Spite the Devil begins with a legend of Dutch settlers sailing up the Hudson River near New Jersey in the 1600's. One brave man beholds the opposite New York shore and dives into the icy waters shouting he will make it to that other side in spite of the devil. When he reaches New York he names the land Spuyten Duyvil which means spite the devil. This is where our heroine Janice Rashco gets her roots. Janice grows up in the 1950's with a strong Irish Catholic faith and relentless encounters with the devil. She receives her education from a small community of Dominican nuns. When the family overgrows their tiny New York apartment they move to Connecticut where Janice finds some disturbing changes taking place in her religion. She begins a quest to find the truth. In the interim of her searching she meets and instantly falls in love with Jack Watkins. They enjoy many blissful years of love. Suddenly this changes with a death in Jack's family. Jack becomes unfaithful. But Janice's love for him never fails. After many episodes of his cheating the two young lovers part ways. Jack moves to California and Janice is drawn to the South of France where she enters a Dominican convent. She is taught a great life's lesson there. But because she is discouraged by what she sees in France she returns to the States continuing her investigation of the Catholic Church and soon meets and marries Matt O'Malley. All the while she never lets go of her unfailing and everlasting love for Jack. Spite the Devil is a heartwarming tale of good versus evil while steeped in history and everlasting love. The journey teaches the fundamental concepts of love and rationalizes suffering conveying this experience as beneficial not only for ourselves, but for others as well, to gain entrance into heaven or reach the other side in spite of the devil.

Simple life in small-town America collides with the cultural realities of the 1980s in Spite the Devil, a novel of conflict and hope. Elinor and her husband, Dan, a Lutheran minister, confront racism and religious uncertainty as they deal with the changes that life brings to their faith. Does tragedy destroy faith? Is bitterness inevitable? Their comfortable existence explodes when the turmoil of modern American life invades Evittsburg and forces them to face new and painful truths. Racial tensions strain relationships to the breaking point, and religious differences threaten to tear families apart. Elinor's whimsical perspective cushions misfortune until she faces the one blow that even humor cannot soften. Daughters Grace and Joy pursue their own paths, coloring their parents' lives with laughter and discord. Grace's interracial marriage to Doug creates disturbing tensions, which involve Doug's enigmatic father, Robey, and their teenage son, Gil, Golden Gil, who dances across the pages with wit and a worrisome innocence. With insight, humor, and compassion, McDaniel builds genuine suspense to a shattering climax, and then finds a certain peace in the conviction that death is not the end.

Writing from the perspective of Satan, this book demonstrates the dark nature and cunning techniques of the Devil through the advice and sermons he gives to Earthly mortals. The Devil's seductive and tempting qualities are displayed ingloriously. Satan advises ordinary humans to live lives of sin and reckless indulgence, with callous disregard for oneself and others. To make his counsel more alluring and convincing, the Devil employs a variety of rhetorical techniques, noting the short term gratification and pleasure a person can enjoy by behaving in an injurious way. Examples include imbibing alcohol, tobacco, a rejection of Christian virtues, declining God's call, and promotion of atheism. The author himself was a committed Reverend who, by writing this book, strived to act as a literal 'Devil's Advocate'. Writing at the turn of the 20th century, the sermons Harris conceived also represent Christian outlooks emblematic of the time, with movements such as temperance represented in the chapters, and styles of dress shown in the illustrations. In all, we witness how a talented preacher's knack for words and speaking were adeptly purposed into a unique guide for believers eager to avoid the pitfalls of bad conduct.

Bestselling author Paula Jonas, who also writes as Elizabeth Mansfield, offers a powerful tale of love in Revolutionary War-torn America. 25-year-old Patience Hendley is devastated to find herself an abandoned wife after only one month of marriage to an English nobleman. As war tears her life apart, she finds passion with her father's indentured servant.

With insight reminiscent of The Screwtape Letters, Rev. Louis J. Cameli challenges readers to reconsider what they've always believed about the devil. In some ways, it’s easy to believe in a devil who makes heads spin round and enables people to levitate. Many movies and books about possession and exorcism have trained spiritual seekers to identify evil by its expected Hollywood conventions. By contrast, in The Devil You Don't Know: Recognizing and Resisting Evil in Everyday Life, Cameli, nationally renowned pastoral leader and priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, paints a challenging, unsettling portrait of the devil as a formidable adversary who works great harm, often in quiet, less-seen ways. While remaining a fixture of popular culture, the devil has—until now—been largely ignored in contemporary spiritual writing. Cameli exposes the devil’s tactics of deception, division, diversion, and discouragement, in individuals and also in institutions. This thoroughly biblical, deft exploration considers the personal and social dimensions of sin, and offers both enlightenment and hope in the power of Christ to overcome evil.