Eve of Darkness (Marked Series #1)

Perhaps one of the best Buffy the Vampire Slayer knock offs produced. Better than Princess of Wands and as good as Carpe' Demon

The book has a light style to it that plays heavily on the eroticism. Some readers may find the opening chapter(s) offensive. The book also uses strong catholic religious themes and they prevail throughout the series. This opening book into a trilogy is complete in and of itself but, I found that I wanted to read the rest of series as soon as I finished the first book. I held off just to enjoy the anticipation.

What I particularly liked about this story is that it took a well known parable and looked at it sideways through a mirror. Cain and Abel are well known and the rivalry is known throughout christianity - usually as a warning. However, this book implies there's a lot more behind the scenes that we don't know.

Eve - Evangeline Hollis - is a smart resourceful character that has always thought her life should go one way and instead has gone 220 degrees in another. The character is believable (suspending belief in the whole scenario in which the character is placed.) In other words she seems like a real woman who lives in Southern California. She is also easy to admire.

I hope there are more to this series.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

A Gripping Brand of Dark Fantasy.

This book is a great twist on religious genre,mixed with fantasy thrills,a
must read for action, and a new idea of religion. If you like a strong
female heroine, then Eve is what you are looking for, not getting a choice
on being a heroine against darkness, and basically getting a raw deal from
god. She sees the need to act against the evil inhabiting our world,and
knows she's has to protect the innocent. Alot of romance, good classic
demon,and devil thrill ride.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Interesting idea wasn't enough

Eve is an average gal until she hooks up with Cain and ends up with the Mark of Cain. This turns her into a supernatural bounty hunter working with Cain and Abel hunting down rogue demons. I didn't really enjoy the characters and wasn't hooked in by the plot or style. I'm not sure if I will continue with this series.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

An interesting paranormal romance

S. J. Day builds an interesting world in Eve of Darkness, one peopled with Heaven's angels and the demons of Hell. It's interesting to see heavenly beings with human failings - but sometimes it's a little difficult to believe that this is how God's army would act. However, the characters are engaging and the story is engrossing - and I'm looking forward to reading the other two books in the series.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

HOT NEW URBAN FANTASY SERIES

Get ready for the next bestselling urban fantasy series, Marked, penned by S.J. Day for TOR debuting April 28, 2009 with Book #1, EVE OF DARKNESS. In present day Orange County, California, up and coming interior designer Evangeline Hollis is concentrating on landing her next big account when she gets sidetracked by a scorching encounter with a handsome stranger in a stairwell. After their brief encounter, she finds a triangular mark branded into her upper arm. Long-lost lover, Alec Cain, mysteriously reappears telling her that she's now a bounty hunter for God who must vanquish demons. He will mentor her now that his estranged brother, Reed Abel, Marked her. Eve is royally ticked at both brothers--Alec for abandoning her after taking her virginity ten years before, and Reed for changing her life forever. However, agnostic Eve is forced to work with both brothers to not only send the rogue Infernals back to Hell, but to insure her own survival. Oh, what an absolutely wicked, sexy triangle S. J. Day weaves between Cain, Eve, and Abel with fantastic verbal repartee and action-packed good vs. evil battles! Urban fantasy readers will be panting for the next installments: EVE OF DESTRUCTION (June 2 '09) and EVE OF CHAOS (June 30 '09).

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Eve of Darkness by: SJ Day

I really enjoyed this book. it was a challenge to put down once I started it. I loved all the characters and every thing that was in this book. I defiantly recommend this book for all who love seeing how the bible stories can be mixed with an authors creativity.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great series - Great book!

Great series - Great book! I could not wait to get started. I can't wait for the next book in the series.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Sexy Urban Fantasy

Who knew Cain and Abel were so sexy?! However, that's not very helpful for Evangeline Hollis - in fact, its a total drag. If they weren't so darn sexy, she wouldn't have been attracted to them, and all the awful things she's currently dealing with in her life would not be happening. After all, bearing the Mark of Cain and being cursed by God aren't exactly easy!
Eve Hollis has always been an agnostic, but the way her life is going lately, she might have to change her views a little. Of course, if she'd never known Alec Cain (and I do mean that in the Biblical sense), Abel Reed would never have noticed her - so she wouldn't have "known" him either! Translated: she would still be living her stable, non-believing, successful, BORING life if it weren't for the two gorgeous brothers' interference.
Eve of Darkness is one of the sexiest, most original "urban fantasy" novels I've read. With larger-than-life characters, a lot of sarcastic humor (my favorite), and some pretty incredible sex (the scene in the stairway with Abel was so intense - sometimes I go back and just read that part) Ms. Day has created a world where we come face-to-face with that which is normally unseen.
Warning: we all have our personal beliefs (or non-belief, as the case may be) but keep in mind that this is fiction - not a theological treatise. So if you're looking for sound Biblical doctrine - check out the Religion section. If, however, you're looking for a great book based on a totally unique idea - look no further. Things that go bump in the night, creatures from our nightmares - and our dreams - all come to life in a very believable way. I really didn't want to put this book down once I started reading it (in fact, I've read it more than once), and I'm definitely looking forward to reading the next two books in this series.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A fantastic introduction to the Marked series!!

Wow, S.J. Day puts together an exciting & romantic new take on the Cain & Abel story! There is nothing like two sexy brothers fighting over the same smart and strong woman! Ms. Day weaves a wonderfully exciting plot while still giving us some steamy romance! Can't wait to read the next book in the saga!

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Lots of Action

I love this series because of the action. The characters are great! It's also nice to see an Asian-American heroine.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Eve of Boredom

S.J. Day's first entry into the arena of Urban fantasy fails on too many levels to count. To begin with, there's the premise that heaven's legions are organized along the lines of an organized crime syndicate. The heroine, Eve, is recruited into the syndicate by something akin to rape by Able (of biblical fame) beneath a stairwell, in order to allow the syndicate to achieve better control over her erstwhile lover, Cain (yeah, that one). Eve gets "The Mark of Cain" -- which apparently makes her one of heaven's recruits, an unwilling one, because of the sin of having been sexually assaulted. Hmmm. A bit problematic that.

Apparently becoming a "Mark" (one so marked) gives one something like superpowers, and also makes the Mark very horny. Within the ranks of the syndicate, power and alliances are, errr, worked out by episodes of sexual intercourse. This plot device serves as a mechanism for inserting more episodes of improbable porn. My impression after the first three or four rounds of 'his throbbing hardness' and 'her wet desire' and things of that nature was that S.J. Day might be a pseudonym for some 40 year old introverted guy living in his parents basement and still wondering what sex might be like.

A plot is shoehorned into the mix around the trashy porn, but it's not much of a plot. The action is, by comparison with other urban fantasy novels, downright dull. The dialog is anything but witty, and the heroine is neither clever nor particularly heroic. The most believable characters in the novel are gargoyles with a penchant for standing on ledges and pissing on the primary characters -- which, given the conduct and conversations of the primaries, seems to me like a perfectly reasonable response to the whole situation.

Amazon's new reviewer format provides suggestions with a range of answers that don't fit this novel, so I'll provide some choices that seem to me to do the job. "It is" really, really dull. "Good For" recycling or kindling a fire in your wood stove.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Uniqueish

The plot may or may not be similar to other books in the genre but S.J Day gives it her own style and flare. Eve is a unique character who has to change everything in her life once she's Marked. She has the two biblical brothers wanting her, sometimes despising her, along with the class of Marks she's supposed to get along with. In this first installment you will meet a strange cast that is both fun to read while urging you never to put the book down.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Interesting read.

Not only was it refreshing to have someone retouch the story of Cain and Abel, but it was especially nice to show an alternative to the original storyline. I do not want to give anything away, but if you like supernatural thrillers/romance novels then this book is a good choice. Books that it reminded me of: Guilty Pleasures, by Laurell K. Hamilton; Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost; Undead and Unwed by Mary Janice Davidson.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

S.J. Day way to go

It was worth the wait. Hope you can get a copy before they are gone. This is a must read!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Eve of Darkness ROCKS

I rarely branch out of the romance genre, so I was concerned with what this would be like. That said, I LOVED it.

SJ immediately captured my attention and sucked me into the world and story. Eve kicks demon butt even as she's struggling with her new role in life. I couldn't flip the pages fast enough and when I reached the end I was sad to see it end, knowing that I would have to wait for book 2.

I forgot that I was reading and was carried away to a world that made my stresses look minor.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

he first "Marked" romantic urban fantasy is a superb gritty tale

In California, interior designer Evangeline Hollis meets a hunk on a stairwell and cannot resist his lure. After heating up Orange County, he leaves and she notices a triangle etched into her arm. Soon after her encounter, her decade ago lover Alec Cain arrives to inform her ironically that she a true nonbeliever is now marked as a killer for God.---------

Eve is irate with Cain for deserting her ten years ago without a look back and the man in the stairwell, who turns out to be his brother Reed Abel for putting the Mark of Cain on her. Her new unwanted vocation is to destroy the evil Infernals while staying alive as demons have marked her for hell.--------------

The first "Marked" romantic urban fantasy is a superb gritty tale starring a fabulous creative triangle. Eve holds the exciting dark story line together as the agnostic suddenly has a new belief system; hell she was just an Orange County interior designer and now she is Marked as a bounty hunter of Infernals heating the earth. Worse she has to deal with Cain and Abel as each fills her with desire that will ban her from attending Angels' baseball games. Sub-genre fans will enjoy the EVE OF DARKNESS and look forward to more gritty destruction as chaos has become the heroine's norm.-----------

Harriet Klausner

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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