This was... not for me. I didn't like it at all. It was way over the top with castles in Romania and magical powers. Half the time I was thinking "what series is this?" But worst of all is that the kidnapping, imprisoning and controlling of the Tabitha tainted and prevented the whole romance from hitting the spot. There can be no "romance" without freedom.
The authors tried to spin it that Gabriel wasn't a bad person, just old-fashioned. He's thousands of years old and his "courtship ritual" doesn't really translate to the modern world. But I call bullshit! Because once she told him she was not into this and wanted her freedom, he should have listened. Adjusted his stupid courtship plan. I thought the big ah-ha moment would happen when Tabitha almost died trying to escape the castle. But no! Their "compromise" that he had 40 days to convince her to stay came at the 2/3 point of the book.
Prior to that, it was just so messed up. He drugged her, kidnapped her, prevented her from leaving, prevented her from contacting her friends and family, put cuffs on her, disregarded all her wishes. I think the worst was when he locked her in her room and took all her clothes so she'd have to stay there naked all day. It made me gag. Gabriel had the most messed up inner monologue. At one point he thought about how he wanted to put her in a cage and only let her out for "breeding". Truth is for most of the book he saw her not as his future partner and equal, but as an object to own. Another treasure for his collection. Sure he didn't want harm to come to her, but there was no respect. To him, she was a thing.
The most uncomfortable thing to read about was how Tabitha was still turned on by him despite ALL of that. It's clear the authors tried to pull off a kinky prisoner and master thing. Gabriel wanted her to "submit" to him. But this kind of dominance game can only work with complete consent and trust. The submissive is really the one in control, because they are the ones who give the green light for everything that happens, and they can rescind their permission at any time. But here, Tabitha was a real prisoner. She didn't choose to be there, and she could not leave. It made all their sex scenes so icky and wrong.
Add to this that Gabriel was totally holding himself back the whole time: he would not kiss her, would always pull out, wouldn't even undress while she was always completely naked and helpless before him (not of her own free will). Again, this felt like it was supposed to be a kink thing but didn't work because of the lack of freedom and trust. Instead, it felt like Gabriel just wanted to take and take from her while giving her nothing. It wasn't love-making. But Tabitha ate it up! Even as she didn't like that he was holding back, she didn't push him too hard on it.
It felt like the authors tried to have it both ways with Tabitha: make her an independent, freedom-loving woman who couldn't be controlled by Gabriel or impressed with his fortune and power. But at the same time, they had to make her be turned on by the control and not mind it terribly much, otherwise this would be a horror story rather than romance. What we ended up with is a completely wishy-washy character that didn't make sense at all. One who would risk her life trying to climb down a cliff to escape one moment, and the next was enjoying being put in a cage and giving Gabriel a blowjob through the bars. It didn't work. This series has had strong alpha female characters before, like Kylie who was headstrong but liked submitting in bed. That worked. We also had completely submissive female characters like Jordy, who's life ambition was to find a good master to serve and belong to. That worked too. But Tabitha didn't work.
I enjoyed the book more (or rather, hated it a bit less) after the 2/3 point when Tabitha started staying willingly and Gabriel actually started opening up to her and treating her more like a person. But it was too little, too late. The whole thing already had a bad taste in my mouth by then and I was just trying to get the book over with as fast as possible. Gabriel kind of disgusted me, and Tabitha too for having no self-respect.
This may be my least favorite book in this universe, tied with Trey and Sheridan's book. I loved all the other books, but in this series the lows are VERY low. These authors either hit a homerun, or fall flat on their faces on the way to the pitch. There seems to be no in-between. In any case, I'm relieved that this is over and I can move on to the next book in the series...