The book was well written, and the characters well formed. The way that modern day and history were mixed was entertaining and engaging, More of a thriller than a horror book, the storyline fills you with the emotions of the lead character, Siobhan on her discovery of all the secrets her mother, Dianne, has left behind in the 6 years that she has been missing, including how her mother sold her soul, and how Siobhan is now in danger because of the Devil's Prayer she is in possession of.

In a tone reminiscent of Dan Brown and Elizabeth Kostova, the book will leave you wanting more, especially the final chapters of the book. It doesn't feel like there has been closer, but I hope that the ending trailed off because there is a sequel in the works.

Overall, a great book, with a lot of interesting twists and turns.

Attention catching story right from the start. Classic story about the battle between good and evil only the battle was not resolved in the end. Leaves you hanging as to which way fate will tip the scales. Loads of historical fact is presented, leading you to question the ficticious story line. Is it real? Could it be real? Is it a glimpse into what could be? I found the story line very much engrossing and was fastly caught up in the story and reading quicker and quicker to find out what happened. Although the story is dark at times, and takes you mentally to some scary places, I really enjoyed the story...and the cliff hanger. Of couse now I wonder...is there going to be a 2nd book to answer those questions.

As for the story...it is about a young woman, Denise, who has several overwhelming and life changing events happen to her. The first being the near drowning death of her 4 year old child when she falls into the family swimming pool. The second, and more significant event, is her own kidnapping, robbery, rape and beating to wihin inches of her life leaving her a quadrapeligic. The devastation continues as she realizes that this horrific incident was done to her by her own friends and fianace because they wanted her lottery ticket. As she lays in the bed, not being able to move or speak, her anger and frustration grows. This is when the Devil enters her life the 2nd time; the 1st being at the near drowning of her child. He makes a bargain with her. In exchange for the 5 souls of her friends, the ones responsible for her condition, he will allow her to move every night to kill them. After the delivery of those 5 souls, he will cure her condtion and allow her to continue on with her life. After thinking on this...seething with rage over what her “friends” had done, watching her mother go broke trying to care for her and her child, not being able to have an active part in her child's life...she is more than anxious to make the deal, but there's a catch. If she doesn't complete the deed in 5 days, then the devil takes her daughter's soul. This is enough motivation to make her continue. With some twists and surprises, she finishes her task and the devil makes good on his word. She finds out that she is pregnant and assumes it is her ex-fiance's child as he raped her when he overpowered her when she was trying to kill him. The years pass by and she is happily raising her 2 daughters. There are some odd things that happen, but not enough to make her think too seriously on it. Then she catches her 2nd daugher talking to a man that she claims is her father. On a closer look, Denise is shocked to see the devil again. Through some quick investigation and enlisting some religious help she learns that her 2nd child is the spawn of the devil. Overcome with fear, she frantically tries to make this situation right only to be confronted by the devil again and sent away never to see her family again. It is during this time she does research with the help of some clergy to try to rid the world of the devil's child, her own child. This leads her in search of the devil's bible and the devil's prayer which according to all the reasearch will save the world. All of this is told in a diary that she leaves to her oldest daughter when she takes her own life.

**I was given a digital copy of this story courtesy of Net Galley for review purposes**

Siobhan is set on a journey to find her mother's past, to discover the reasons she left her 6 years ago and the truth about her sister. Her journey leads her from Australia to Europe and Africa where she has a roller-coaster ride of discoveries which opens up her own past as well in a battle of good versus evil.

It's well written, it has speed and keeps begging for your attention.

This book knocked me for a loop. It was excellently done and kept my attention from start to finish. i could not put it down.

Part horror, thriller and history. A Da Vinci Code with the real Devil. Soul selling and apocalyptic codes .

The Devil's Prayer Kindle Edition
by Luke Gracias
I received an ARC in return for an honest review.
A marvelous, creepy combo of I Spit on Your Grave, a Katherine Neville mystery and Umberto Eco.
Siobhan's mother abandoned her 6 years ago, leaving nothing behind to explain why. That is until a nun hangs herself in front of thousands during a Holy Week. That nun, who spent the last 6 years under a vow of silence in a Convent that makes Opu Dei look like a trip to Disney World, was her mother, who left behind a confession explaining a secret and offering Siobhan a choice that no one should have to make.
Garcia is a brilliant storyteller, giving us the most complex character, Denice – the monther, through her own written confession. And at every turn and every twist, we need to ask is she telling the truth or did her experience send her mad? Is she a reliable narrator? Is the choice she is forcing her daughter to make real?
Siobhan herself is less of the central character than her mother and her sister, Jess is more of shadow, but with the dark story of Denice and Jess's possible father, this doesn't matter.
Mr. Garcia also masterfully links signs, symbols and prophecies with events that happened in the late 90's and the early part of the 21st century. He clearly is highly informed in terms of occult culture, literature and traditions throughout the world. He somehow combines Revelations, Saint Malachy, Nostradamus with ancient Chinese traditional prophecies and compares them with the natural disasters and astral event that have taken place in the last 20 years. Dan Brown had a similar and in my opinion, a far lesser talent in combining art and Joseph Campbell symbological studies to create a mystery. Where Mr. Brown's always leads forward in a clear understandable line with a professor in place of a dectective, Mr. Garcia does keep us guessing as two women, one alive, well and confused the other, her dead mother who believes that she must stop the end of the world through a singular sacrifice.
With historical and occultic information, we are lead on a journey across the world. And left with a cliffhanger.
I could honestly do a dissertation on the religious symbolism and history alone, but I'm getting far too intellectual in this review.
The chase is exciting and you will always be left with the question of is it real or is it insanity? Is there a Devil and what effect does he have on this world?

5 out of 5
https://www.amazon.com/Devils-Prayer-Luke-Gracias-ebook/dp/B01BXR4838/

Oh Boy.

I finally finished The Devil's Prayer and I still can't stop my heart racing with excitement. It has been a while since I had read a book this good. And boy was it good!

The Devil's Prayer is a historical fiction, and even more a thriller is it's way. It opens in Spain, in a convent, with the death of a nun. The first pages set the tone for the whole book, as instantly the reader has many questions, such as What are the pages she stole from an ancient book? Why did she steal them? Why would monks of her rank be after her? and Why would she kill herself as a result? We then learn that the nun had two daughters, Siobhan and Jess, and of the two Siobhan is the one after the truth about her mother's unusual death. Without going into details, and not wanting to spoil the book for you, Siobhan flies out to Spain, to pay her respects to her mother's body and maybe learn the real reason why their mother abandoned them a few years earlier to become a nun, and why she decided to end her days. When she gets to Spain, what Siobhan finds is more than what she had bargained for, as she retrieves her mother's confession and learns her ties to the Devil and the importance of the Devil's Prayer.

At the beginning of the book, I could not help but draw some comparison and similarities with Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, but as I read more, the Devil's Prayer stood on it's own. Luke Gracias did a fantastic job with his debut novel, offering an interesting and pretty well researched background on religious belief, while exploring the coexistence of Good and Evil, of God and the Devil. He masterfully shapes the story throughout various timelines, both during Sister Benedictine's time (who is the mother of Siobhan), as well as way back to the 1220s. Although the book started a bit slow, the pace quickly picks up once we enter the "Confession" part of the book. The Devil is revealed and with him, human's love for a good bargain. The narrative and its characters are strong, and Gracias masterfully uses historical timelines to tell his story, and draw the reader in suspense with a major cliffhanger waiting for them at the end of the book. Throughout the book, one has to put aside his/hers preconceived notions about Good and Evil, and foremost about religion in itself and embrace, even if it's just as a work of fiction, the possibility that "maybe" as we pray to God, the Devil also listens, stirring along dreadful events for which we just have no explanations.

If you love historical fiction, fast paced suspenseful stories, mysteries, religious conspiracies...then you will love The Devil's Prayer. I could not put it down from the moment I picked it up, and I am glad I was offered the opportunity to read it and review it fro you all. I am very impressed by the details and the research Luke Gracias has performed for his story, and I cannot wait to read more from him in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Luke Gracias, and Australian eBook Publisher for an ARC of The Devil’s Prayer by Luke Gracias, in exchange for an honest review.

DNF on this one for me.

The first thing you learn in any creative writing course is "show, don't tell". This novel is heavy on the telling and sparse on the showing.

With plodding prose and clunky dialogue, it didn't matter how intriguing the plot was, it was just such a bore to read.

DNF at 53%

I hoped to read a religious thriller a là Dan Brown, but...forget it. The readers who compared this book in their reviews with Dan Brown's works probably never read them.

Ridiculous plot, flat writing, weak characters, with a lot of senseless violence.

I honestly won't recommend it to anyone.

I normally don't rate books I didn't finish, but WHAT I read was not more than one star rating for me.

I did not finish this book and this is why

I knew from the first that the storyline was not one I like to read about but I was willing to let myself be surprised by being out of my usual zone so I decided to give it a try when my friend pointed it out to me. So my liking the book all depended upon the writing, how it was able to draw me into the story. Unfortunately it was apparent from the first that the writing was not a match either. I found it a lot of tell with no show. We are told what happens (lots) but very little inner narrative that is what makes me part of the story.

So I've decided to part ways.

<i>An arc gently provided by author/publisher in return for a review.</i>

I read the entire book. I loved the Dan Brown books. This was just too far overboard - too occult - bordering on evil. I would never recommend.

Ummm...this one was kind of a mess all over.

When Siobhan learns that her missing mother has committed suicide, she begins this journey to find out why her mother disappeared many years ago. And how did she end up a nun in Spain under a different name? What or who was she running from?

When Netgalley sent me an e-mail about this book, I was intrigued. When other reviewers likened it to The Da Vinci Code, I was sold. The fact that it dealt with the devil was just a bonus. What I found was a book full of meaningless violence and revenge weighted down with historical facts.

And when I say meaningless violence - it just didn't make sense. It felt like it was there for shock value. Almost a 'how gruesome can I make this' crime. And they seemed to come from nowhere. For example, and this is a slight spoiler, girl wins lottery in front of group of friends. Group of friends then decides in a split second that they want to steal said ticket and suddenly have this elaborate plan that involves car crashes and kidnapping and escalates to rape and murder. This all happened in like 10 minutes. No, I just don't buy it.

It was such an interesting plot that just got lost. I didn't care about any of the characters. The only one who seemed likeable was Siobhan but unfortunately the only scenes we got of her were of her just reading her mother's diary. It also didn't help that there was so much historical info dumping that either didn't move the plot forward or we just dropped in such a random place that you ended up forgetting the main plot. The editor should have really helped smooth this over.

This is in no way comparable to The Da Vinci Code. And if you're looking for closure when reading this, you get none. The book doesn't have an ending. I feel that for a standalone there should have been some semblance of an ending. Instead, I was left just staring at the page, confused. Am I a little hard on it? Maybe. But I really wanted to like it and when I read adult horror/thriller, I'm holding it up to guys like Stephen King, Dan Brown, Dean Koontz, and Michael Crichton, and this just didn't hold up for me.

The story starts with a bang, leaving the reader very curious as to why a nun acted the way she did. The story moves on to give a brilliant narration of events that explain her actions. At each point I was eager to find out what happens next. Reading late into the night, it was a struggle getting to office the next day. Really enjoyed the riveting thriller with the background history so well entwined that it's impossible to tell fiction from fact! Looking forward to the sequel or movie with this story.

The concept of this book, and the story itself is great. A lot of very interesting religious history.
Suspenseful, but a little too slow paced for me. I enjoyed it over all although I felt let down by the ending.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to Net Galley and to Australian eBook Publisher (the author?) for offering me an ARC copy of this novel that I voluntarily choose to review.
As I do sometimes I checked some of the reviews of this book and I found that most people were really positive, and, interestingly, people who didn’t like it gave as reasons some of the same ones that made others like it. We all know nothing rules over personal taste.
The story, that it’s not straightforward to categorise (it has elements of thriller, of historical novel, of horror story with paranormal elements, even with religious undertones), is told in an interesting way. The story we start reading, after a brief prologue that hints at things to come, of Siobhan, a young woman who is given her mother’s Bible and a strange message after finding out she hanged herself in Spain, frames the main story, the confession by Siobhan’s mother, Denise. Siobhan follows her mother’s instructions and soon realises that many people seem invested in keeping hidden the mystery of her mother’s disappearance. For much of the book, Siobhan is just a stand-in for the reader, who gets hooked on the book her mother has left her as an explanation of what happened, and as we later learn, as a way of recruiting her into her mission. Siobhan experiences similar emotions to the readers, at times thinking the story is not possible, that her mother must have been unwell while at the same time finding it impossible to stop reading, in her case even when she’s in serious danger.
Denise’s confession is fascinating. What starts as the story of a single mother quickly turns into a thriller, where Denise is the victim of a conspiracy and with some paranormal help (yes, the devil of the title comes to the rescue, of course at a price) manages to get even. This part of the story, of greed, jealousy and friendship gone sour would make an interesting novel in its own right, although there are details that require some suspension of disbelief. The story eventually takes a moral turn and things get more bizarre (yes, even with the devil already on the scene). The nature of Denise’s family life comes into question and she has no option but to leave her loved ones without a word of explanation. She is recruited for a mission and as part of that we are introduced to a number of religious texts and historical facts of the XIII century that show a good research used in a very compelling way (although some readers did not enjoy it so much, but I’m sure others who love books such as The Da Vinci Code would appreciate it).
The writing is fluid and compelling, with some descriptive passages and some that offer moral lessons (especially about the role humanity has in destroying our environment, and about the cost of our wishes and desires, exemplifying the fact that actions have consequences) and a deep understanding of the texts and the religious questions discussed, without becoming preachy. At some points, especially when describing the texts, there is more telling than showing, but that can’t be avoided (and considering that according to the blurb, the author turned one of his scripts into a novel, it’s very well resolved). I’ve read some people who found the repeated used of long names (of monasteries and convents in particular) tiresome, although in my case, as a few of them were Spanish like me, I didn’t have much of an issue with it.
The story of Denise is completed within the book, but it ends up at the point when Siobhan goes back home and has to decide what she will do from now on. So there is some sort of resolution, but we are left at the beginning of another story.
Denise is an understandable and totally human character, who makes mistakes, who sometimes is confused about her emotions, who wants to believe the best of people but is sorely betrayed. She is faced with terrible decisions and if one tries to put oneself in her shoes, is not easy to know what one would do. Does one really always have to choose between two loves? Perhaps. We don’t have much chance to get to know Siobhan, other than as an ersatz reader and a girl who, like her mother, will pursue the truth even at the cost of her own safety. I hope we’ll be given a chance to get to know her better soon.
I enjoyed the book, both the intriguing and gripping story, and also the background of history and the fascinating documents described. I didn’t find it scary but it is a book that makes one think about one’s decisions, about the world and about what we would be prepared to sacrifice for those we love. And it’s impossible to put down.

An intriguing story that keeps you thinking and wondering.

This is an excellent book written as a story within a story, then within another story. It starts of at a pace as we follow a nun running for her life only to end with her taking her own life in front of thousands of worshippers. And that is just the first chapter.

Reading about her mother's life both prior to and after she became a nun, Siobhan goes on the run through Europe followed by the red monks determined to stop her revealing the story told in her mother's confessional diary.

As her story unfolds throughout the book the reader is presented with a number of twists and turns, each one a little more fantastical than the last but presented in clear and believable manner. Some of the action in the book can appear a little graphic however you will be caught up in the emotions of revenge that you will almost hearing yourself cheering on a little as the acts are committed.

The human and supernatural elements are well balanced and the only problem I had with this is it is left on a cliffhanger. This should not put the anyone off reading this book but should be held as a compliment to the skill of the writer. Hopefully the story will continue.

A mix of ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, the ‘Da Vinci Code’, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ and an insomniac fueled night of Wikipedia, ‘the Devil’s Prayer’ is an interesting ride that I wish would have lasted longer. From the finely crafted revenge/torture scenes in the part 2 to the will she/won't she cliffhanger in the end. It’s oblivious that there is going to be a sequel, as this book mainly dealt with building a back story for the upcoming journey that Siobhan will have to go on, and I can’t wait to see what happen next.

Whew. What a roller coaster.

While ultimately, this is the battle of good and evil and what lies within a person, we first meet Herman the Recluse, who has been condemned to death by being walled up alive. As an escape, Herman says that he will write a book “filled with human knowledge that would glorify the monastery forever”. The monks agree, thinking this could never be done, and allow Herman to try. By the end of the night, with a little prayer to the Devil, it had been completed and would be known as the Devils Bible.

The story progresses from there to betrayal, revenge to rage, guilt, and then heartbreak.

I was already familiar with 'The Devil's Bible" from The Black Tapes podcast, so reading this felt familiar in an uncomfortable way. I will likely read this again, closer to Halloween, to fully get the creepy, horror effect it needs.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review.