Patricia Eimer

Oh my. I heard about Entangled Publishing on twitter first and checked out their line up of upcoming novels. As a new publisher they have a nice assorted of books with more in the future looking rocking (check out Inara Scott's Radiant Desire!). If LUCK OF THE DEVIL, the first in the "Speak of the Devil" series is any indication then I think I found a new publisher love of life.

At first the book begins kind of shaky--it tosses information, snark and pithy commentary at us at fast speeds that only go faster with the introduction of Faith's siblings (Tolliver - Archdemon of Gluttony, Hope - Archdemoness of Lust and Boris Hope's Incubus husband) and friends (Lisa - misfit Succubus roommate, Matt - hot new neighbor) dysfunction. There's only one way to really describe her siblings and parents--High Functioning Dysfuncionals. They kind of toss things at the wind and hope it all comes out okay. Faith is more practical, but she's also the baby of the family and (as far as I can tell) the only one who wants a normal life. They are a rock solid family unit however--fiercely loyal to each other and willing to go to great lengths to protect their family.

I described this to a friend as if Satan decided to do a sitcom--God (or Alpha) is the older brother, Jesus is the do-gooder cousin, Roisin is the dippy mother and they all just kind of...work. Eimer is basically doing to the Christian mythos what countless other writers have done to Greek, Roman, etc mythologies. And I kind of love it like all get.

There are some problems with pacing--when the plot is on, its ON and doesn't stop until a slow moment (Faith failing at flirting with her neighbor Matt, bickering with her siblings or oddly sweet moments with her father Satan) literally pushes it out of the way. This kind of stop and go action made it hard for me to read at length, but made for very good reading short term commuter wise.

The characters are also lively and set themselves apart easily. Eimer catches a different tone for each, making them fun to read and watch Faith's more than down to Earth attitude interact with. Whereas in some books I've read recently I couldn't stand the internal commentary about everything, I loved Faith's. It would kind of be like 'No really. Seriously? Stop already.' which is more or less how I often respond to idiots and family.

As I read an electronic-ARC of this novel I can't speak for the length or quality of the paperback edition, but I do like the cover (even though its slightly spoiler-ish) and the electronic edition is smooth as can be. Some plots are left dangling (I'd love to know more about the ex-hockey player bakery dude from the beginning) as the narrative focused on the threat plaguing Faith and Co. and truly if you don't like your religious views messed with I wouldn't read this book. This isn't a criticism, but a warning that if you take offense to Christianity being questioned or outright disregarded do no not read this book.

In the end this book was enjoyable, had some very funny moments and made me eager to know what's next for Faith and Co. And that's all you really ask for from a novel right?… (mere)

ARC Review: Out of This World (Out of This World) by Patricia Eimer

All that is needed to enjoy Out of This World is a vivid imagination, an inquisitive mind and a thirst for a good mystery. Ms. Eimer did the impossible by blending comedy with adventure and sci-fi. Corri is running for her life when she crash lands into even more trouble. Mattias is all for getting to know a beautiful woman but knows there's more to the stranger he stumbles across. Runaway aliens, murderous fiancee's and the blended of two worlds make for a great adventure but the setting proved overpowering to the romance. Out of This World has too much going on for my taste.… (mere)

OUT OF THIS WORLD was....weird, but I finished it without having to skim through the pages so it wasn't bad.

Patricia Eimer isn't a new author to me and when I saw OUT OF THIS WORLD was one of her books I read the blurb and signed up for a review copy. The blurb does a really good job of summing-up the book, but I was hoping it would be more sci-fi and less odd.

Corripraxis AKA Corri, is an alien on the run from her murderous warlord fiance. You expect her not to know anything about earth or the way things are on earth, but she was beyond weird and it was hard to connect with her—it didn't help that she didn't actually look like a human in her natural form. I did end up liking her, but it took a while. Mattias is very patient and pretty understanding. He is drawn to Corri even though he thinks she is odd and one of those 'alien-crazy wackos'. I was a little surprised that it took them both so long to act on their feelings for each other, but it was easy to understand with everything that was going on and who Corri actually is.

My favorite part of the book ended up being the end. All the events of the book kinda blow up and there is a nice action scene inside of all the other drama that was going on. I don't know if I would read more. On one hand, the characters were interesting, but the storyline was a little out there for me. There would have to be something pretty big in the blurb of book two to draw me in.

* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.… (mere)