Gabriel’s Inferno is the smartest romance novel I’ve read. I’m convinced SR is a Medieval Studies professor (or perhaps a team of Medievalists) who read the pivotal meadow scene in Twilight as a locus amoenus. This “pleasant place” is common in Medieval dream visions like The Romance of the Rose. When Gabriel says Julia “blooms under kindness, like a rose,” I thought, I SEE WHAT’S HAPPENING! Julia is Beatrice, a rosebud, Goodness, a personification of the divine. She yearns for her sweet lover, the man who once held her in an old apple orchard (Gabriel calls it “Paradise"), to recognize her, to return to her—to the light. That Gabriel believes he dreamt a brown-eyed angel is such a clever spin on the dream vision! Dante’s Inferno provides an excellent frame for the story, but there are so many layers. Gabriel’s darkness contrasts with Julia’s goodness, yet both characters are in pain and feel very human. I mostly identify with Gabriel’s addiction (I was a “functioning” alcoholic for years), but Julia’s low self-confidence and sexual trauma is so like my own that I stopped reading at one point just to marvel at the book. (Finding Gabriel’s Inferno when I did feels like some kind of cosmic gift.) I’m the sort of reader who becomes emotionally invested in the lives of well-written characters. I’ll never forget Gabriel and Julia. Their story gives me hope redemption is possible for anyone. I’m impressed with SR’s blend of courtly love, allegory, and modern romance novel (there is the perfect amount of spice), and I love the references to works of art, literature, and historical lovers. (Though I dread what talk of Abelard and Heloise foreshadows for the couple.) This book is bomb/a balm.