The Road to Hell by Jackie Kessler

Zebra Books

Reviewed by LAUREL FULLER

Jackie Kessler’s latest, The Road to Hell, picks up right where the previous story, Hell’s Belles, left off. The former succubus Jezebel, now human and therefore fully equipped with a soul and a conscience, is attempting to find a way for the two halves of herself to coexist peacefully. This proves all the more difficult when her former comrades from Hell keep appearing in the most inconvenient places (and people). Still, all this is more or less tolerable as long as Jezebel – now ‘Jesse Harris’ – can spend quality time with the love of her life, Paul Hamilton. But when both Paul and Jesse’s best friend, the fury Megaera, are taken from her, Jesse sees no alternative but to return to Hell and try to rescue them.

As a general rule, I don’t read ‘romance’ novels, and Kessler’s Road to Hell is, as far as genre distribution is concerned, a ‘paranormal romance’. But at its heart, this is really a supernatural adventure story. Kessler’s dialogue is sharp and clever, her heroine is focused and instantly likeable, and her knowledge of Christian mythology is extensive and very well researched. It’s clear that her target audience expects more from its literature than just an all-porn-no-plot romance yarn. This installment is also a vast improvement over its predecessor, Hell’s Belles, which in retrospect seems more and more like a novel-length set-up for the supernatural quest that unfolds here. The explicit sex is still there, but The Road to Hell hints at a vast talent that could alter the romance genre the way Kessler’s heroine has altered the landscape of the underworld.

Read an interview with Jackie Kessler in the Summer 2007 issue of The Rose & Thorn.

Laurel Fuller is a graduate of the University of Richmond with a B.A. in English. She is a struggling science fiction and horror writer and is currently living in Virginia Beach.

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