Gabriel Fallen (Empire Nightclub) Paperback – September 28, 2020

The continuation to book 1, still good plot still spicy. I’ve enjoyed the banter between Gabriel & Mercy. The bad boy meets the good girl trying to do right. The books are shorter reads, however, you have to keep reading because each one leaves you hanging.

This continuation of Mercy and Gabriel’s story ends with a bang. Gabriel has shown a different side to himself. He’s still raunchy and intense, but he’s also shown a softer side as he falls into building something different with his life which includes Mercy.Things are looking up, but there’s also some dark times ahead for them. It’s been a good series!!

I wasn’t pleased with how Book 1 ended so abruptly, but understand the cliff-hanger that will send me diving into Book 3 in no time. This was an enthralling, quick read and I will be disappointed when the series is over!

I feel like the first two books could’ve been combined into one large book but it doesn’t diminish the fact that I couldn’t put it down! I loved every minute. The smut the tension the angst between Gabriel and Merch is just *chefs kiss*!! Definitely a must read for lovers of romance and high stakes mafia style books.

My only problem with this book is that it isn't a complete story. Even books with an overall arc or cliffhanger endings are complete. They have some conflict to overcome. This book is just one story split up to make "more books." It's odd. I don't know why it's split like this.Other than that, the story is good, the characters are likable, and the spice is nice. There is a lot of it, but it fits the plot and isn't overdone or forced.*This book is rated X because talk of, thoughts of, or actual on page spice makes up more than 50% of the plot. The F word is used frequently. There is off page violence.

While I liked this book, I didn't enjoy it as much as the first in the series. I'm not sure if the fact I read it straight after reading Sweet Mercy affected how some things bothered me, but I found a lot of the themes/elements that were introduced in the first book were quite repetitive in this one. Mercy and Gabriel's arrangement continues after he dangled the carrot of paying for her father's appeal if she stays with him longer. They negotiate terms and life continues on similarly to how it did in the previous book: Gabriel is mostly sweet and caring towards Mercy, there's a bit of jealousy towards other women due to his promiscuous past and Mercy continues her studies and work as Gabriel runs the club. There's also the added drama of a rival family's youngest siblings wanting to form an alliance due to similar desires and a possible family betrayal in the Easton clan.Caleb and his parties at the house continue to cause the same issues and have the same type of scenes involving debauchery show up in the story line (though not as excessively as the first book). We get to see a slightly different, more volatile side to him which was interesting. My main problem that led to me giving three stars was the amount of repetition, mainly from Mercy. Throughout the book, she was constantly going over the same sentiments: she can't forget who Gabriel is and how he and his family are criminals, how he's the son of a crime boss, that he's rich because of his corrupt and immoral gains, that he and his family prey on the weak and vulnerable, how he/his family have hurt or killed people, how he's sleazy and has been with countless women, her negative sentiments towards the deal that Gabriel proposed that made Mercy offer herself up (like she was blackmailed or coerced - she wasn't) and that she's a sex slave. Mercy had a few jealous thoughts and outbursts that got old pretty quickly. As a result of all of the above, Mercy got on my nerves a bit in this book as the amount of repetition made it seem as though she was forever whining, being sulky, sending mixed messages and being a drama queen. She was happy to take any generosity from Gabriel but found it very difficult to reciprocate.The 'dark' themes above were laid on too thick, becoming almost cheesy due to the repetitive nature (even though they weren't actually very dark at all). We get it, he's the big, bad son of a crime king pin. We got it in the first book and nothing has changed in the story line to necessitate laying it on this thickly. Gabriel spent quite a bit of time talking about how good Mercy felt and how into her he was. I'm assuming the author was trying to convince us how much he was into her but it wasn't necessary because his actions had already done this so it could have been toned down.There was also a lot of smirking and smug looks again, something that popped up a bit in Book 1. I liked Gabriel for the most part. He wanted more from Mercy and was trying to jump through her hoops, to no avail. I found his carnal reactions to Mercy pretty over the top and venturing into the ridiculous and arrogant as were her responses (e.g. Mercy is apparently always hungry for him and even though she allegedly doesn't like him, she's so crazily attracted to him she can't help but be turned on - this has been done 1000 times before). And just a small pet hate - the women Gabriel had been with were labelled sleazy by Mercy, but he wasn't. I hate double standards like this. There was also a study mate to make Gabriel jealous that was blonde on one page and a brunette on the next.I did like the slighter darker lean to their relationship. Honestly, this is what I thought Book 1 would have more of. Gabriel negotiates a bit of a 'whatever and wherever' clause to their relationship and acts on it a bit in this novel. The story didn't have too much going on but I still enjoyed it and it was a pretty easy read similar to Book 1. It ended on an unexpected and dramatic cliffhanger which has piqued my curiosity enough to give Book 3 a go when it comes out.

“I may not trust the man, but I trust he knows what he’s doing with my body.”Oh boy is book two of this trilogy a HOT one. Gabriel and Mercy no doubt have chemistry together in the bedroom but the true test for them in this book is if there anything else between them outside of that heat. Pushing each other’s buttons is the ultimate foreplay, the anger fueled sex makes their relationship tumultuous at best, but there is a sweet side to Gabriel that I certainly wouldn’t be able to resist. Mercy will do anything to keep her Dad safe while he is in prison, so keeping her deal with the devil is a small price to pay.“I’ve been secretly hoping to discover that Gabriel is someone else—someone good, someone I can fall for—“Can a man like Gabriel really change his ways? Growing up into a life of corruption, benefiting from from the riches that come from that world, could he truly walk away for a woman? The seedy underworld of the illegal drug industry won’t let go of the hold it has over Gabriel and his brothers life, no matter how much they don’t want to carry on the family legacy. I loved the twists and turns of this story, the cliffhanger at the end leaving me clambering for the final book in the trilogy! I’m excited to see what is in store for Mercy and Gabriel next and their HOT relationship.

This ended in the cliff hanger of All cliffhangers!!! This was an easier read than the first book. Looking forward to starting book #3. I want more Merrick though! That’s why I read this series!!