Hot enough for you?

Remember Jackie Kessler? She looks so sweet in that photo; hard to imagine a face like that concealing a mind capable of writing like this:

He pulls his hand out of me and mounts me, thrusts himself deep inside, deep to the breaking point, then slides out and back in, and again, pumping, faster, faster now, his hands gripping my shoulders and my heart slamming against my chest and my groin is on fire, on fire, oh bless me I’m on fire and he’s smiling at me as he fucks me, fucks me raw and he says, “You’re mine.”

No, Jackie! Please say it wasn’t you who penned those words — not you, the nice Jewish girl (I’m guessing) my mom no doubt wishes I would have married. No! Please say it was a group effort from this trio. I could see them writing a few steamy sex scenes.

Sigh.

The one question I never asked Jackie in that interview (linked above): Do your parents know you write this stuff?

Heads up, Jackie: I’ll be whoring today’s post over at Beth’s Smart Bitches Day, so I guess I’ll have to bitch about your new book, The Road to Hell, sequel to Hell’s Belles.

I’m serious about that last question. I can’t imagine my parents reading my manuscript — bad enough my sister reads all of my sex scenes. The whole thing reminds me of the time Karen and I were visiting her folks, and we rented the Jack Nicholson/Jessica Lange version of The Postman Always Rings Twice, and her mom decided to watch it with us, and then there was this looooong scene where Jack’s going down on Jessica and Karen and I both tried to shrink into the sofa and disappear because that wasn’t in the book!

Here you think you’re enjoying some casual, light entertainment with the MIL, and that happens.

Back to The Road to Hell.

Here’s the premise, set up very well in the first book, Hell’s Belles: Jesse, short for Jezebel, is a succubus on the lam from Hell. (The reason for her sudden flight provides much of the mystery in this first novel.) To hide from her demon pursuers, she gives up her own demonic form (and her powers, for the most part) to masquerade as a human. And what better place for a succubus-turned-human to fit in than a strip joint?

Hell’s Belles had a lot of well researched strip joint action, demonic pursuers including an incubus with testosterone toxicity, and a hot cop who took a shine to Jesse’s finer qualities. Hell’s Belles also impressed me with its unique mythology — Jackie Kessler’s heaven and hell aren’t the same-old same-old, but something fresh and provocative. I didn’t expect a thoughtful exploration of good, evil, and free will in a paranormal romance (if that’s what we’re going to call this supernatural, erotic, romantic, urban fantasy).

Road to Hell is not a stand-alone sequel. It depends enough on Hell’s Belles that I of the colander-like memory had to reread the last two chapters of the first book to get a firm grounding for the second. But that’s okay, since I despise sequels wherein the author provides twenty pages or more of boring, clunky exposition to bring new readers up to speed. Feh! Nope. Jackie hits the ground running with a brief but lethal prologue, some strip joint action, and then a demonic attack. Boom! We’re back in Jesse’s world, all right.

The plot puts Jesse’s commitment to her human-form (as well as her commitment to her chosen human, Paul) in jeopardy. Back in hell, her Fury-friend Megaera needs saving, and soon, Paul’s soul is on the line, too. Can Jesse travel back to the land where she is Hell’s Most Wanted to save her lover and her best friend? And can she escape the vengeance of the Powers that Be, who apparently feel Prometheus received soft treatment?

This wouldn’t be a Smart Bitches Day post without some serious bitching. What didn’t I like about The Road to Hell?

• Not enough nasty sex. (Because you can never have enough nasty sex.)

Jesse isn’t celibate in this one, but she tries her best to be faithful to Paul. I liked naughty-succubus Jesse better. Jesse’s new attitude pushes the book further into romance territory, and out of that nebulous cross-genre universe which so intrigued me in Hell’s Belles.

• Not enough Lucifer.

The Prince of Hell was one of the first book’s more engaging minor characters. Jackie has a different take than, say, Glen Duncan, whose Lucifer was a wicked-bad figure with the fatal flaw of actually liking the human condition. I want to know more about Jackie’s Lucifer.

Nevertheless, The Road to Hell is a thoroughly entertaining addition to Hell’s Belles, one which will satisfy those who hunger for more infernal adventures. And Jackie’s publisher has included a teaser at the end: the first chapter of Hotter than Hell, wherein we get to see the incubus Daun ply his trade.

. . . coming August 2008. Damn it!

D.