Friending the Devil

by Debby Rice

Friending the Devil is the story of Kelsey James’ seduction into a world of magic, murder, and corruption. The novel unfolds in a dark urban forest—a place where evil hides in plain sight and a bite of chocolate gives the power to soar over skyscrapers or make a gun jump to an unwitting assassin’s hand. Kelsey enters this fairytale laid low by fate. Orphaned overnight and dismissed from her advertising job like so much clichéd copy, compulsive shoplifting has become a shameful refuge from those life-shattering experiences. When Kelsey lands a job at Lively Enterprises, her luck seems to be changing. Her employment package includes a luxury condo, a limited edition car, and an intriguing male supervisor. But the deal is tied with the devil’s strings. Far from being an outsider to a family business dedicated to promoting chaos and lining pockets, Kelsey discovers that Lively Enterprises is her frightening inheritance. As curiosity and fear drive her deeper into her new family’s dangerous embrace, Kelsey uncovers the truth about her past and learns that her real job has nothing to do with work. The supernatural mafia that runs the company has been searching for her to release a fresh breath of evil into the world. Kelsey’s fate threatens to ruin her closest friends, transform her identity and compromise her soul.

408 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 26, 2018

Reviews

[A. Cook · Rating 3 out of 5]

A slow moving read that picks up towards the end.

Thank you to the author for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderfully magical, fantastical, imaginative, whimsical, oh-so-darkly humorous and well-written novel. It was such a fun read, a real page-turner. Lively Enterprises (a reference in the book) indeed!

Friending the Devil read like a fairy-tale for adults. The author's ability to inject magic into the mundane was magical. The rich interweave of the fantastical with contemporary urban, cold, noir grittiness, made the real and the unreal world bounce off each other in a surreal way.

I felt COLD reading this book as if I were in some dark-blue, frigid, malignant underworld, a world that contrasted starkly with Kelsey's pursuit of warmth, pleasure, and POWER. (And food, food, food; the writer of this book just has to be a foodie.)

The book is populated with many vivid characters. The villains in Friending the Devil are as diabolical as the good folks are complex, loving and flawed. Kelsey's dear old friends felt real and such significant others made the story have real consequences. Many of the fantastical characters were marvelously absurd and bewitching. And, Sugar, the dog! Don't get me started! Throughout, the dark, dry, sharp humor kept things moving along and I laughed out loud in many instances reading this book. (Check out “From the Maxims of Rupert P. Lively” that opens every chapter to see what I mean.)

The crux of the book is the main character's struggle between good and evil, between her real friends and friending the devil. This struggle twists and turns in many unexpected and fun ways. Complicating the plot is whether Kelsey has real freedom to decide her fate or if a pre-ordained outcome awaits her.

[Self-Professed Book Hoarders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Friending the Devil is an interesting take on long-existing religious myths and the influence of wealth and greed. In this entry, the reader is introduced to the lovely Ms. Kelsey James who is down on her luck. With a chance encounter with a bench, a well-placed ad and a handshake with Mr. Lively, Kelsey is swept into a world that was best left hidden. The story is written well but as a reader (like Kelsey) it was hard to follow what was going on, hard to figure out what the characters actually were and what the heroine's actual abilities were. In short, while reading I was just as confused as the heroine. There was a lively bunch of secondary characters and animals that should have had more focus. Though the stories focus was Kelsey and her transformation from one existence to another - it took too long to get there and the reader doesn't fully get to appreciate the characters transition. Overall this was a fluid read.

This ARC was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review

[Eileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Friending was fast, fun and sexy without cliches and torn bodices, a higher class of escapist fiction. I loved it. The magic is not so ridiculous that you can’t “suspend your disbelief” and enjoy the fantasy. I read Debby Rice’s first book, Chihuahua Karma, which also had a magical theme and it was charming. Reincarnation revisited. This book is what I might call Modern Gothic but however you categorize it is eminently readable. I give it five stars because it achieves exactly what it’s supposed to—the creation of a time and a place where you can step out of your world and into theirs. And their world is not commonplace. It’s fantastic.