Patricia Eimer
Luck of the Devil

Review brought to you by OBS staff member Karolina

Being the youngest daughter of the Devil isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. The days of teenage rebellion and vows of chastity made just to tick off her father are over, and now all Faith Bettincourt wants is a nice, quiet life. Unfortunately, thanks to the unexpected arrival of her demonically-downsized sister, a ditzy succubus roommate, and dear old Dad himself, Faith’s plans for a relaxing vacation spent watching reruns go up in flames.

Now it’s all Faith can do to keep the family reunion from Hell (literally) under wraps, and the angelically-inclined hottie across the hall from realizing there’s something weird about his neighbor. And, thankfully, it’s working. Until an angelic stalker shows up in a bid to steal her powers and take over the world.

Forget watching reruns. With the way things are going, Faith will need the luck of the Devil just to survive until Monday. Source

Luck of the Devil by Patricia Eimer is a wonderful, feel good paranormal comedy that sucks you in from the beginning (pun completely intended!). Faith Bettincourt – the Devil’s youngest daughter-  and her roommate Lisa begin the story by accidentally murdering a doctor who they work with (Lisa – the ditzy succubus in the write up is the culprit). Things definitely go pear-shaped from here on in with the appearance of Faith’s older brother Tolliver, sister Hope (along with her recently ‘fallen up’ incubus husband, Boris)  and her own dear father (the Devil Himself) and her ditzy mother to really make things complicated! This family reads as any disfunctionally functional family would – they all love each other to death; but have their own hang ups and crazy antics (and horns and tails thrown in to the mix). Eimer’s devil is surprisingly sane – and not as evil as you’d expect. His offspring and chosen partner are far crazier than he is. It’s kind of disconcerting how much I enjoyed the devil and his characterisation in this – he really could be anyone.

Tolliver and Hope are a lot of fun with their attempts at villainy , and Lisa, though ditzy, is a complete sweetheart. Faith is a great storyteller, and a protagonist I think a woman can relate to -in a crazy “this could never happen to me, but if it did, that’s so something I would do” way. Matt – the angelic hottie from next door, is also a great addition to the cast of wacky characters this book provides. He’s incredibly grounding, and seems to take everything that goes on around Faith in stride- something (and someone) this character seems to desperately need. Eimer also does an amazingly good job at developing the mystery around Faith’s creepy, malicious stalker (yep, that’s right, there’s a bit of a mystery running through the book, too!) with a satisfying ending. There’s even a cameo from a Divine power, or two.

The only downside of this book, from my point of view, was sort of being thrown into who the characters were. It took me a few chapters to ascertain who was who and how they connected to Faith, and why. For someone who is quite character based when she reads a book (which I definitely am) it was a little frustrating. But, once that was sorted out, the story made up for that hiccup. All in all, Luck of the Devil by Patricia Eimer is a great read, with really fun, engaging and (although wacky) amusingly real characters and a great plot. Definitely not a run of the mill story, and completely recommended!