Seal of Gabriel

Blood and Snow #7

by RaShelle Workman

Every thousand years the Vampire Queen selects a new body, always the fairest in the land, and this time she's chosen Snow White.

Summary:

There are seven magical properties in the Seal of Gabriel. Snow learns how the Seal was created.


***This is a novelette.***

Genres: Vampires, Paranormal, Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance, Fairy Tales, Urban Fantasy

80 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 2012

About the author

RaShelle Workman is an international bestselling author of reimagined fairy tales, supernatural suspense, paranormal cozies, and more. Her novels have been listed on multiple bestseller lists, including her Blood and Snow series (now Seven Magics Academy), which has sold more than a million copies worldwide. In addition, three of her books have been translated into Turkish.

When RaShelle isn't writing, she enjoys baking, creating new taco recipes and hanging with family. She lives in Utah with her husband, three children, and their dogs.

Find her online by visiting her website at: www.rashelleworkman.org. And sign up for her newsletter to receive free books and get information on book release dates: http://eepurl.com/chMcej.

Books by RaShelle Workman:

BROOMSTICK BAY COZY MYSTERIES
Zucchini Cake & Zombies
Wedding Cake & Werewolves (coming 6/23)
Vanilla Cake & Vampires (coming 10/23)

EERIE VALLEY SUPERNATURALS
Undercover Reaper
Twice Reaped
Reapers Creepers
Deadly Reaper (coming 4/24)

FABLE TOWN MYSTERIES
Iced Raspberry Cookies and a Curse

FAIRY ACADEMY
Hidden Princess
Broken Curse
Stolen Magic

THE FAIRYTALE CHRONICLES
Royal Selection
Royal Contract
Royal Keeper (coming 12/23)
Royal Everlasting (coming 2024)

DEMONLAND SERIES
Alice in Demonland
Alice Fights Demonland
Alice Takes Demonland
Alice Ignites Demonland

BEASTLY SERIES
A Beauty so Beastly

WOLF BLOOD ACADEMY
Initiation
Inheritance
Induction

MAGIC BLOOD ACADEMY
Elemental Outcast Games: Fire
Elemental Outcast Games: Water
Elemental Outcast Games: Earth
Elemental Outcast Games: Air
Elemental Outcast Games: Shadow
Elemental Outcast Games: Monster

VAMPIRE BLOOD ACADEMY
Vampire in Training (coming 8/2023)
Monster Trials (coming 9/2023
End Times (coming 9/23)

SEVEN MAGICS ACADEMY
Blood and Snow
Fate and Magic
Queen of the Vampires
Deadly Witch
Royal Witch
Vampire Lies
Vampire Secrets
Vampires and Dragons
Vampires and Gargoyles
Vampire Magics

ETERNALLY ENTANGLED
Eternally Entangled
Thoroughly Tousled
Infinitely Intertwined

PARANORMAL INQUIRIES
Ghoulish Whisper

IMMORTAL ESSENCE
Exiled
Destined

ACROSS THE AGES
Goddess Curse
Mystical Gift

__________

Ann Hardy ~ Sizzling Sweet Romance
Most Eligible Cowboy
Happily Ever Summer
Rockstar Billionaire
Billionaire Best Man
Faking it With the Billionaire
Dating the Billionaire
The Betting Billionaire
The Country Singer's Billionaire
The Prideful Billionaire
Totally Scrooged


Reviews

[RaShelle Workman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Snow continues to fight the monster within, and find love, all while dealing with her destiny.

[Phaedra Seabolt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is written very differently from the other six. In the end of Masquerade's Moon, Snow White has been sliced open by the sword of a chayot. In the process, the seal of Gabriel (a powerful necklace) obliterates the chayot and somehow embeds itself into Snow White. This book is all about how the seal of Gabriel was created. It just happens to also be written with Snow in some kind of magical coma. Most of the story is told from Silindra's perspective. Silindra was the original vampire queen until her twin sister got greedy for power. She created the seal, but this book leads you to believe that she actually did it with Snow White's help. Snow seems to be trapped in Silindra's head, helping to create the seal. What will become of Snow White is still unknown. We know the seal of Gabriel was successfully created, but will she ever wake up? Will she be able to restore the balance of magic in the modern world? There are a lot of unanswered questions.

Read more reviews at Identity Discovery blog.

[Nicole Pope · Rating 5 out of 5]

As far as indie paranormal novelettes, I have not read anything better. I have read the entire series, they just seem to get better and better. While I do find occasional errors, the errors are minor and inconsequential to a wonderfully told story. I love RaShelle Workman's writing style, character development, and ability to pull me into a story so completely that I am genuinely shocked when the novelette is over. I wish the stories were longer but they are a perfect miniature dose of excellence.

[Sarah Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
(Source: I own a copy of this book.)
This was another okay instalment that was a bit different because it was told from the point of view of Silindra the Queen of the Vampires rather than Snow. To be honest we didn’t get much input from Snow at all as she was asleep! This was an interesting story though, and told us a bit more about Silindra.
Overall; okay short story,
7 out of 10.

[Sarah Oxford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can't stop to write a review for each one, but have to say that I absolutely LOVED 'Seal of Gabriel'. Such a refreshing change of voice and it's so exciting finding about the supernatural world. Really am having difficulty stopping in this series. Such fun!

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED THIS!!!! I really wish these were longer!!!
Getting ready to read the next one now! :-)

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will post full reviews on all 12 books once I have read them all. But for now, I can only HIGHLY RECOMMEND this series!!

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book we travel back in time with Silindra, yet we are also in the present with Snow. Many things are happening. Again I was left wanting more!

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing... New obsession with twisted childhood fairy tales

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved!

[Meaghan R. (YA-aholic) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.9 stars, since there are less of the same mistakes...they're still there, but there not as frequent...

it seems that some aspects of the writing are getting a LITTLE bit better, and then other aspects, which
she's had no problem with previously, she's totally messing up!


one thing that REALLY bothered me was the Snow White coma scenes where the PoV would shift...there was a symbol to denote this, but then Workman had to go in and put in ellipses before and after quote marks that started and ended each scene...i have NO idea if they were there because the conversation was coming in and out, and we were jumping in (and out) in the middle, but if that's the case, then the "..." should have been inside the quote marks. if it was because we were in a different scene/PoV, then that's what the symbol between the two scenes was for!

-all of the following issues are present in ALL of the previous novels, just their frequency is different-

again, we had issues with over-comma-ing, though not quite as bad as before...it seems only HALF of the and's had commas before them, instead of ALL

also, LOTS of sentences that were really fragments starting with contractions. this isn't that bad, and it can be stylistic, but when you do it ALL the time, it become annoying. i

plus side: finally italicized inner dialogue, though it was different than all the previous "my inner voice said's" in the previous books, which is sooooo annoying...

issues with i/me...as in she has NO CLUE when to use each one...and i'm not talking about the commonly-misused me at the end of a sentence either, i'm talking basic, fundamental in-the-middle-of-a-sentence...he and me went walking. where/when is this EVER right??!!! which brings up another point...he/she goes with I...him/her goes with me....this is also basic, and also wrong a handful of times.

a few instances of words that are supposed to be hyphenated that weren't, or words she hyphenated that shouldn't have been...

inconsistent adjective, adjective noun/adjective compound noun comma-ing..."long, black lashes" near the beginning, and then "long black lashes" near the end

oh, and another thing about ellipses...when they are in the middle of a sentence, NO SPACE after them...
when they are at the END of a sentence, space.

now onto gray
this issue went away a little bit, and i thought it was resolved, only to be revisited and messed up again:
you are American. this book is published IN America...we spell it grAy, NOT grEY. it would be one thing if all the spellings were the same, but it's not, she uses both spellings randomly.
also used brit spelling: travelLed and travelLIng x2

OH, and something else that is SUPER annoying: "thumb and first finger"
why must you always say this!?!?!? in every book!

oh, and now a plot-issue:
Abernathy lists ingredients to make pendant...says there are six others, in addition to his, then names them. only problem is that he only names 5 other ingredients. there is NO mention of elf-sight...the only mention is when she sets out to get it....how does she know this if it was NEVER SAID?!!?

inconsistently italicizes or quotes/single quotes when quoting someone in dialogue, and in narrative...and inconsistent from eaCh book to the next...PICK ONE METHOD AND STICK TO IT!!

oh, and here's ANOTHER issue that's in all the books: ITALICIZE FOREIGN WORDS!!!!

again, doesn't know the difference between further and farther

okay, so the biggest issue i have in all of these books is the author's INABILITY to pluralize words...one of the EASIEST things to do, right? -you just stick an "s" on the end, right? yea, not so in
Workman's case....she also adds apostrophes...making the word singular possessive...brother's instead of brothers is the most common and is in EVERY book i've read so far (up to ten) she also wrote trees' instead of tree's...there was only one...this was her only instance of plural possessive
cruelty's used instead of cruelties

three or more item lists all have commas between the last two items and the conjunction, with the exception of one or two in each book...which happened here...i guess you could say she's consistent in her mistakes? anyway, pick one way to do something, and keep doing it that way...you cannot switch back and forth (3 in this one)

when i was in school, we learned that there was a difference between all right and alright...one meaning all is right, and the other more of an idiom...i recently learned that all should technically be all right, as alright isn't a real word...so, not gonna mark her off for using something i was taught in school, but know the difference between the two...

oh, and speaking of "two"..there is at least one instance where to was used instead of too or vice versa...

issues with dialogue enders...commas where there shouldn't be...some with and, quite a few with -ing clauses, and a handful of random prepositions.

"give, give" (trolls) it should be give-give, like like-live vs. like-love...and i only bring this up because she corrects it in a later book...

if you're gonna use "braeburn apples"...take the time to make the distinction, know that it's capitalized...

wrong words used
"matter-a-factly" instead of "matter-OF-factly"
blond instead of blondE for female characters, though she at least used all the same spellings, and not most people know the difference, so not a huge problem...

a few total fragments that go nowhere, like Workman just forgot what she was writing and ended the sentence abruptly

also, if you're going to try to use different words/ways of saying something, spell the freaking word right:
chatruse instead of chartreuse...you know that had a red line under it when you wrote this...pay attention to those, they help you not sound like an idiot!

[Micheleann Oboyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Snow discovers just how powerful the seal of Gabriel really is when she can converse with silindra and who is her true heart love destinty after all that gives her the warning don't let the seal of Gabriel control you thats the mystery great read and worth recommending

[Krystle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

[Colleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

So far this is my least favorite but I think it’s setting up some other things. Snow wasn’t really in this book which is why I didn’t like it much.

[Sasha Saunders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not digging the jumping around in this one. Or the seal of Gabrielles back story.

[Domika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oslava Sněhurčiných narozenin nedopadla zrovna nejlépe. Bál se změnil v bitevní pole - chayoti v čele s Gabeovým otcem proti samotné Sněhurce. Do toho všeho se připletla i Královna, která chtěla získat Gabrielovu pečeť pro sebe. Sněhurka byla zraněna, pečeť se nějakým způsobem dostala do ní a nakonec upadla do magického kómatu.

Celý příběh je už od začátku jiný. Není totiž vyprávěn z pohledu Sněhurky, ale z pohledu první Upíří královny Silindry, sestry zlé Upíří královny. Můžeme tedy sledovat, jak celá Gabrielova pečeť vznikala. Setkáme se s novými postavami! V ději se vyskytne spousta trollů, víl a dokonce se zde objeví i jednorožec Envy.

Autorka mě velmi překvapila popisem prvního upíra. Silindra je něco jako upíro-anděl. Má krásná křídla a létání přímo zbožňuje.

Sněhurka se, neznámo jak, objevila najednou v Silindřině hlavě. Společně se tak snaží sehnat všech sedm magických částí Gabrielové pečeti, která bude mít neuvěřitelnou moc.

Nejvíc jsem si oblíbila jednorožce Envyho. Když byl malý, byl jiný než ostatní jednorožci, a tak se mu jeho kamarádi jednorožci posmívali. Jeho rodiče to nemohli snést, proto mu urvali roh a nechali ho uvázaného v lese. Envy je ale silný jednorožec a za pomoci elfů našel opět sílu žít.

Dobrý příběh se skvělým jednorožcem Envym si určitě zaslouží pozornost. Ačkoliv byl zbytek děje lehce podprůměrný, skvělý závěr vylepšil celou reputaci knihy. Nakonec dávám knize krásných 3/5 a těším se, až v dalším dílu uvidím jednorožce Envyho :) :D

[Melissa E. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually enjoyed this installment more than the previous six combined! There was a real plot here, beyond boyfriend angst or over the top birthday parties. Workman's writing is getting better as well, smoother and less jarring from one emotion to another (in previous chapters, Snow would be depressed in one paragraph and happy-go-lucky in the next).

The scope of the entire story changes, moving to more of a fantasy setting as we see more of Silindra and Sharra's world. There are elves, trolls, and flying unicorns alongside our vampires and silly hybrid angels. It sounds ridiculous, but this mix actually works with the way that Workman writes it. There is this fun sense of adventure and urgency with Silindra that I never really felt with Snow and company...it's almost like this is the real story that the author wanted to tell.

Snow is still present, and the specialest of the special, but she is sort of sidelined a bit in this installment. Workman keeps us updated on her status with cleverly inserted little scenes between Silindra's action, which was just fine by me. I'm actually eager to move on to the next section and see what happens...I hope it's still Silindra narrating!

[*Book Euphoria * · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this volume. We got to know Silindra, who is the former Queen of the vampires. She's also The Vampire Queen's Sharra, twin sister. In this book it seems that Snow is inside Silindras mind. Silindras living her everyday life while Snow rides along in her mind. Silindra is getting all the powers or magic that will complete the Seal of Gabriel. The necklace will help stop The Evil vampire Queen.

At first I didn't know what to think of Silindra, she seems nice and cool but she also thinks she's better than humans and different creatures. That's where you can see the Queen side of her. But she does seem to be trying to do something to help out. And it was also nice to read from someone else's POV besides Snow.

Great volume, off to read the next one :)

[Evey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this one as much as the rest, mainly because it turned out to be pretty much confusing by mixing Snow White's and Silindra's scenes in such way. Besides, this Silindra thing with the Seal was a bit odd and, in parts, boring. I rather read more about Snow than her, for sure. Then, the ending... CLIFFHANGER. Again. RaShelle, you know how to leave me wondering about what will happen next!


I'm in for the next book, yay!
Complete review of the series coming soon

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always it is a fun and quick read. I have really enjoyed most of the blood and snow series it is a bit addicting but it also makes for an interesting tale of the snow white sit on the retelling it as a vampire series versus being the fairytale it was. I will continue to read read this series probably over and over or when I want a fun quick tale story series

[Lis - The Indigo Quill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snow is "asleep" and for a significantly long time. She "meets" Silindra and we learn more about her, the magical world, and the Seal of Gabriel. Quite a few things going on at home while Snow is "asleep." Gabe still seems to be in love and sweet and the Gabe that we adore. He tries to kill Christoper. At least I think that was this one. :)

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I REALLY enjoyed this book! A lot of questions were answered and I finally got some history and background which I felt was missing before. It made the whole story come full circle and I really felt the importance of what Snow is trying to do. This book drew me more to her than before because *she* finally got it as well. I'm starting the next one immediately!

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story goes beyond on Snow and brings in more detail of previously mentioned characters. This story is told in a very different way. this is Silandra and her story of making the seal of Gabriel. Snow is still a main character but in this book you find out more about the past and why things are the way they are now.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Passionate Bites Anthology

Snow is in a coma following her fight with Oberon. She overhears bits of conversations as her family and friends visit her. But she also finds herself linked with Silindra, the vampire queen who created the Seal of Gabriel.

This was my favorite so far. I really liked the scenes with Silindra showing you how things really started.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was too short - it totally lacked the pieces of an actual story meaning there was no lead up and no climax. That being said it was interesting.
The writing style in this one is different which was slightly confusing.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love these books can't wait to read book 8 :)

[Misty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just wish these were longer.

[Kelli Ellis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This part of the story took a strange turn. I was confused through the whole book.

[K H · Rating 2 out of 5]

not the best of the series to be certain. i found the story told was unnecessary.

[pinK · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm so disappointed in where this installment took the story. It seemed completely pointless and was difficult to get through, even as short as it is.