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A review by jscarpa14
Luck of the Devil by Patricia Eimer
4.0
RECEIVED FROM: Net Galley For Review
***NOTE MY REVIEWS OFTEN CONTAIN SPOILERS***
Faith Bettincourt is just your average pediatrics nurse who just happens to have a succubus that can’t control her powers as a best friend, a demon as a body guard, an archdemon for a half brother and oh did I mention she’s the devil’s half human daughter? Her mother’s a wackjob, her sister’s a bitchy half demoness who relishes in destruction and her Uncle is God and she’s the half demoness who has to keep them appearing normal when they all unexpectedly converge on her apartment building for an impromptu unannounced family reunion. There’s goes her plan to get the attention of the sexy human lawyer Matt living next door. But when she’s called into work and accused of stealing morphine from the pediatrics unit and selling it on the street the person she calls to defend her is none other than Matt the guy who’s watched her take klutzy to the extreme in his presence. And when he doesn’t run away at meeting her family she’s learns he’s not exactly human either, but a rogue Angele, the son of an Angel who’s supposed to be bent on her destruction but destruction isn’t what Matt has in mind for his interaction with her. Can she get to know Matt without someone in her family turning him into a goat or something worse? As if she didn’t have enough problems to juggle with a family reunion from Hades, tons of family issues and a budding relationship she’d like to pursue she then learns she’s got a demonic stalker bent on her destruction. Just the average week in the life of the youngest Princess of Hell, if only she can survive it to make it to the next.
This book was great! Its chick-lit meets paranormal with a twist of hilarious mixed in. I’ve personally never read anything like it. There’s a romance but it’s not the focus of the book by any means nor does the relationship progress to the seriousness of your average romance novel. I can’t say as I see this appealing to the devoutly religious faction of the population, but as I’m not one of those I loved it. This is a wonderfully written first person point of view, however due to the point of view choice I did start to get a little uncomfortable near the sex scenes. For me reading a sex scene in the first person is like that friend who tells you so much about her sex life that you can’t help but smirk every time you look at her significant other afterward because you know everything about what he’s got in his pants and how he performs in the bedroom – good or bad. The thing is I’ve never been the person in that conversation that actually wanted to know those kinds of details about a friend’s sex life nor have I shared them those kinds of details about my own. My point is since a first person sex scene is so close to one of those too much information conversations I tend to get a little uncomfortable when a sex scene occurs in a first person novel. It doesn’t bother me in the third person, even a close third person but I guess when I read a first person novel it feels like a conversation with a friend telling me about what happened in their life. When I read a third person, specifically a close third person I feel more like I’m experiencing the book right beside the characters and since I feel a part of the experience the sex scenes don’t bother me(unless they’re an overused excuse for a plot or poorly written). I’m not sure if that makes any sense but it’s just a personal opinion. It wasn’t that bad because Eimer focused more on the paranormal elements of their union than the nitty gritty details that I don’t like to hear in the first person. The book also includes an element of suspense in the form of a supernatural stalker, but while this subplot was interesting it also wasn’t the focus of the story. The story mostly focused on the life of Faith, the youngest daughter of the devil and her zany family and friends. Eimer manages to take things that would be average everyday things in the life of your average human and add the supernatural twist to them so that they turn out hilarious. For example her family coming to visit includes freak hail storms when they lose their temper. Her brother doesn’t ask her roommate out he turns her into a succubus that he doesn’t know how to train to make her immortal like he is and because he can’t train her to use her powers she keeps accidentally killing people. Eimer takes dysfunctional family to a whole new level which made the novel an absolute riot to read. The reason I say that I don’t feel it will appeal to the religious sect is that God and Jesus are characters within the novel referred to as the Alpha and J and they’re all part of the family. What I mean by this is that in one scene her father the Devil is sitting in her living room playing Mario Karts on the Wii with the Alpha her uncle. While I found the dynamics of this to be great, I can’t see your average devout Catholic appreciating the idea of the Devil and God hanging out. The concept was kind of that while Demons could manipulate people a little to make the decision to fall, they aren’t really the bad guys because in the end it’s the person’s choice where they want to spend their eternity. Additionally I’m thinking the hardcore Wiccans might take offense to the characters basically saying their religion is a bunch of nonexistent nonsense. I don’t think it’s meant to be an insult to the Wiccan religion, but more for the story to work as it’s written the only religion that can exist is Christianity. The Alpha and Omega (the devil) couldn’t be the ultimate sources of power if another religion and its gods or goddesses truly existed to challenge their power. Regardless of this and the fact it’s a fictional story the more zealous of the religious factions have a history of taking offense to anything fiction or otherwise that doesn’t strictly follow their religious ideals. Case in point here it hasn’t been that long since Dan Brown’s Davinci Code became one of the most well known titles in fiction because of all the bad press from the religious factor and the numerous books published as responses to his FICTIONAL title. Personally I’m thankful to them because I hadn’t heard of the novel before they threw a fit and I picked it up to read it to find out what all the fuss was about. I was rewarded with a great read and from that became a fan of the author and his other titles. But if the religious factor hadn’t gone nuts I might have never known who the author was. While I could see the devoutly religious throwing a fit, it might actually be a good thing for the title to be picked up by one of the more vocal of that faction because of the attention it would draw to a title that like with Brown’s novel, the general public would enjoy. Obviously the only connection between these two novels is that both deals with religious figures outside of the traditional way they’re viewed. Eimer’s style and story is otherwise nothing like Brown’s work. Eimer has written a wonderful paranormal comedy, something I could easily see as a television sitcom or comedy style drama if it were read by the right television people. The story has a fast pacing and is well written with an interesting plot, but it is most definitely the characters themselves that make this book so great, compared to these larger than life characters everything else kind of fades into the background. I personally hope this book is intended to be part of a series because the world Eimer has created within Luck of the Devil is so very entertaining I’d hate to think I’d never have another journey with these characters. I’d love to know more about how things go between Faith and Matt and of course like most romance fans I’d like it to be in terms of a happily ever after. I want to know more about Hope and what happens now for her. Heck I’d even enjoy a prequel to find out the details of Tolliver and Lisa from maybe Lisa’s point of view. The characters created here are so richly developed and entertaining that I personally hope Eimer milks them for all the stories she can get out of them.
Like mentioned above the characters Eimer creates here are extremely well developed, despite being so far from the norm the really pop from the page. Obviously with a first person novel the most well developed character is the one who’s telling the story – Faith. Faith has cool demon powers but literally the family from hell and because of that a world of insecurities. Even physically she’s high in the insecurity level. It sounded as though her hair was pretty similar to her sister Hope’s and her mother Roisin, however on Hope, Faith sees it as gorgeous, and Roisin it’s adorable ringlets, but her hair she considers a frizzy mess. She basically says she has her father’s eyes, but on him they’re a brilliant emerald green, but hers are just flat and sort of mossy looking. I got the impression that Faith just didn’t see herself in the same way others might see her. Faith blames herself for what happened to her ex-fiancé who currently resides in a mental institution because he couldn’t take what she was. The experience has left her insecure with men to the point that after finally sleeping with Matt who she’s been interested in for over six months, she sneaks out in the morning because she doesn’t want to face his rejection. The thing is Matt knew who she was before ever taking her out and during their foreplay ask to see all of her, wings, tail and horns. He tells her how beautiful she is and it’s really clear to the reader the guy is nuts for her, but she’s afraid to face him because she doesn’t want him to reject her. She’s outright frightened of people meeting her family and she views herself as the weak link as far as her family goes. Being demons, for the most part her family encourages the idea, however when things go wrong the person they turn to is Faith. They expect her to keep their secrets and for her to take responsibility for their actions when needed. The fact that she’s the one they turn to when someone has to be the fall guy and take punishment kind of demonstrates they see her as a strong person regardless of what they say. The way she gets hit on kind of proves she’s beautiful regardless of how she sees herself. I mean she doesn’t see herself as useless and she does see some of her strength and attempts to be a productive member of society despite her beginnings, but she’s easy to relate to because despite the fact that she’s demon royalty she doesn’t think she’s better or perfect. Additionally this character shows a great amount of growth throughout the story as she finally starts to see her own strength before its conclusion. Where Eimer really demonstrates her character creation talents though is with the secondary characters. Many novels written in the first person are a little lacking in the development of secondary characters, but this one pretty much all the characters popped right off the page. We’ve got Lucifer Louis Morningstar AKA the Devil who’s one of those overbearing over protective fathers, with the whole tons of power twist added on. He sees things more as he wants them to be rather than how they are and it takes his oldest daughter flipping out during their first family meeting for him to see how very wrong things are for his family and to start changing. He reminds me a lot of those big teddy bear guys who are so big and ferocious looking but turnout to be the biggest sweethearts you know. The character does a lot of acting before thinking thing through and he’s to say the least charming and hilarious. Her older sister Hope who hides her insecurities behind a bitchy exterior but despite portraying herself as highly self-centered has a serious protective streak where Faith is concerned. Tolliver, her half brother who takes snarky to a new level when all he clearly wants to be is loved and I personally believe based on his behavior that he comes to Faith’s not just to see Lisa but to see Faith because of all their family Faith has the biggest heart. I get the impression that he picks on her as his way of showing affection and while he may enjoy tormenting Faith he’d probably never allow anyone else to do so. This of course is an average brother sister dynamic. My daughter and middle son are outright mean to each other more often than I’d like but if anyone else even looks twice at the other one they jump to that sibling’s defense. Of all my kids those two fight the most, but when they’re on visitation my middle son who supposedly hates his sister – his words not mine, is the first to ask how she’s doing and wanting to call her to see that she’s okay. Lisa is the flighty best friend who means well but tends to put her foot in her mouth more often than not. Matt is insecure but possessive, shy but quick to defend. Each character in this novel is well developed, quirky and hilarious. They’re the kind of characters that you don’t want to let go of when the book ends and the characters who make you want to read the book over and over again just to spend more time with them.
Obviously overall the book is highly recommended. It’s one that I can see myself picking up again just because it was such a hilarious and enjoyable journey. If you enjoy romantic comedy with a paranormal twist, don’t miss this book.
***NOTE MY REVIEWS OFTEN CONTAIN SPOILERS***
Faith Bettincourt is just your average pediatrics nurse who just happens to have a succubus that can’t control her powers as a best friend, a demon as a body guard, an archdemon for a half brother and oh did I mention she’s the devil’s half human daughter? Her mother’s a wackjob, her sister’s a bitchy half demoness who relishes in destruction and her Uncle is God and she’s the half demoness who has to keep them appearing normal when they all unexpectedly converge on her apartment building for an impromptu unannounced family reunion. There’s goes her plan to get the attention of the sexy human lawyer Matt living next door. But when she’s called into work and accused of stealing morphine from the pediatrics unit and selling it on the street the person she calls to defend her is none other than Matt the guy who’s watched her take klutzy to the extreme in his presence. And when he doesn’t run away at meeting her family she’s learns he’s not exactly human either, but a rogue Angele, the son of an Angel who’s supposed to be bent on her destruction but destruction isn’t what Matt has in mind for his interaction with her. Can she get to know Matt without someone in her family turning him into a goat or something worse? As if she didn’t have enough problems to juggle with a family reunion from Hades, tons of family issues and a budding relationship she’d like to pursue she then learns she’s got a demonic stalker bent on her destruction. Just the average week in the life of the youngest Princess of Hell, if only she can survive it to make it to the next.
This book was great! Its chick-lit meets paranormal with a twist of hilarious mixed in. I’ve personally never read anything like it. There’s a romance but it’s not the focus of the book by any means nor does the relationship progress to the seriousness of your average romance novel. I can’t say as I see this appealing to the devoutly religious faction of the population, but as I’m not one of those I loved it. This is a wonderfully written first person point of view, however due to the point of view choice I did start to get a little uncomfortable near the sex scenes. For me reading a sex scene in the first person is like that friend who tells you so much about her sex life that you can’t help but smirk every time you look at her significant other afterward because you know everything about what he’s got in his pants and how he performs in the bedroom – good or bad. The thing is I’ve never been the person in that conversation that actually wanted to know those kinds of details about a friend’s sex life nor have I shared them those kinds of details about my own. My point is since a first person sex scene is so close to one of those too much information conversations I tend to get a little uncomfortable when a sex scene occurs in a first person novel. It doesn’t bother me in the third person, even a close third person but I guess when I read a first person novel it feels like a conversation with a friend telling me about what happened in their life. When I read a third person, specifically a close third person I feel more like I’m experiencing the book right beside the characters and since I feel a part of the experience the sex scenes don’t bother me(unless they’re an overused excuse for a plot or poorly written). I’m not sure if that makes any sense but it’s just a personal opinion. It wasn’t that bad because Eimer focused more on the paranormal elements of their union than the nitty gritty details that I don’t like to hear in the first person. The book also includes an element of suspense in the form of a supernatural stalker, but while this subplot was interesting it also wasn’t the focus of the story. The story mostly focused on the life of Faith, the youngest daughter of the devil and her zany family and friends. Eimer manages to take things that would be average everyday things in the life of your average human and add the supernatural twist to them so that they turn out hilarious. For example her family coming to visit includes freak hail storms when they lose their temper. Her brother doesn’t ask her roommate out he turns her into a succubus that he doesn’t know how to train to make her immortal like he is and because he can’t train her to use her powers she keeps accidentally killing people. Eimer takes dysfunctional family to a whole new level which made the novel an absolute riot to read. The reason I say that I don’t feel it will appeal to the religious sect is that God and Jesus are characters within the novel referred to as the Alpha and J and they’re all part of the family. What I mean by this is that in one scene her father the Devil is sitting in her living room playing Mario Karts on the Wii with the Alpha her uncle. While I found the dynamics of this to be great, I can’t see your average devout Catholic appreciating the idea of the Devil and God hanging out. The concept was kind of that while Demons could manipulate people a little to make the decision to fall, they aren’t really the bad guys because in the end it’s the person’s choice where they want to spend their eternity. Additionally I’m thinking the hardcore Wiccans might take offense to the characters basically saying their religion is a bunch of nonexistent nonsense. I don’t think it’s meant to be an insult to the Wiccan religion, but more for the story to work as it’s written the only religion that can exist is Christianity. The Alpha and Omega (the devil) couldn’t be the ultimate sources of power if another religion and its gods or goddesses truly existed to challenge their power. Regardless of this and the fact it’s a fictional story the more zealous of the religious factions have a history of taking offense to anything fiction or otherwise that doesn’t strictly follow their religious ideals. Case in point here it hasn’t been that long since Dan Brown’s Davinci Code became one of the most well known titles in fiction because of all the bad press from the religious factor and the numerous books published as responses to his FICTIONAL title. Personally I’m thankful to them because I hadn’t heard of the novel before they threw a fit and I picked it up to read it to find out what all the fuss was about. I was rewarded with a great read and from that became a fan of the author and his other titles. But if the religious factor hadn’t gone nuts I might have never known who the author was. While I could see the devoutly religious throwing a fit, it might actually be a good thing for the title to be picked up by one of the more vocal of that faction because of the attention it would draw to a title that like with Brown’s novel, the general public would enjoy. Obviously the only connection between these two novels is that both deals with religious figures outside of the traditional way they’re viewed. Eimer’s style and story is otherwise nothing like Brown’s work. Eimer has written a wonderful paranormal comedy, something I could easily see as a television sitcom or comedy style drama if it were read by the right television people. The story has a fast pacing and is well written with an interesting plot, but it is most definitely the characters themselves that make this book so great, compared to these larger than life characters everything else kind of fades into the background. I personally hope this book is intended to be part of a series because the world Eimer has created within Luck of the Devil is so very entertaining I’d hate to think I’d never have another journey with these characters. I’d love to know more about how things go between Faith and Matt and of course like most romance fans I’d like it to be in terms of a happily ever after. I want to know more about Hope and what happens now for her. Heck I’d even enjoy a prequel to find out the details of Tolliver and Lisa from maybe Lisa’s point of view. The characters created here are so richly developed and entertaining that I personally hope Eimer milks them for all the stories she can get out of them.
Like mentioned above the characters Eimer creates here are extremely well developed, despite being so far from the norm the really pop from the page. Obviously with a first person novel the most well developed character is the one who’s telling the story – Faith. Faith has cool demon powers but literally the family from hell and because of that a world of insecurities. Even physically she’s high in the insecurity level. It sounded as though her hair was pretty similar to her sister Hope’s and her mother Roisin, however on Hope, Faith sees it as gorgeous, and Roisin it’s adorable ringlets, but her hair she considers a frizzy mess. She basically says she has her father’s eyes, but on him they’re a brilliant emerald green, but hers are just flat and sort of mossy looking. I got the impression that Faith just didn’t see herself in the same way others might see her. Faith blames herself for what happened to her ex-fiancé who currently resides in a mental institution because he couldn’t take what she was. The experience has left her insecure with men to the point that after finally sleeping with Matt who she’s been interested in for over six months, she sneaks out in the morning because she doesn’t want to face his rejection. The thing is Matt knew who she was before ever taking her out and during their foreplay ask to see all of her, wings, tail and horns. He tells her how beautiful she is and it’s really clear to the reader the guy is nuts for her, but she’s afraid to face him because she doesn’t want him to reject her. She’s outright frightened of people meeting her family and she views herself as the weak link as far as her family goes. Being demons, for the most part her family encourages the idea, however when things go wrong the person they turn to is Faith. They expect her to keep their secrets and for her to take responsibility for their actions when needed. The fact that she’s the one they turn to when someone has to be the fall guy and take punishment kind of demonstrates they see her as a strong person regardless of what they say. The way she gets hit on kind of proves she’s beautiful regardless of how she sees herself. I mean she doesn’t see herself as useless and she does see some of her strength and attempts to be a productive member of society despite her beginnings, but she’s easy to relate to because despite the fact that she’s demon royalty she doesn’t think she’s better or perfect. Additionally this character shows a great amount of growth throughout the story as she finally starts to see her own strength before its conclusion. Where Eimer really demonstrates her character creation talents though is with the secondary characters. Many novels written in the first person are a little lacking in the development of secondary characters, but this one pretty much all the characters popped right off the page. We’ve got Lucifer Louis Morningstar AKA the Devil who’s one of those overbearing over protective fathers, with the whole tons of power twist added on. He sees things more as he wants them to be rather than how they are and it takes his oldest daughter flipping out during their first family meeting for him to see how very wrong things are for his family and to start changing. He reminds me a lot of those big teddy bear guys who are so big and ferocious looking but turnout to be the biggest sweethearts you know. The character does a lot of acting before thinking thing through and he’s to say the least charming and hilarious. Her older sister Hope who hides her insecurities behind a bitchy exterior but despite portraying herself as highly self-centered has a serious protective streak where Faith is concerned. Tolliver, her half brother who takes snarky to a new level when all he clearly wants to be is loved and I personally believe based on his behavior that he comes to Faith’s not just to see Lisa but to see Faith because of all their family Faith has the biggest heart. I get the impression that he picks on her as his way of showing affection and while he may enjoy tormenting Faith he’d probably never allow anyone else to do so. This of course is an average brother sister dynamic. My daughter and middle son are outright mean to each other more often than I’d like but if anyone else even looks twice at the other one they jump to that sibling’s defense. Of all my kids those two fight the most, but when they’re on visitation my middle son who supposedly hates his sister – his words not mine, is the first to ask how she’s doing and wanting to call her to see that she’s okay. Lisa is the flighty best friend who means well but tends to put her foot in her mouth more often than not. Matt is insecure but possessive, shy but quick to defend. Each character in this novel is well developed, quirky and hilarious. They’re the kind of characters that you don’t want to let go of when the book ends and the characters who make you want to read the book over and over again just to spend more time with them.
Obviously overall the book is highly recommended. It’s one that I can see myself picking up again just because it was such a hilarious and enjoyable journey. If you enjoy romantic comedy with a paranormal twist, don’t miss this book.