'The Road to Hell' by Jackie Kessler

ISBN: 0821781030
Format: Paperback, 304pp
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Pub. Date: November 2007
Price: $15.00

The Road to Hell is pretty in your face with the sexuality. In the first 20 pages you get premature ejaculation, bathroom masturbation, and dirty talk. Imagine, if that is what you get for your first taste, what else is in store? Yeah, I can hear your brain working through my computer.

Jesse, formally known as the demon succubus Jezebel, is a stripper. Something that is not that far removed from what she did as a demon seeing as how she seduced humans to claim their souls for hell. But all that is behind her. She is no longer that demon succubus but Jesse, the now human girl who loves her job stripping at Spice as much as she loves her New York City cop boyfriend, Paul.

Jesse just thought she left that all behind. When her best friend’s sister shows up, all that soft, comfy safety flies out the window. Megaera, Jesses’ one time best friend, until she left Jesse to die, is in trouble and being tortured. Jesse is asked to help her, save her from her fate because Jesse is the only demon to ever escape hell and live to tell the tale.

But Jesse isn’t sure she wants to. She likes her human life, she likes the relationship with Paul and doesn’t want any of that to change; which of course it would if she went back to hell to save her betrayer of a best friend. But deep down Jesse is still the succubus she once was, sure she has a soul and a human body, but you can’t change 4,000 years of living one way for another over night.

When Paul gets pulled into the mess Jesse knows what she has to do. Along the way we meet a ton of fun characters. Angel, who just happens to be a real angel, is great and Jesse has a lot of fun corrupting little Miss Perfect.

The Road to Hell is being labeled a paranormal romance. It’s not. Sure this is paranormal but this isn’t exactly a romance. Jesse, though she does love Paul, doesn’t spend a lot of time with him in this. In the end he just spends too much time off stage to be a love interest or a character that I care about. Not to mention that though she is dedicated to her relationship it doesn’t stop her from letting other questionable things happen; which just flies in the face of the romance format.

Not that I mind something that’s a bit unconventional, which The Road to Hell certainly is. You’ve got strippers, demons, and a ton of in your face action of all kinds. Jesse is a unique voice and I’m sure that she will have her own fan base in no time. So if you are looking for something a bit kinky, a little dirty and a ton of fun look no farther than The Road to Hell.