Review: Gabriel's Inferno (Gabriel's Inferno, #1) by Sylvain Reynard

3.5 stars! ****

Author: Sylvain Reynard

Title: Gabriel's Inferno (Gabriel's Inferno #1)

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.

"Facilis descensus Averni." The descent to Hell is easy.

I've heard so much about this book. Mostly good things, but there were also some negative too. And I agree with all of them. After I read the first fifty pages I really didn't get it why everyone was so excited about Gabriel's Inferno because it was just so boring. The narration is in third person and it's all-knowing, which sometimes makes the book confusing and to me it's just plainly annoying. I guess I'm spoiled by my favourite dual POVs.

Gabriel is professor at University of Toronto and he's Dante's specialist. He's also ruthless, rude, angry man with a hot body and beautiful face. He's got a sordid past and believes that he doesn't deserve redemption for his sins. He doesn't try to atone them, he just tries to drown them. But inside he still hopes to find his Beatrice who will lead him to paradise.

Julienne is shy and wounded. Her ex-boyfriend was a major di*k and it left a deep scar inside her heart. And it also made her extremely touchy. Tell her it's raining and she'll apologize and try to stop it.

When she was 17, she met a man. A beautifully messed up man with a broken heart who thought she was his Beatrice and was there to guide him out of hell. She fell in love with this man and he fell in love with her. She helped him through the worst part of his life and shown him the light.

 "Apparuit iam beautitudo vestra." Now your blessedness appears.

But he disappeared the next morning and left her alone. But he still remained in her heart for the next six years.

"She was waiting desperately to become Real. Waiting to be loved, even. And the waiting has taken its toll on her. Not on her outward appearance, which was very attractive. Not that, but on her soul, which he thought was very beautiful but sad."

Juliet meets him again when she's 23. Now she's just as broken as he was before. And he hates himself now more than ever. Her meeting with her Dante doesn't happen the way she expect. He's cruel and malicious. And he doesn't remember her. He's still looking for his Beatrice, but doesn't see that she's standing right in front of him.

But even though he doesn't know who she really is to him, he is attracted to her. It's like a pull. He's mean to her, but then he wants to make it up to her the second his words are out of his mouth. And she's pulled to him like a moth to light. Or like Icarus to the Sun.

What I loved about Gabriel's Inferno was the knowledge. I don't know if it's acurate, because I never read Dante's Divine Comedy (and for a while I was tempted to read but then I realized that it's as thick as my head and it's written in rhyme, which is a big no for me) and I was never interested in Botticelli, but I believed every word that was written.

Many things in the book repeated itself many many times. Sometimes it was in different context, sometimes it was even in the same damn situation.

"I'm so sad. I'm so shy. I'm embarassed by everyone and everything. Don't be mean to me or I'm gonna cry because my boyfriend was an as*hole (why didn't you leave him then?). I love you but I'm done. No, I'm not. I'll do what you say."

That was Julie. And she was even worse in the book. She cried all the time and argh. Sometimes I just wanted to slap her. If you mind how people treat you WHY DON'T YOU DO SOMETHING?

It was a long book. Long long long book. And most of it Julies spend crying. For real. If half the things were cut from it, the plot wouldn't change and it would be less repetitive (because when you have a book that's over 700 pages a lot of things are gonna be repeated) and more flowing and definitely more gripping.

When I look back at it now, it wasn't actually that bad, but just really tedious. It was descritive and realistic. There was suspense, secrets, love, lust, sadness, anger. Just everything that a book should have if just a bit shorter (read: a lot!).

There were couple of things unresolved, but I wouldn't even mind if there was no continuation. I really have no idea what can be written in two other books that are euqually as long. Hopefully it will surprise me, pleasantly.