Rating: 
Summary: Her finest so far
Review: I've read all of Robin Schone's work and this, in my humble opinion, is her best work. Gabriel and Victoria are two deeply wounded, terribly lonely people, searching for someone to love them for who and what they are. This is true especially for Gabriel, who from the age of 13 was trained as a prositute. Victoria, a governess from the age of 16 ran away from an abusive father who believed all women were whores. Now at age 34, destitute and desperate she comes to the house of Gabriel to sell her virginity to the highest bidder. What she doesn't know is that she is a pawn in a game of life and death, darnkess and light that has been playing out for the last 14 years. Watching the walls of pain and mistrust slowly crumble, was very well written. The "angel" story Victoria told near the end of the book was incredibly touching. I enjoyed each and every page and was sad when it ended. Be warned: This book is not for the faint of heart. If you looking for romantic fluff read something else. The sex is explicit, raw and, at times, quite raunchy.
Rating:
Summary: absolutely amazing
Review: When I started this book, I had no idea of the depths that Robin Schone would take me to. I was going to put off reading it until I read The Lover, the book that comes before Gabriel's Woman, but I decided to just read the first chapter. I started to read it and I couldn't stop. The story is unlike any I've ever read. Every so often I come across a romance novel that tugs at the heart strings a little bit, but this one wrenched my heart out. It was so beautifully told, and tears were streaming down my face as I read of Gabriel's pain and love. This is not a book for the faint of heart. It is very dark, and Schone has written it so that the reader is left in the dark regarding many aspects of Gabriel's past. She addresses many serious issues that I have never come across in any books, romance or otherwise. The emotion of this book is very real. I have read other reviews that state that there is no real emotion between Gabriel and Victoria, that the sex scenes are clinical, and that Victoria is nothing but a "receptacle" for Gabriel's pain, but I think that those reviewers couldn't be any more wrong. If they believe that somehow Gabriel and Victoria could have progressed in their relationship without exorcising Gabriel's demons, then they must have just been skimming through the book looking for titillating sex scenes to read. I would have to say, though, that the most beautiful part of this book is the relationship between Gabriel and Michael (from The Lover). In this pair, Schone has created a love that very few people could possibly understand, a love that could easily be misconstrued as homosexuality. For readers who see it as such, I suggest reading the book again, this time with an open mind and a willingness to see something beautiful and rare, and not about sex. If you can handle a romance that has not only a plot, but the most intricate character development of the hero that has ever been written, then I highly recommend this book. If not, then you'd best go back to reading the Harlequin books.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't read this unless you've read The Lover first
Review: I get very disappointed when authors include characters from other stories but don't explain these previous characters or other story properly in their current story, and assume the reader has read the previous book. I was confused during the first half of the book just trying to piece together Michael's and Gabriel's relationship. I had no idea what happened to Michael, but it seemed to be very crucial to understanding Gabriel and "Gabriel's Woman". I had no real history about Gabriel's relationship with Micheal or what really happened that precipated the situation with the "first" & "second" man.
Though I'm familiar with Schone's erotic writing style, it was hard to accept Victoria getting anally raped during only her 2nd sexual experience with Gabriel. The phrase "a boy who wanted to be an angel" also begins to grate after the 20th time it's written and begins to lose it's meaning.
The story was decent (when I knew what was going on) and I loved the ending, but parts did seem to drag, and though filled with erotic setting, I didn't get as wrapped up in it as I did in The Tutor.
Rating:
Summary: Totally engrossing!
Review: I would give a book 5 stars for any of the reasons below:
**A book where I fall in love with the hero and admire the heroine
**A book that I immediately start reading again after a first read
**3-Dimensional hero/heroine with fantastic characterization
**A book that is well written that I read in one sitting
The last book I read that grabbed me like this one was "Night in Eden" by Candace Proctor. I read it straight through. "Gabriel's Woman was not a short Harlequine romance, yet I read in 8 hours, only stopping to eat a quick bite. I just couldn't put it down. I don't want to spoil anyone's reading pleasure, but I did not read "The Lover" so I was not familiar with the story line of Michael or Gabriel. I couldn't understand why Gabriel felt so unworthy to be touched, to be loved. But when the villain forced Gabriel to reveal why, I was dying inside. I must have stared at that page for ten minutes, too afraid to read on, yet unable to stop. When the whole truth was revealed Michael and Victoria handled it with so much dignity and accepted Gabriel for everything that he was that it was heartbreakingly beautiful.
Rating: 
Summary: 2nd book in the series. Very erotic!
Review: Wow was my first reaction to reading this story. I have enjoyed all of Robin's books but I think this one was the best so far. This is the sequel to THE LOVER which was Gabriel's friend Michael's story. Now while that one was exciting and thrilling this one surpasses it by a mile. I stayed up all night reading this because I couldn't put it down.Gabriel is a tormented man. He is a former high priced [prostitute] but not for women but for men. He hated it. He only did it to get wealthy enough to find the men who had raped him so long ago. He has found one but the other is still at large. He now owns a famous house of sex. Where the rich come to act out thier every fantasy. On the reopening night a innocent 34 year old terroized woman, Victoria, shows up to sell the only she has left of value, her virginity, to the highest bidder. Victoria was a governess who was dismissed by a jealous woman and now after six months without work is desperate. She captures Gabriel's attention and knows that she is the key to his revenge. She is also the key to his salvation. Soon they find that they cannot ignore thier passions. The love scenes in this are so well written that the reader will blush with both embarassment and longing for more. The story takes exciting turns that keep the reader on thier toes. ... is just around the corner and when its revealed its a suprise. I really think that Robin has outdone herself on this book. She tackles taboo subjects with ease and makes the characters truely human faults and all. I would recommend reading THE LOVER first to get the full story.
Rating:
Summary: WIERD AND COMPLETELY DIFFERENT . . .
Review: and if that's what you're looking for go for it. Explicit sex scenes and confusing writing make this sequel a stilted read.
The book is a sequel to another book (The Lover) which I have yet to read and the writer makes no effort to cover what happened in the first book to clarify what is happening in the second! Besides being confusing (and the writing style attempts to be poetically vague!) the sex is also quite shocking. I haven't ever read a description of sodomy in romance writing but this one has it in all the detail you could want. The only other book by Schone I have read is "The Lady's Tutor" which was a much better read.
Rating:
Summary: No Real Passion
Review: And by that I mean no real passion between the hero and heroine, although there are plenty of sex scenes, and passion seems to exist between Gabriel and Michael. Gabriel, who we first met in The Lover, now gets his own story. Like Michael, he is a former male prostitute. He now owns the House of Gabriel, and is constantly on his guard, awaiting "the second man"--trust me, you don't get much more insight than that until the last chapter. Gabriel's "love" interest is Victoria, a destitute young woman who decides to lose her virginity to the renowned prostitute. Just a couple of hitches--Gabriel does not allow ANYONE to touch him and, even if he did, did Victoria get sent to him by his nemesis?
I have read all of Ms. Schone's books, and aside from The Lady's Tutor (which belongs on EVERYONE's top ten list), each one has progessively gotten darker and more clinical than the last. Although I rushed out and bought The Lover in its first week, I did not write a review for it because to this day I cannot decide if I like it or hate it. What originally attracted me to her work was that the heroine was an older, more assertive character. She was average-looking, and no ingenue. In other words, she was unlike 95% of all female romance characters, and a refreshing change. Since that first book however, Schone's heroines have mostly been virgins, and instead of dealing with and conquering their personal issues, they tend to just get sucked into the hero's pathos. In this book, for instance, Victoria needs to lose her virginity in order to avoid unwanted attentions; and although she is a gentlewoman, she has to work for a living because she has been cast out by her father. But almost immediately upon meeting Gabriel, all her issues get put on the back burner, and she decides that she must make it her mission in life to seduce him and help him deal with his emotional baggage. For most of the book, she is just an outlet for Gabriel's hurt and a tool to be used against him. What happened to the mature, complex women, Robin???? As I read Gabriel's Woman, the words "cold" and "clinical" came to mind often and, judging from the reviews here, I was not alone. Graphic sex scenes abound, and avid fans of authors like Thea Devine or Susan Johnson will love Schone's books. For those of us who prefer more plot development and sex scenes that reflect the characters' passion for one another, it is better to check this book out from the local library. The sex scenes are mainly used as a catharsis for Gabriel, and are calculated and mechanical instead of passionate and spontaneous. What is also a turn off, as some other reviewers have mentioned, is that many of the encounters seem to be uncomfortable or downright painful for Victoria. In most of them, her achieving sexual pleasure seems implausible as well as an afterthought. In addition, Schone has adopted the style of giving the reader esoteric glimpses into the hero's conflict with the villain, and of not actually spelling it out until the end. While this is an interesting and ingenious concept, the passages are written in such a cryptic manner that they only make one feel left out, since the heroine and the reader are the only ones who don't know what is going on. I spent so much time trying to decipher Gabriel's past and defining different characters' roles in it that I continuously got pulled out of the story, which is never a good thing. Usually when I look back on a romance novel, I can pinpoint the exact moment when each character fell in love with the other. I could not do so here; these two characters seem to be together because they have no other options, and although there is compassion, I could not really detect any love or need between Gabriel and Victoria.
Rating:
Summary: 4 1/2 stars......A keeper.
Review: After reading "The Lover" I just KNEW I had to read Gabriels story. Wow. This was better than I had expected. It was heartstoppingly erotic of course, but then its a Robin Schone..so thats to be expected. While I enjoyed all of the characters, Gabriel, to me, was the books attraction. Watching Victoria break thru his feigned indifference was spellbinding. However much I was captivated by this tale, I couldnt give it 5 stars... Some of the crudeness was just a bit much for me, but I loved the book regardless. In my mind any flaw that was within this story was glossed over by the absolutely EXQUISITE last page.This is a book that is going forever on my keepers shelf.
Rating:
Summary: Erotic, Sensual, and Intimate conclusion of a Mystery.......
Review: This is the story of Gabriel a proprietor of a house of pleasure(the house of Gabriel). Gabriel is a former male prostitute who has become successful in the seedy world of prostitution but is haunted by is childhood poverty, his whoring, and being raped. He is caught up in the search for the man who raped him and the mystery of the woman (Victoria) who sold her virginity to him. Victoria is a woman of former position and education who has through poor circumstances ended up on the streets with only her virginity as her sole most valuble possession and sells it to Gabriel so she may survive. This story is intertwind with several other plots that I could write for days so you should read the book and experience them for yourself. You won't get bored I didn't. I read this book in two days and hated for it to end. You journey with Gabriel and Victoria as the mystery of both Gabriel and Victoria unviels it's self. this is a wonderful intimate book full of sensual and erotic pleasure but like Robin Schones writing style extremely personal and intimate. It's like being in the room with the characters.....A fly on the wall. You can almost feel the silk of the bed sheets and smell the perfume the characters use. If you liked 'The Lover' you will enjoy the story of the Angel Gabriel.
Rating:
Summary: Real writing
Review: Despite what other's have written, I thought that this book, by far is the best Schone has ever written. How refreshing to have a mature, true to life sexual encounter spelled out to you with all of the sounds, smells, and senses of real life. Instead of the flights of fancy dreams and dialogue that insult the intelligence of any female over the age of 15, and that are present in most of the other authors within this genre. Who says sex can't be dark, painful, and still create intense pleasure? I love the way that Schone titillates, even in embarassing ways. Her writing is not "Safe" and that's what I love about it. She makes you squirm a little, and look over your shoulder guiltily as if someone might catch you liking what is presenting itself to you. I agree, her writing is not for everyone...so those people can have their safe, dewy novels...I'll choose Gabriel any day of the week.
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