Blog Tour: The Devil's Triangle by Toni De Palma

Title: The Devil's Triangle (The Devil's Triangle, #1)
Author: Toni De Palma
Published by: Crescent Moon Press
Pages: 218
Source: Author
Format: ebook
Rating: 2.5 stars

Summary from Goodreads: When 17 year old Cooper dies in an attempt to burn down his school, he finds himself in the afterlife. Lucy, the Devil's sister who has crossed party lines, decides to give Cooper another shot at heaven. The deal? Cooper returns to Earth and has to find a girl named Grace. The rest is up to him.

While Cooper figures out his mission, he's thrown into the life he's always wanted. Great parents, a spot on the Varsity football team and a real future are all within reach. But what he really wants is Grace, a feisty girl with an abusive boyfriend who can pound Cooper into pulp if he doesn't watch out.

While Lucy plays demonic-puppeteer, clues to an unknown past between Cooper and Grace start to unravel. Cooper discovers that what's keeping him and Grace apart is far more sinister than anything this bad boy could have ever imagined.

An original story about what's in store for you when you deal with the devil, or his sister for that matter.

I have read stories about angels and demons, but I'm not sure if I've ever read one that dealt with the devil.  I liked that this story was a bit different than what seems to be mainstream YA right now.  It was unique and the idea of getting a second chance was hopeful, and yet Toni De Palma didn't make Cooper's journey a ride in that park.  He had to go through many obstacles and while at times I thought maybe his mission was hopeless, there seemed to be some subtle divine intervention at the perfect moments.

The characters in this story were a bit hard for me to like.  First, a lot of the characters were quite evil and vindictive.  This always rubs me the wrong way when someone gets controlling and hurtful.  Toni De Palma did a great job at making me dislike these bullies and even at times fear them...we are talking about the devil and his minions so some fear is to be expected.  However, I didn't feel like we knew enough about the 'good' characters to like them.  Cooper and Grace are the main characters and yet we see little into Grace's life, and Cooper's life is kind of jumbled so that makes it a bit hard to connect to him.  My favorite character ended up being Cooper's brother Ryan.  He seems like a genuinely great guy who has had a horrible hand dealt to him, yet he seems to take it all in stride.  I wish we got to see more of him.

With Cooper's life being as convoluted as it was, I had a hard time following what was going on.  I wish I would have gotten a little more back story to understand Cooper and Grace's past and the events that led them up to today.  The missing information made it hard for me to read The Devil's Triangle at times, because I wasn't sure what was going on.  Eventually most of it plays out by the end of the novel, but I'm still a little confused about a couple of things.  Maybe they will be explained more in the next novel.

I really enjoyed the unique plot of The Devil's Triangle, but with the hard time I had connecting to the characters and following the plot left me wanting more....hopefully the sequel will fill in some blanks for me.