Gabriel, an artist, has just returned from a long painting trip in the company of Jade, a charming, sexy young woman.  When she phones him to say she is pregnant, Gabriel offers to marry her, legitimize his child.  She refuses, saying she'll go live with her sister, a born do-gooder, as she puts it.

Depressed, Gabriel returns to Ocean Breeze, FL, where he lives and paints.

Tasha returns to the law office where she works, after dealing with the aftermath of her sister's sudden death.  She realizes she will have to give up her work and accept cleaning jobs with Manuel's Maidens, in order to be able to keep her dead sister's baby with her.
In due course, she is sent to clean for Gabriel, and he is enchanted with the baby.  When he asks her, hesitantly, whether the father of the baby couldn't help her out a little, Tasha says that her sister Jade never told her who the father of her baby was.  And Gabriel realizes he has found his child.

Their path to love is not without complications, notably Gabriel's mother is viciously unkind to Tasha.  And there is Gabriel's spectacular temper... 
 

Reviews:

Gabriel’s Quest for Love is a delightful love story that at times will have the reader wishing to knock the hero and heroine’s heads together to make them see sense. Gabriel and Tasha are both wonderful individuals with depths of character, but each is too strong-willed for their own good or for each other’s taste.  By the end of the book, they’ve tumbled in and out of romance in a comedy of errors that makes the reader simultaneously laugh, cry, and rail at them. 

Tasha is a self-effacing beauty who defers in all things to her fun-loving, shallow sister Jade. When Jade returns from a three-month trip pregnant, claiming she’s had a quarter of endless sexual fun, Tasha has no choice but to take Jade in so that Jade will have prenatal care and a safe environment for her unborn baby. As always Jade takes supreme advantage and immediately the baby is born Tasha becomes caregiver in addition to her full-time job. When Jade dies of a sudden aneurysm, Tasha is now mother in name as well as fact. 

Painter Gabriel Duarte is Old World old-fashioned, a man of Spanish heritage and wonderful artistic talent. More often celibate than most modern males, his intermittent activity with Jade nevertheless resulted in conception, but his offer to marry her for the child’s sake was refused. When he discovers his daughter, at the same time he realizes he’s falling in love with the woman he thinks is the baby’s mother, both he and Tasha set off on an emotional roller-coaster rocketing through adversity toward happiness. 

Kate Hofman’s stories always make me want to curl up in a comfortable armchair and just relax into the read. That’s the kind of books Kate is noted for, and this reviewer is very thankful to note that she is a prolific author with several novels available and more to come.

 Reviewed by Frost of JLFoster.biz  

4 Swords

Jade Hovington is a party girl who meets painter Gabriel Duarte at a painting trip. She wants to be friends with benefits and so Gabriel obliges her. When Jade finds herself pregnant with Gabriel’s child, she refuses his marriage proposal and runs to her sister Tasha. Tasha Hovington is a legal secretary and is exactly opposite of her sister.

When Jade suddenly dies, it falls to Tasha to take care of her niece. She needs a job that will allow her to bring the baby with her to work and so becomes a cleaning lady. Tasha cleans the local art gallery in the mornings before it opens and the owners have become a surrogate family.

When Gabriel drops off some paintings at the gallery, he spots Tasha and is instantly attracted to her. Neither knows the connection between them. Gabriel has been in mourning for the child he never got to see as he cannot find Jade. Will fate have a happy ending for these two?

What a fantastic story with strong emotions of love and trust! Gabriel’s Quest for Love had me so enchanted that I couldn’t stop until I finished it. There were times I just wanted to smack Gabriel for his stubbornness. Tasha is always defending her sister’s actions and sometime I just wanted to shout at her to stop it. Both characters do a lot of growing and find that they love each other deeply. The secondary characters of Tom and Marcella and Gabriel’s family complement the protagonists very well. Kate Hofman does an extraordinary job of taking the characters through an array of situations and emotions that had me crying, laughing and cheering all through the book. Don’t miss this wonderful story. I highly recommend it.

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Reviewer: Julianne of TwoLips Reviews

Gabriel Duarte is an accomplished painter. He has just returned from a three-month painting trip. The very sexual, fun Jade, who went along with him, calls to tell him she is pregnant. He immediately offers to marry her to legitimize his child but she refuses stating she doesn't wish to be settled with a baby, that she will go stay with her do-good sister. That was the last Gabriel heard from Jade or heard of his child, until his new cleaning lady brings her child to work with her and he realizes Gabby is his.

Tasha Hovington works for an attorney’s office, she has her own apartment and is somewhat content with her life, that is until her sister Jade appears on her doorstep pregnant. Tasha takes care of Jade’s baby, Gabby, from the moment the child is born. When Jade suddenly dies, Tasha is forced to leave her job and start working for a cleaning service so she can keep the baby with her as she works.

From the moment Gabriel and Tasha meet there are sparks and they quickly fall in love. But what will happen when Gabriel realizes the baby Tasha loves so deeply is his? Can they become the loving family they both so desperately want or will his possessive anger destroy everything?

Kate Hofman has written a good story with lots of adversity, misunderstandings, and love. Gabriel and Tasha are well written likeable characters that at times I enjoyed and at other times I wanted to hit their heads together to make them see what they were doing to each other. Aside from the fact, that I got a little confused with all the levels of being in love in this story, I enjoyed it. It was fun, emotional, sexy and at times frustrating, but through out it was a great romance that I would highly recommend.

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Sensuality rating: Mildly sensual

Gabriel Duarte knew the first moment he laid eyes on Tasha Hovington that he wanted her. However, Tasha has more things on her mind than a relationship. Or at least, she should be thinking of other things than having all those distracting thoughts about the sexy artist whose masterpiece she admires as much as the man himself.

 As the sole provider for her sister's baby, Tasha is determined to see that Gaby will want for nothing. Even if it means working as a cleaning maid for the devastatingly handsome Gabriel to make ends meet. What she did not bargain for is the disastrous temptation that the man might be to her newly awakened sensuality. With his dark good looks, well built physique and sensuous nature, Gabriel is more enticement than the inexperienced Tasha can resist.

 Nonetheless, GABRIEL'S QUEST FOR LOVE is full of obstacles from both within and without. As Tasha's insecurities and Gabriel's own burning jealousy create an ever widening chasm between them, one unreasonable mama and the sordid beginnings of an innocent baby may cause more friction than their newly formed affection can withstand. Will the sizzling attraction between them and the interference of well meaning friends be enough to bring this Dark Castle Lord and the innocent beauty together? That is what this entertaining tale by Kate Hofman will tempt you into finding out.

Blue Ribbon Rating   : 3.5