Tarnished Gold - Virginia Andrews

Reading Challenge Category: Final book in the series

Official Blurb:

Her high school graduation just days away, Gabriel Landry is blissfully happy - until rich cannery owner Octavious Tate waylays her near a secluded pond and shatters her innocence, forever.
Pregnant and desolate, Gabriel agrees to a shocking plan that will allow Octavious' frigid wife, Gladys, to claim the baby as her own. But nothing can prepare Gabriel for the terrible moment when Gladys takes her baby away.
Drifting in a world of gloom, Gabriel is only comforted by chance glimpses of her son, until a hunting party brings handsome Creole millionaire Pierre Dumas to the bayou. Falling desperately in love, Gabriel will not heed the voice warning her that their joy may bring her more grief than she can bear.

My Thoughts:

I wasn’t sure about going back and reading Gabrielle’s story (Just as a side note, the change of spelling in her name drove me mad. It was Gabrielle in the first three books and then Gabriel in the last two, so I am going to stick with the original spelling!)
We already knew her outcome and what had happened to her; what more could there be for us to discover? However, a few details had been left out of the previous stories, and her path through the pregnancies was more harrowing than Grandmere Catherine ever told Ruby.
It was quite nice to go back to being in the Bayou and a simpler life. It certainly had the essence of the first book when Ruby’s life had yet to become so complex. So it did feel like I was snuggling back into familiar territory.
The biggest shock comes quite early, so I spent most of the book hoping there would be more shocks to come. Unfortunately, there weren’t any, and the story we already knew was just fleshed out, so this was disappointing.
I did tear up at the end as we already knew Gabrielle’s fate but reading it was still sad. I think if I had read this book first and hadn’t known the outcome, it would have been a perfect five-star read. However, as there wasn’t that much to keep me gripped and guessing it was just a four.
I have felt ensconced in this saga, and I am going to miss being a part of this world. It wasn’t as good as my favourite Casteel and Dollenganger series, but I still thoroughly enjoyed them, and I feel like I have been living in a different world entirely for the last two weeks. I am sure I will reread this series one day, and who knows, maybe it will become as eminent and sentimental as the other series are to me.