hist's Full Review: S. J. Day - Eve of Destruction
Eve of Destruction, the second book in S.J. Day's Evangeline Hollis series, shows some marked improvement from the first book, along with setting up some extremely interesting situations for the rest of the series. The book is a sexy thrill ride through a biblical scenario brought forward to the modern day, with demons and angels, along with the humans who get stuck in between, fighting the good fight. And there's a little sex thrown in there too.
After the events of Eve of Darkness, somehow Eve is brought back to life. Cain, one of the original brothers, along with being Eve's mentor and lover, thinks that there must be some other plan for her, as does his brother Abel (who is also Eve's controller and who is also in love with her). Eve hasn't received the official training that all Marks (human sinners tasked by God to fight demons on Earth to help cleanse their souls) go through, though, and the Archangel Raguel takes her and her new class to an abandoned military base that he uses for training purposes. But Eve becomes convinced that one of her classmates is a demon in disguise, and with Cain and Abel both off on other assignments, she'll have to figure out what's going on by herself. Or die trying, anyway.
Unlike the first book in the series, Day has actually toned down the sex (and the sexy talk) quite a bit. She hasn't done it enough so that readers of the first book won't recognize her style in the second, but it's much less in the reader's face than before. While I like sex as much as the next reader, I'm glad that she did this. It gives the book a little more depth, though the first one was still fairly exciting too. Perhaps this was because the three main characters are apart for most of the novel, and when Cain finally does rejoin her, he's changed quite a bit? Even so, it was nice to only hear a couple of times how ruggedly handsome Cain is.
Instead, Day explores the world and situations that she has set up, and she does a marvelous job with it. Abel is investigating a new type of demon that can easily kill Marks, which should be nearly impossible given the superhuman abilities that the divine essence gives them. As more information comes out about these demons, the archangels who run the various shadow companies that employ these Marks have to get together and figure out how to fight this new threat. I love how Day brings the biblical figures into the modern setting, with all of them being fairly ambitious to move themselves higher in Heaven's hierarchy (Cain himself wants to join the ranks, and Abel wants to move up). Day has expanded her world even further by giving us a few scenes that take place in Satan's realm of fire, in a rather unique way too. Of course, Day's imagination may offend some who have strict Christian beliefs, but for anybody else it's all extremely interesting.
Day's character work is also great. Eve is still looking for a way to get out of this mess, especially because she's actually closer to being an Atheist than a Christian, and she's still having problems believing all of this stuff. Of course, having the two original brothers as part of your love triangle can be a bit intimidating as well. They all still think about each other a lot, but since they are separated, each one is able to come into his/her own and they are much better for it. We see Eve's quick wits and intelligence as she's trying to figure out who's killing her classmates, and her compassion when a group of ghost hunters from a TV show come onto the base and end up getting involved too. Cain and Abel are both conflicted, as they both are in love with Eve but also are using her to further their own ends. Day also gives Eve's classmates just enough character that we actually kind of care if they die. They each have a hook that brings the reader into their situation.
Day's writing style is quite good, too. As I said, she's toned down the sexual language some, but the sexuality still burns off the pages in some places. She definitely knows her hot and heavy stuff. However, even the regular scenes are well-written too. The dialogue is snappy, the action scenes are pretty good, though some could have been a bit more exciting. The humor is also quite good, giving a bit of relief from the intense situations.
All in all, Eve of Destruction is a great addition to the Evangeline Hollis story. Since this isn't a trilogy, but an ongoing series (apparently, anyway), it doesn't suffer from any kind of "second-book syndrome," and it's all the better for it. It's a fun, quick read, and as long as you're not quick to be offended by taking Christian figures and situations and playing around with them, this series so far is worth the effort. You'll enjoy yourself.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.