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Review: Torn and Frayed (A Gabriel Church Tale #2) by Rodd Clark

“Conscience isn’t something all people are born with . . .”
Gabriel Church is a portrait in contrast. It would be easy to get lost in his pale-blue eyes, ache with the need to feel the strength of his masculine frame. He appears to be nothing but animal and instinct. The only people who know the full depth of that truth are dead, murdered, or two thousand miles away.

Gabe is a serial killer. For the first time in his life, he has more on his mind than his own survival. This time he is running from Seattle to protect the only person he thinks innocent in his laundry list of crime and murder: Christian Maxwell, his biographer and unexpected lover. Drawn to a place he never thought to return, Gabe finds new and different realities. Realities that insist he let go of his tragic past, those incredible perceptions of God, and his own divinity. He must open his eyes to what the love of a good man can do to heal a broken soul.

But when the killer is confronted by his own willingness to love and sacrifice, he is forced to ultimately ask the question: Just how far will he go to save a life . . . when all he’s ever done is take them?



Gabriel Church is on the run. After years of fulfilling - what he claims to be - his calling from God, he's done something that just might get him caught.

The story starts where book 1 ended, Gabriel had left Christian in an effort to save him. After Gabriel killed Shea, he knew things would go south and thought if he stayed away from Christian that he would be protecting him.

He was driving all over the place and he seemed to be losing it. He was looking for... I don't know, validation, maybe? Not validation that he is in fact doing god's work through murder, because he knows that's the truth. But he found comfort in confession at a small church he came across. Not confessing the whole truth, but enough for him to feel better about his "mission" and enough for the priest to know something wasn't right with Gabriel. Gabriel has a very warped relationship with god. He has a negative history with churches, but at the same time finds comfort there, and truly believes that he was chosen to send "white lighters" home to heaven. Some people have a light surrounding them -that only Gabriel can see- and he thinks this is a sign from god that this person needs to have the light put out and sent home.

All while this was going on, he couldn't get Christian out of his head. They started a relationship when Christian wanted to write Gabriel's biography. After calling Christan, Gabriel found out that he was being contacted by the police for Shea's murder. He goes back to try and save the day. In a way that only Gabriel can do.

Gabriel is an interesting character, to say the least. He's a psychopathic serial killer, but is also charming and playful with Christian. He's discovering that he can have feelings for others, given the lengths he went to in order to protect Christian.

Things come to a head when the investigating police officer continues to peruse Christian for the murder case. This is when things really shifted for me. I already had a hard time with Gabriel. He's so easy to like, but he's also a killer, so maybe not so easy to like? But the whole situation that went down with the police officer just reminded me who this guy really is. I honestly can't say what direction I'd like his story to go. But I can tell you that I'm curious.

The story took some time to get started I had a hard time getting into it initially. It's more of a thriller than a romance and I know that's the main reason I struggled in the beginning. Why couldn't he just meet up with Christian, forget his "mission" and live HEA? But like I said, I'm definitely in for the long haul here. I have to know what happens to Gabriel.


A copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.

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