Early Book Review; Luck of the Devil by Patricia Eimer

Luck of the Devil by Patricia Eimer is a funny paranormal romance set to be released on August 2 2011. The story focuses ob Faith, the youngest daughter of the devil, yes really. She just wants to live a normal, non-evil life, and is doing pretty good. She works as a pediatric nurse and hangs out with her roommate Lisa, who her brother Tolliver turned into a succubus. So, Lisa is still getting used to her powers and accidentally kills Faith's boss, then the entire family comes to visit, Faith gets a stalker and her crush worthy neighbor is either afraid of her or shares her attraction. Just a normal day, right? It seems to be for Faith, who rolls with the punches and makes readers laugh as they come along for the ride.

First, I want to talk about the fantastic. I greatly enjoyed the character and world building in Luck of the Devil. Faith has a very dysfunctional family, complete with temper tantrums that can change weather or cause mass destruction. Faith has her hands full when her sister lands on her doorstep with her converted husband and lots of luggage, the a wacky mother and her father all coming to stay in the aftermath of covering up her roommate accidentally killing Harold. A demon bodyguard and brother Tolliver round out the crazy cast of characters that make up Faith's family, which she fears is going to cause disaster and force her to move from the life she had built and the neighbor that she fairly drools over. The character interactions and problems that seem to follow Faith as she struggles to hold everything together is priceless and highly entertaining.

I read a great deal of paranormal and fantasy, and the way angels, demons, God, the Devil, and all beings in between are dealt with and injected into the general populace was fantastic. It was seamless and in the end, when I was done chuckling at poor Faith and the insanity of her family dynamics, it also made me think about the theology underlying it all. What more can you ask than to be entertained while reading and left both thinking and smiling? I was very glad to have gotten my hands on Luck of the Devil early through NetGalley .

I had two small things that I did not like, but even saying that I am still recommending this as a fun romance. My first problem was that I felt that there should have been a prequel to explain the back story that is only sketched out during the action of Luck of the Devil. I liked the characters so much that I wanted more of the history between faith and her siblings, as well as Tolliver and Lisa. It was not that the plot was missing any important bits, but that I wanted more details because I enjoyed the story and set of characters so much. My other problem was a little more annoying. There were a couple continuity issues, for instance when Faith and the gang were waiting for someone to come back into the room, and then they were already there and someone else was dealing with them. A couple times I found myself flipping back a couple of pages to see if I missed the sentence that would have fixed it. However, I was reading a galley copy so perhaps the minor imperfections will be fixed prior to final publication.

I recommend Luck of the Devil to anyone that enjoys paranormal romance, particularly stories on the lighter side. Fans of Mary Janice Davidson, Katie MacAlister, Lynsay Sands and other authors that blend laughs with the paranormal will want to add Patricia Eimer to their list of must read authors. I am looking forward to reading whatever she does next.