Eve of Darkness by S.J. Day

ISBN-13: 9780765360410
Publisher: Doherty, Tom Associates, LLC
Published: April 2009
Marked Series, #1

Evangeline Hollis is an interior designer, but a casual fling with a hunky stranger made her a Mark of Cain - a celestial bounty hunter charged with sending rogue demons and other Infernals back to hell. This she has herself to blame because the mysterious man reminds so much of her long ago crush, Alec Cain. Eve encountered Alec ten years ago and they were very much attracted to each other, but Alec had no intention of having her until now.

However, Eve is no longer the fresh young girl he met decades ago and now that she has become a Mark of Cain, she has to destroy the evil infernals and fight for survival not that she could help it. To complicate matters, she feels herself trapped between siblings Alec and Reed; the latter being the one who had marked her initially.

What I had expected to be an exciting urban fantasy with a kick-butt heroine became a great disappointment to me because I find there is not much actions going on except the beginning of the first few chapters, and also that it emphasize too much on the relationship between Eve and the two brothers who does not see eye to eye with each other. At some point, I wonder if there are too much attention on the trio and wonder if it would read as a romance instead, but then I think the elaboration helps in a way in describing the complicated relationship between them and so forth. There are also some sexual references so I do not recommend this book to young readers.

All in all, I think Eve of Darkness has an interesting concept featuring a team of bounty hunters, Archangels and demons but I did not find myself being hooked to the plot or care for the characters. Eve is an interesting character, but at times I find her contradicting. I also have questions regarding her being a marked one but I suppose there might be some answers explained during the sequels?

Another thing that puzzles me is the genre of this book; I do not know if this is classified as an urban fantasy or a paranormal romance since I found it under the fantasy section but it read like the latter.

Nevertheless, I have the other two installments, Eve of Destruction and Eve of Chaos in my pile but I have no idea when to read them next but please do not let my opinions deter you from reading this book though.

Other reviews:

Scooper Speaks

Tez Says

(Let me know if I have missed yours.)

The Becoming

ISBN-10: 0441014569
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Published: December 2006
293 pgs


My name is Anna Strong. I was thirty on my last birthday, and I will be thirty when you read this. In fact, physically I will never be older than thirty no matter how many mortal years I have on this earth. I am vampire. How I became, and what is the nature of my existence, is the reason for this story. I tell it the way it happened so you will learn the truth as I did. It may not be what you expect. ~ Foreword from The Becoming


Anna Strong is a bounty hunter; in other words she is known as a bail enforcement agent. Together with her work partner, David, they are to look for a man who called himself John Donaldson who had skipped out on his bail bond. Unfortunately, the race turned out badly when David is hurt during the search and Anna ends up being attacked by Donaldson unexpectedly when she went out to look for David and Donaldson as she is getting too impatient waiting for David to bring Donaldson while waiting in the car.

The next thing she knew she is lying in the hospital bed with an attractive doctor by her side. Dr Grant Avery is concerned of her overall well being, but that is because he knew she had been turned into a vampire, and in fact he is one of them actually. When Anna came to know about it, she is shocked but she overcame this and took it quite well under the guidance of Dr Avery. With her newly telepathic skills and night vision, Anna vows to find Donaldson for revenge not only for personal reason but he is a threat to others as well.

During this time, Anna is also attracted by Dr Avery despite she is into a relationship with Max, who is mortal and a DEA agent. Their relationship is rather discreet due to his deep undercover operation, and most of the times there is no telling when she will hear from him until he gets in touch with her.

And when her house is burnt to ashes and David has gone missing, naturally her first thought goes to Donaldson but it turns out there is someone behind who is out to get her. To add on to this intrigue, there is also someone whom she dubs 'Casper' who has been helping her in several dangerous situations through telepathic ways, and she will do anything to find out everything by all means.

The Becoming is Jeanne C. Stein's first installment of the Anna Strong series, featuring this heroine from a first person POV. Having read several vampire novels in the past, I find the plot to this story original but most of all it breaks away from the traditional belief of vampires (for example, they have telepathic ability and they are not really afraid of sunlight due to long-term immunity et cetera.) There are more surprises and intrigue as compared to the action scenes in this story; and I quite enjoyed reading Anna Strong being a strong and fearless heroine. I have the rest of the installments in my pile and I definitely look forward to reading them in the near future.