Gabriel's Rule - Book Review

By Sloane Kennedy

Synopsis

After nearly ten years of moonlighting as a professional escort, Gabriel Maddox is good at giving women the forbidden pleasures they crave. They don’t need to know that something inside of him dies a little each time he does it or that his desperate need for cash is the only reason he can’t walk away. They just need to know that to get what they want, they have to play by his rules.

Riley Sinclair is starting over. She’s left dry, dusty Texas and her ultra conservative, fanatically religious parents and cheating, mean-spirited fiancé behind for a new life in Seattle. But one look at her stunningly gorgeous new neighbor Gabe brings back all the insecurities she’s trying to escape.

Gabe can only offer Riley pleasure but when she discovers that his perfect outside hides something terribly broken on the inside, will she risk her heart to give him what he needs?

Trigger Warning: This book contains references to abuse that may be disturbing for some readers.

Review

When it comes to sex, Gabe has two rules: he won’t kiss you and you can’t touch him. To prevent any accidental touches, his willing clients are tied up with bindings he insists they bring themselves. Sounds hot, right? It is, until you realise that he’s not actually into kink, but these conditions are the outcome of a deeply troubled past⎯a past that causes him to hate his job as an escort. But he needs the money it brings in to pay his bills and to replace whatever his drug-addicted mother steals from him. Riley is running away from her televangelist parents and her cheating, confidence-smashing ex-fiance, and ends up living next door to Gabe. Despite being attracted to each other, their “friendship” is strained by miscommunications and trust issues. Both have demons they need to overcome if they’re going to have a chance at a happy and healthy relationship.

GABRIEL’S RULE is a story I would consider an insta-love and is told in dual POVs. I noticed that sometimes the POV would change in the middle of the chapter without any notice, which was quite confusing. The twist involving Gabe’s mother was both shocking and unexpected, and certainly explained a lot. But the revelation is made just before the story finishes, so it ended up feeling rushed and unresolved, which was disappointing. Perhaps we’ll hear more about it in the other two books in the series that are about Gabe’s friends. But in regards to Gabe and Riley, it appears they escaped their pasts and got their HEA.