I'm not somebody who typically has guilty pleasures. Most of the time, if I like something, I genuinely like it and don't feel bad about it because liking something is reason enough. Every book to its reader. This series might be a guilty pleasure. It's all been done so many times before. I know all the parts, and I can see them moving too easily, and it's just not special enough to distract me from that. But I can't stop watching them. I should be so damn sick of broody Gothic heroes who can't get too close to anyone by now, yet I'm on Team Gabriel (TM) all the way. And I was genuinely surprised by the ending of this book, and am now less certain about how I expected things to be tied up. I wish I knew if it were planned for a certain number of installments so I would know how close to the end we were and how much I ought to be hoping for in the next book. Which I will definitely be reading even if I'm also repeatedly thinking "Again? Really?" because it is crack.
As an aside, although this is not anything I remotely expect will happen, this would be the easiest love triangle to resolve with "And then they lived polyamorously ever after" in the history of love triangles. Everybody involved has recognized that she has an unusually strong bond with both guys no matter what and the guys have both promised they'll never interfere with her friendship with the other. Aside from the fact that Gabriel can't get his head out of his broody Gothic ass long enough to recognize that Olivia might love him the same way he does her even while he's holding her at arms length, it's not that big a step to her not having to choose. And he's going to have to do that at some point, anyway. (Also, it's really impressive how well he can keep his head and that stick up there at the same time.) But if any of the parties involved were willing to consider that kind of arrangement, somebody would probably have at least thought about it by now. We do get into all of their heads at one time or another.
I'm not sure this series is good. I'm not sure it's good modern Gothic. No matter what genre a book is, the way in which it satsifies genre conventions shouldn't make me go "Seriously?" or "Because of course he does" as I'm reading it. But I do know I'm going to have to keep reading it.
Overall: B-