Review: Eden's Hell

Title: Eden's Hell: I: The First

Genre: (Erotic) Romance

Author: Dawne Dominique

Synopsis:

In the beginning... God created man and called him Adam, a fine specimen replicated in his own image. He then created woman to ease Adam's loneliness and named her Lillith. Unfortunately, God realized his mistake too late in giving woman free will, for she would rule her domain-not man. When Lillith left Adam, God created another for his first-born son, and gave her the name Eve and a kingdom called Eden, but by then it was too late, for he'd unleashed Hell into the world of man.

Dawne very sweetly sent me this E-Book a while back, an ARC for review, and I kept forgetting that I had it when I was switching all my files and such over to my new netbook from my monster of a laptop, F.R.E.D.

I finally managed to wedge in enough time to read Eden's Hell, and I did enjoy it.

Warning: This review contains spoilers. I couldn't find a way around it without just leaving it at "I enjoyed it." So read on only if you don't mind knowing the plot/some details!

I liked the overall plot--I particularly liked that she brought Lillith, Adam's first wife, into play. It's rare that she gets any screen time, even as a villain--she's usually a footnote with a cursory "she was disobedient, God replaced her, and now she's evil."

I don't like that Satrina's name didn't have a correlation to Lilith the way Addison/Adam, Eva/Eve did. It felt odd to me. I thought it was a bit strange that Addison took Eva to fancy places when Satrina was so hot to have Eva to herself. I'd have thought that Satrina would be fully capable of treachery, even with the Elders and the Alluminatae's rules, the Vampire Bible as set down by God and Lucifer (which, I did think was pretty darn cool). I also didn't quite understand why Satrina wanted her so much--she didn't know who Eva was, she was just some human morsel as far as Satrina was concerned...why go to so much trouble?

After centuries of living near each other without major conflicts, why pick this single girl to destroy everything?

I liked the fact that Eva didn't immediately fall into Addison's arms--she did fight to keep herself, and she didn't trust him right off the bat. He had to prove himself. It made the story more real to me.

Addison...there was a bit of a cliche with him--brooding older man who is inexplicably drawn to this sweet, (mostly) innocent girl. I did kind of think it was out of character when, nearing the end and he was telling Eva who he really was, who he used to be, he was a bit...preachy in how he spoke of God and his disobedience. And while I know that it's technically accurate, it didn't feel real for the strong character that Addison had been through the rest of the book.

The...three or four sex scenes in the book were a 10 out of 10 on the Oh My God Scale. If there is one thing you cannot say about Dawne Dominique, it's that her sex scenes are timid or lacking in any area. She doesn't flinch from using naughty phrases and giving you the nitty gritty of the down n' dirty.

The ending was a shock--and I admit that I was both disappointed and satisfied, if that makes sense. I liked that they (obviously) ended up together. I didn't like the loose end of Satrina--it could be foreshadowing for later books (I hope so) or it's a plotline that ends there (I hope not.).

Taking everything into account, I'd have to give this book a 3.5 rating. It was a good set-up book, and I enjoyed it, but there were things that kept me from going "Wow!"