I had a hard time getting into this one unfortunately and did not finish it. The information and storyline was interesting, but it read more like a textbook rather than a novel for me. It's a shame, because I really wanted to enjoy it :(

This is a dark and gripping thriller that is full of mystery, suspense and intrigue. The storyline is fascinating and the characters are beyond evil. The twists in the story are shocking and unexpected. It's a truly fascinating story.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. This is my voluntary and honest opinion of it.

Wow! What an amazing ride! This book will grab you by the throat and not let go until the very end! The plot contains twists and turns that will leave you reeling and keep you guessing until the very end! Absolutely loved it and want more from this author!

A very good thriller that keeps you wondering where the next page will take you and who you can trust. Would like to see the movie of this one..

I started this book before bed one night and well lets just say it was a late night by the time I put the book down. The author took me on such a roller coaster ride that was adrenaline based and had me on the edge of my seat for most of the night . The story line alone had me hooked . A young woman Siobhan is trying to figure out what happened to her mother . After seeing a nun who looked like her mother hang herself . That is the first piece of the puzzle that Siobhan must solve to in the mystery of why her mother disappeared 6 years prior .  The pat that Siobhan travels down is dark and scary, armed with only the confession of her mother and the mysterious prayer hidden within the words on the paper . Siobhan is in grave danger and she must outsmart her mother's enemies and save the world from ultimate destruction . 
    The characters are very well written and complex. Siobhan is a fighter and doesn't stop until she has all the answers she needs .  She finds more about her history as she reads her mother's confession . The monks are well lets just say evil . They want the confession back and will do any thing it takes to get it back . The characters will have you cheering for them in Siobhan's case and wanting to kill them yourselves as in the monks case . 
    The author does such a great job mixing the historical part of the story and what is happening in the real life of Siobhan .  The book takes off like a bat out of hell and doesn't stop the roller coaster ride . The author takes us on a journey of epic proportions . The twists and turns are every where. You think you have it figured out and bam the author takes you in a totally different  direction .  The author did a great deal of research to keep this book as accurate as it is. The mixture of the thirteenth history and the real up to date time. The way the author describes everything has you actually seeing the monasteries in your mind as you read The book is part the historian . part the Da Vinci Code and The Omen all rolled into one great read . So if you like a great book that will keep you reading all night long and take you away to a place that will have you thinking all night long . Check out THE DEVIL'S PRAYER  you will not be disappointed .

A good story which keeps the pages turning. It is reminiscent of The Davinci Code in the religious suspense woven around real places and articles. It goes slightly into the fantasy genre with the conversations with the Devil, but that is all part and parcel of the book. Don't expect a straight action/suspense thriller read like Dan Brown's books.
‎I couldn't give five stars as occasionally the story went very dry and hard to read because it felt like I was in a history lesson, FAR too much detail that isn't necessary for the story. I kept getting side tracked by looking up places and events in Wikipedia. I have learned a few new things from reading this book but it isn't really what I was looking for as a 'wind down' read at bedtime.
‎I'm not going to spoil the story but in my opinion it ended without properly finishing the story. Maybe there will be a second book...I don't know, but it definitely feels unfinished to me. It wasn't quite what I was expecting from reading the blurb and watching the video trailer.
‎Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my review copy.

The Devil's Prayer by Luke Gracias
Rating ****.4 4.4/5 Recommended
The Devil's Prayer is a packed, fact-actioned, no holds barred novel which takes the reader on numerous locations on a menacing, dangerous journey stretching back through centuries. The cleverly written paranormal plot is based on well researched historical events and places. Most of which I hadn't heard of but found extremely interesting.
A real page turner with many twists and characters who were varied, with multi faceted natures; menacing or kind, good v evil.
The Devil's Prayer is a novel I recommend: Luke Gracias is a talented writer and hopefully we will hear more from him.
I received a copy of The Devil's Prayer from NetGalley for an unbiased review, which I have given. Thank you.

The first half of this book was a solid 4 stars full of suspense, twists and intrigue. The second half, however, was a shaky 1.5 stars and completely pulled the book down.

Pros:
- Its fast pace and constant twists and turns will keep you hooked for the majority of the book
- The story is intensely creative and has a great shock impact - you won't want to read any spoilers for this book, its surprises in the first third are the best part!
- It's super easy to get emotionally involved in this book, the sheer suspense alone leaves you feeling like a nervous wreck desperate to know more.

Cons:
- The book should have ended in the middle with the latter part condensed into an epilogue or a companion book perhaps. There is a huge disconnect between the first part of the novel and the second part, it's the biggest gap I've seen in a fiction book and it just completely derails the whole novel by giving a racy thriller a rather information-dense, bland ending.
- I found it really hard to care about any of the characters, making them more likeable would give this book a lot more impact, particularly when it comes to Denise's friends and her daughters.

This book is a struggle to review. The majority of the book is fantastic, it has everything you could ever wish for in a fast-paced thriller and then some. It took me a little time to get into it but once I got past the initial story-building (which seems disjointed from the rest of the novel until you can make more sense of it), I couldn't put the book down...until the second part.

The second part of the book is where things get a bit woolly - we're given a lot of information. Seriously, a lot . It begins to read like a dry academic history textbook and as a university student studying history, I've endured a fair few of these. It's clear that Gracias is incredibly passionate about the authenticity of the history presented in the book and that it is well-researched but shoehorning this into the main narrative just pulls the rest of the book down. It's not that the latter part is particularly badly written (which it isn't), it's that it just doesn't fit in with the rest of the book and it's as though the author decided to add another book on the end of the original one. It puts a complete spanner in the pace of the reading as instead of racing through the pages on tenterhooks with suspense at every turn, you're suddenly given a lot of dense historical information that is completely out of tone with the first part of the book.
I think this is done to try and add some realism to some of the more far-fetched elements of the main story but it just doesn't mesh well and instead of adding to it by showing the reader that the story is grounded in historical research, it gives the effect of bombarding the reader with information that is tenuously linked to the story and doesn't belong in the main book. As I said earlier, if this information was condensed and made more accessible so it was as easily read and understood as the first part of the book, it would make a solid epilogue or even a companion book for readers who want to find out more.

All in all, it's a good book so long as you don't mind skipping large chunks of the latter part or battling through it. The first part is a brilliant read and I sincerely hope the author seriously considers reshaping the novel so the first part can be read on its on merit because it's a gripping thriller that'll keep you up reading into the early hours of the morning. Its clever twists and the care taken to reveal the story in bitesize amounts to keep you guessing throughout are well-worth giving this book a chance and popping it on your TBR list.

I probably wouldn't read it again unless it was reformatted in some way, I bet knowing the plot points will make it significantly less interesting the second time around too. I'd recommend this book to anyone who reads the likes of Dan Brown for its history/mystery/religion and/or Martina Cole's books for their suspense/grittiness but with the advice that, unless the book has sparked an interest in the history of religion, they could skim most of the book's latter part.

The book was captivating and extremely unpredictable.I loved reading the book till the end.I am looking forward to reading a sequel to this book.

This was just one big info dump with stilted dialogue. The plot line had so much potential, but the execution fell flat with me.

I started off liking this book & it was very interesting. The book seemed to end rather abruptly, I turned the last page expecting the next chapter but it was over. I feel the story is unfinished.

The Devil’s Prayer were two very interesting books!

The reason I say this is that there can be a line drawn very distinctively between the first and the second part of the book, and each could have been perfectly great on its own.

The Devil’s Prayer is the story of a woman, Denise, who, after winning the lottery is abducted, raped and left to die. Instead of dying, she makes a deal with the Devil. Later on, she finds out about the existence of an old book, one part of which is called The Devil’s Prayer, and she sets out to find it.

I greatly enjoyed the first part of the book – the story of Denise before she started looking for the book. It was a page turner and it was very exciting and creative. The end of this first story was a big surprise, even though I had guessed the general lines of where it was headed.

The second part, the one about The Devil’s Prayer, was something else. It was interesting in a completely different way. This storyline was more in the vicinity of Dan Brown back when I enjoyed his works, and it had a great plot behind it. It also sort of reminded me of one of my favourites, The Historian, so that was another bonus for me. However, this part of the book also felt underdeveloped. It took entirely too little time in terms of the book, and it could have been so much bigger and more explosive. The author had a great “conspiracy theory” about a document signed between Arnaud Amalric and Jebe Noyan in the 13th century. I would have LOVED to read a more detailed and suspenseful novel about this. Not to mention that part of this story was set in Bulgaria, so I couldn’t help but being proud of our history. Sadly, it seems that the author wasn’t sure what to do with this treasure of a plot line, so he rushed it and he left big parts of it just hanging there.

The ending of the book was also not ideal. The entire narrative seemed like the introduction to a much larger story, which never happened. The ending was supposed to be, in my mind, a bigger event, and instead it was left completely unresolved. If there’s a second book coming, I would definitely read it, because the ending didn’t satisfy my curiosity.

Nevertheless, a very interesting book indeed.

This book is somewhat reminiscent of the work of Dan Brown, in that there is a detailed research focus on the history of the Roman Catholic Church, with an emphasis on the less well known parts of this establishment. It is quite difficult to be sure where the research ends and fiction picks up. However I'm fairly sure that there is a good deal of fiction here. There is also a good deal more fairly graphic violence of various kinds to work through.. The writing is intense and vivid, but with long passages of information which, sometimes, do not seem to do an awful lot to move the narrative forward.

As a result, it is hard to describe this as an enjoyable work. It is, in all honesty, hard work to read, and the graphic violence is not to this reviewer's taste at all. I'm afraid that I did not feel that I had gained anything as a reader, upon from a general sense of distaste.

All in all, a densely researched and written novel, which is disturbing and quite frightening at times. I could see it making a transition to the movie screen with some success, but not a novel that I found enjoyable.

This book is darkly brilliant. The pace runs wild then slows abruptly to let the story sink in. I found it hard to put down wanting to find out if the Red Monks would catch up.

I seriously can not recommend this book enough. Hopefully there is a sequel in the works.

Too many, some conflicting, sub-themes. Would be reluctant to return to this author.

This is a story that spans the centuries, starting in Spain then to Australia and then across mainland Europe.

A nun commits suicide in Public during a holy festival. The reasons for this choice are found in her book of confession. It is discovered by her daughter Siobhan. As Siobhan goes through the confession the story of her mother is laid out before her. Rather than being the mother who walked out on them a few years ago, she is actually something very different and the safety of her daughters is paramount. Siobhan has a younger sister, Jess, but it's only Siobhan who the confession is for. As the story unfold the reason for this and many other things become apparent.

The story takes us through the Catholic faith, discussing saints, secrets, monasteries, churches, libraries, books, manuscripts and codices. It soon becomes obvious that there has been a lot of research into this subject. For the most part it is well paced, only slowing slightly towards the end a huge amount of dates, places and people are mentioned, but still enjoyable and digestible. There are some brutal scenes depicted in this book and so is not for the fainthearted.

At the end of the book there are a lot of unanswered questions that I assume will be answered in a following book, or books. I look forward to reading more from this author.

I would recommend this book to readers of thriller, historical fiction and mystery. It is not a book for the faint-hearted as there are some quite brutal scenes described in this book. It is not comfortable reading but is part of the plot.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Australian eBook Publisher for allowing me an ARC copy of this book, for my honest and unbiased opinion.

I'm not really a fan of horror novels, so I did not know what to expect. But I can honestly say I was surprised! The book was well written, grabbing me from the start and leaving me scared throughout...... The book was well researched, and worth the trouble, even for a horror newbie like me! Recommended!!

I absolutley loved this book. Such an interesting premise and educational to boot. I'd never heard of the Devil's Bible before or the myth that surrounds it. This book is right up my street, and I finished it very quickly because I couldn't bear to put it down without knowing what happened to Siobhan Russo, desperately trying to find out her mother's secret. Denise Russo had disappeared years ago, leaving her daughters and mother behind, but when Siobhan realises that a nun who recently committed suicide in Spain is actually her mum, she is determined to get to the bottom of what happened to her. Stunning locations, vivid descriptions, a sinister sect and break neck storyline all enmeshed in a deeply disturbing true piece of history. Please say there is a sequel...I can't wait!

An interesting book set in two time periods. Quite grim and gory in places but an enjoyable read with good pace

This book ...was just a mess. I don't even know where to start.
What I was hoping to get: a cool DaVinci Code esque religious mystery/thriller
What I actually got: some horrible rape-and-revenge style crap ala 70s exploitation films plus a weird dose of environmentalism mixed with a bit of religious stuff at the very end

Literally the most interesting part of this book is the first few chapters where we meet the nun Denise and she is running from these monks in red robes and then hangs herself to get away from them. Then literally the entire rest of the book is her daughter reading her journal that she finds so the ENTIRE book is just info dump after info dump. At one point the daughter [Siobhan] is literally reading her mother's journal and it's talking about this other guy reading some OTHER books like ...there are just so many layers of info dump I can't handle it.

And please please P L E A S E heed the rape warning on this. I would say somewhere between a third and half of the book is Denise recounting how she got raped and almost murdered for a lottery ticket [are you serious?? the whole thing is so convoluted] and then how she got ~revenge~ on the people who did it to her. And then her getting raped again. And there was just no reason for it. I mean she had already figured out who the attackers were before they raped her so it wasn't for that reason, and I think being robbed and left for dead and ending up w/ a severe spinal cord injury is honestly enough to fuel a revenge rampage. And there was literally no plot relevant reason for the second rape either. I'm trying not to be too upset about this because I guess I WAS warned, but I'll always side-eye male authors who add the rape of female characters into their stories like this because I'm always just wondering why they do it and the whole thing just makes me feel so gross and angry.

After that HUGE detour there's some weird bit about how humans are destroying the earth and that is somehow tied into the anti-christ and ??? Listen 'humans are messing up the environment' is not even a statement I disagree with, I just fail to see how it fit into this story at all. I fail to see how any part of this story fits in with any other part. Then there finally was some of the religious mystery-thriller aspect at the very end but honestly I was just so over everything by that point that my eyes were glazing over trying to read it so it still didn't do much for me.

Oh yeah, and apparently this is a PART ONE of a series even though it's not marked that way, because there is literally NO plot resolution in this at all. It's an entire novel of diary-exposition info-dump and nothing actually happens. Amazing.