Padme's Library: Review Tour: Gabriel by RJ Scott

Thursday, August 17, 2017

Review Tour: Gabriel by RJ Scott

Title: Gabriel

Author: RJ Scott

Series: Legacy #2

Genre: M/M Romance

Release Date: August 2, 2017

Cover Design: Meredith Russell

Summary:
Trapped in darkness, can an escort find a man to help him into the light?

Gabriel Reyes never gave in. He fought and was hurt, was abused but escaped with his life. He made his way in the world using the one thing he was good at: sex. He earned a place with a man who controls everything but Gabriel is safe; he’s made it.

Cameron Stafford hires Gabriel for a night, needing nothing more than a pretend boyfriend to get his dysfunctional family off his back. With the money he has in the bank and his own hotel, why won't they just leave him alone? It doesn’t matter that a degenerative disease has stolen his vision, or that his last boyfriend was a bastard who tried to steal from him; for now he has purpose.

When Gabriel and Cam fall for each other, can they find real happiness and, maybe, a forever that will save them both?

A new story set in the world of Jack and Riley Campbell-Hayes and the Double D Ranch, Texas.

💡Please be aware: emotional and physical abuse are depicted on the page in this book💡

Bloggers Note:
This is not an easy read, even for those who read Kyle: The First Legacy and those who know the back story of Hank Castille's victims from Liam's story in Texas Christmas and Texas Fall, it will hurt your heart but it is also a tale of survival.

Gabriel Reyes has not had a truly happy or safe moment in life since his mother passed when he was little, he had his childhood and innocence robbed from him at the hands of a evil man and life has not improved since escaping Hank's horrid grasp. Cameron Stafford has money and privilege but even that could not save his sight but he hasn't let it defeat him. When Cam and Gabriel's life meet, its safe to say nothing will ever be the same for either of them or those closest to them. But will it be enough to heal Gabriel's soul?

Gabriel crawled into my heart from page one. I won't go into everything he suffers either from his past or at the hands or voice of Stefan but I will say it is not pretty. His self-doubts verge on self-hate and who can blame him after everything he's survived, even if he doesn't see it as surviving("suffered" would probably be a more accurate term but I never liked using that word in cases like this because to me "suffered" represents no coming back from). He has a chance at recovery with Legacy Ranch but Stefan has made sure that Gabriel doesn't see it as a second chance at life. I just want to wrap Gabriel in layers of bubble wrap or one of those soft eggshell mattresses often used in hospitals to protect him from others and himself, but its not possible and unfortunately sometimes we have to reach the bottom step before we can turn that corner that leads back up.

Now onto Cameron. I know that this is Gabriel's story but there is one thing that really brought Cam alive for me. Cam hires Gabe to be his plus one to his sister's engagement party and while there we see how his family views Cam due to his blindness as does Gabe, which I'll come to in a minute. As for Cam's family, well it stuck with me because my grandfather was in a wheelchair by the time I was born because of his MS and my mother has had endless health issues, luckily no one in our family really saw either Mom or her dad the way Cam is seen but you can imagine I spent/spend a lot of time in hospitals and clinics and I see the reactions like the Stafford's to patients too often. I loved how RJ Scott dealt with this, even with this being Gabe's story she still managed to express Cam's issues as well, their pain may not be on the same level but Cam's problems are no less important.

I said I'd return to Gabe in regard to the engagement party, here it is: I was intrigued with the way Gabe managed to see what was happening to Cam not to mention how he saw the pain in Cam's sister's eyes as the same thing he saw in the mirror every day even if he could not see a way out for himself. That scene right there told me that there was still tons of hope for Gabe to recover and replace his self-hate with love.

As thrilled as I am that Legacy is considered a spin-off of RJ's brilliant series Texas(my absolute favorite series I have ever read and re-read) it is also an amazingly heartfelt journey that will leave you in tears more often than smiles but in the end it is a true journey of survival and recovery of one's soul. Love may not always be the heart's healer but it always opens one's eyes to the possibilities of life. Gabriel is a perfect example of Pandora's Box, when Pandora unleashed all the horrors to the world there was one thing left at the bottom of the box: HOPE.

RATING:

Click Here for Kyle(Legacy #1)

Click Here for Saturday Series Spotlight: Texas

to check out Jack & Riley Campbell-Hayes' journey

Author Bio:
RJ Scott is the bestselling romance author of over 100 romance books. She writes emotional stories of complicated characters, cowboys, millionaire, princes, and the men and women who get mixed up in their lives. RJ is known for writing books that always end with a happy ever after. She lives just outside London and spends every waking minute she isn't with family either reading or writing.

The last time she had a week’s break from writing she didn't like it one little bit, and she has yet to meet a bottle of wine she couldn’t defeat.