This is a spoiler-free review! You can read my reviews for Gabriel's Inferno and Gabriel's Rapture on my blog now.
This is the first time that I was going into a book in this series blind -- as I mentioned in my reviews for Gabriel's Inferno and Gabriel's Rapture, I watched all of the movies before starting the series. Since Part I of Gabriel's Redemption is being released on June 22nd, I did not know what to expect in this installment and was excited to see what was in store for Julia and Gabriel.
Julia and Gabriel seem to be constantly fighting and making up the next day, and a majority of those times I found myself wondering what was happening to Julia's character development and confidence that she acquired during Gabriel's Rapture. She really seemed to finally start to stick up for herself and lose the timidness that followed her, but not even a quarter of the way into the third book do we see her slowly descending in a downward spiral and backtracking on the progress that she had made. She has to compromise with Gabriel on a number of things, and it felt as if Gabriel's opinions and feelings were the only ones that mattered in their relationship.
It only took two and a half books, but the sex scenes finally started moving toward something other than a fade to black chapter. After watching Julia come out of her shell more and more, it was definitely expected to see her lean toward Gabriel's old habits before they got together. I was actually hoping that something like that would happen, because you can only read so many scenes alluding to something more before you start to want to skim the chapters. The scenes were definite improvements compared to the first two installments, and really played into Julia and Gabriel's individual desires.
The side characters are really going through it in this books -- Paul, Tom, Rachel, even Christa. It felt like one blow after another, watching each person suffer right after the other. I do have to admit that I was enjoying the expansion the author made on these characters, as in the previous books they felt like they were being used as stepping stones for Julia and Gabriel, but now they have their own stories to be told.
Not to mention the number of medical emergencies and issues that side and main characters are going through as well -- I swear, if one more person was in the hospital or seeing a doctor, I was going to be able to graduate medical school by the end of the book. Pregnancy seems to be as contagious as the common cold in this book, with everyone getting knocked up as if the world was in a population crisis. The author went a little overboard when it came to the wellbeing of nearly half of the main characters, making it feel more like a fiction book rather than a romance.
I was really looking forward to Julia growing into herself and becoming just as confident as Gabriel, and the book was definitely headed that way until the third act. Due to a certain circumstance, she withdraws on herself again, and while Gabriel does try to talk to her to the best of his abilities, he is also hiding a number of things from Julia. With both of them harboring their feelings to themselves and stepping around one another, the third act became a back-and-forth of Gabriel and Julia deciding on their lives, while being supplemented by what I consider too many chapters of Paul's perspective. He was an interesting character, but was only a source of argument when it came to Julia and Gabriel's relationship.
Of the first three books, Gabriel's Redemption has the most development for all of the characters by a mile. With the addition of a few new characters, I was hoping that Julia could maybe make a friend or two in her PhD program, especially because she mentioned previously that she was not very close to anyone in her classes. Unfortunately, we do not get to see that, at least on page. It did feel like Gabriel was backtracking on his development towards the end of the book, and he seemed to be getting everything that he wanted, whereas Julia was constantly having to compromise or deal with the consequences of his actions.
If I did not know that there was another book after this one, I would say that the conclusion was pretty solid, save for a few side characters and their own little plots. I do wish that we would have gotten some moments of Julia and Gabriel where everything was going their way and they did not have anything interrupting their lives, but alas, the drama really moved the plot forward.
Gabriel's Inferno Parts I, II, and III, along with Gabriel's Rapture Parts I, II, and III are now available to watch through streaming on Passionflix.
You can add Gabriel's Redemption on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.
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