Gabriel's Outlaw

Angels and Outlaws

by Sandra Chastain

Assigned to protect a pouch of gold en route to Georgia's capitol building, Gabriel St. Clair discovers that he will be sharing the trip with Jessie James, whose family has been feuding with his for years.

228 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1994

About the author

Sandra Chastain was born on 1936 in Wadley, Georgia, 100 miles northwest of Savannah. As a little girl, she created fantasy lives for her paper dolls, and then she discovered Nancy Drew. Sandra wrote her first novel with a friend when she was 10 years old, The Mystery of the Green Necklace. Some four decades later, when her three daughters had gone off on their own, she returned to writing and was soon busy with writing, in addition to working with her husband in their veterinary practice in Smyrna, Georgia. Before long she was writing full time.

Published since 1988, she writes historical novels for Bantam, short contemporary romances for Harlequin, and southern women's fiction for Bellebooks. To date, she has produced over 50 works, including her first fairy tale, The Tiniest Fairy In the Kingdom, published by Bellebooks. She writes under pennames Jenna Darcy and Allie Jordan as well as in her own name. Sandra has won many honors and recognitions from her industry.

Reviews

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Stars.

This is the second book of Sandra's I have read this week. Again it is a re-release of a book that was originally out in the 90's.

You can tell it is an older title, by some of the language, situations and general descriptions of the characters in the book, but once again for all that I did enjoy the book. It is a classic Mills & Boon type style of writing, nothing too heavy in or out of the bedroom, cute story and characters.

I like that older titles are being given a revamp, and having re-releases in eBook format, there are alot of books and authors out there that deserve to be re-discovered in the eBook age, and I definitely think Sandra Chastain is one of them.

ARC provided by Netgalley.

[Laylaw · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute re-vamp from a 1990's book about a second chance romance between jesse and gabriel. Gabriel has been trying to prove himself and finds that he needs to return to his hometown where Jesse is to aid in the investigation of a reported robbery that is being planned. It was a cute story, but I didn't really feel it was worth the revamp for a new release as it still had some dated feel to it, plus I didn't really connect with the characters. The book's length could have been a lot shorter to- like a longer novella would have been better than 200+ pages. Plus during re-vamp some updates in the romance area could have been added for more of a modern feel. An okay story but not something I would normally have picked for myself, the updated cover made a huge difference but had I not known this was a 1990's re-vamp and purchased it and read the dated feel of the book, I probably would have been upset.

*This honest review was provided in exchange for an ARC through NetGalley.*

[Wminbc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute, fast...could have had the sex scenes fleshed out and got a more modern feel...
And the full review is up:

http://www.nocturnereads.com/2013/10/...

[Lenore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute, fast and second chance…sound like something you would like? Me too! So I requested from Net Galley. I discovered after the fact that this book was published in 1994 as a Classic Romance. Having been a Harlequin (and the like) reader since forevah, I know that there have been some considerable “spice factor” upgrades to most romance novels over the past two decades. This novel would have been a 4-5 hoot, if the author or publisher had a few of the love scenes fleshed out a bit more, instead of kissing, kissing, they rolled over afterwards…
Anywho…I enjoyed the idea for the story and the interplay between the “James” and the “St. Clair” family histories as the merged with the present. Jessie is a hoot and Gabe is a great guy, who was just so lost and try-hard that I felt sorry for him. He tried his whole youth to be someone others would like, when he had a true and loving friend in Jessie all along. It took these two kids over a decade to pull their collective heads out of their back sides, but when they did, I really loved their honesty. Enjoy!

[patrick Lorelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

The female characters name is Jessie James and people in her small town have always thought of her as more of a tom boy. The guy in the story Gabriel, knows she’s not. They have not seen each other in ten years and the last time did not end very well. The two families have a long family feud but these two have always been friend growing up. He is four years older than her. When they meet they both still have feelings for each other but there is still hurt feelings and she thinks that he might be a criminal now since she has not heard anything about him in 10 years. He is in law enforcement but does not tell for most of the story. This is a good romantic book because there is a lot of mystery and suspense as far as who done it and why he is back in town. Then there is the mountain that they grew up on and their families share. The ending was a little different than what I was expecting but it really made for a nice way to end the story, made it funny, romantic and true to the story line. Avery good book. I got this from net galley.

[Pamela · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gabriel's Outlaw is a decently written and well edited book that has an old fashioned feel. I realized why when I saw that it had originally been published in the 1990s and is being rereleased as an ebook.

The plot involves a couple from small town Georgia that broke up when they were young due to a misunderstanding. They are thrown back together by matchmaking friends ten years later and resentments over their breakup resurface. Add to the romance a possible crime and eccentric secondary characters and you get an interesting novel.

The problem I had is that while the plot was interesting the dialogue and inner musings done by the characters was redundant and just went on for too long. I found myself skipping over portions of the book because I had read the same thing two chapters earlier. Some reediting to clean up and shorten this book would make it more attractive as a modern ebook.

ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley.

[Yazmin · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Gabriel’s Outlaw by Sandra Chastain, Gabriel St. Claire is an agent for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. He has been happy not to return home in many years and to be away from his family problems, but now after he is on desk duty due to an injury he is assigned to escort Jessie James in a Gold Rush celebration where she will reenact a historical wagon train ride to deliver her family gold, which has been kept in a safety deposit box in the bank for many years, to the capitol building in Atlanta. But what his superiors don’t take into account is how much hate is between the St. Claire and the James clan going back a few generations. And how due to their own past, Jesse may not be agreeable to him being part of her train trip. Read More...

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you Net Galley and the publisher for this ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

You can tell this book was written years ago. Some of the language and 80's Dynasty feel. Just not my cup of tea, reminded me of something my mother would have read when I was growing up- which she very well could have since the book is quit old.
I thought the characters and story were kind of cheesy and we did not get a real feel for the background of the characters.

I do however think the book was a very well written book- I would recommend to the "older" generation.

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review featured on www.books-n-kisses.com

Well I really didn’t enjoy this story. While I usually enjoy these re-releases, even though some sections are dated, this one just didn’t have the same appeal.

The characters didn’t have any chemistry. The story was different but it didn’t flow very well. There are some dated sections but not many. The problem wasn’t the time period but the story itself I am sad to say.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.