveaway ends 5/29/12 at 12PM EST.  Good luck!