When you first start reading "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea," it's truly bewitching -- April Genevieve Tucholke has a magical way with words, and there's a haunting gothic undertone to the story. 
 Then you encounter the protagonist, and it all falls apart. Yes, like many a paranormal romance in recent years, "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" crumbles because of its heroine -- a pretentiously snotty little brat ("I can't get a job. If you come from old money, you have to run through it all and then drink yourself to death in the gutter") who becomes more annoying the longer you read about her. 
 Since her parents are carefree irresponsible "artistes" bouncing around Europe, Violet and her brother Luke live alone in a rambling old mansion. To make money, they advertise for a guest-house boarder -- and get "panther-hipped" River West. Of course, Violet immediately becomes preoccupied with him, even as her supposed-friend Sunshine sees something strange in a nearby tunnel. 
 And then worse things happen -- a girl is abducted, and messing around with a Ouija board leads to a message from the devil. Of course, River knows something about it... which Violet is too dim to realize until she literally stumbles across his secret, and discovers that River is not even truly human. 
 It's undeniable that April Genevieve Tucholke has writing talent -- her descriptions are full of sensual color and crumbling, gothic beauty. She also presents us with a paranormal romance whose answers are not immediately obvious -- it's clear something weird and "sexy bad boy" is up with River, but you're left guessing exactly what it is for quite some time. 
 But the story... is what you would expect from a promising yet awkward teenager. For one thing, Tucholke tries to eroticize some rather silly things. Let's face it: grocery shopping at overexpensive imports-only stores is NOT sexy. Yet there's a silly scene where Violet almost gets turned on by watching River fondle comestibles. It's like a bad commercial. 
 Also, he characters are named things like "Sunshine Black" and "River West" (no irony!) and Tucholke romanticizes the neglectful, irresponsible parents of Luke and Violet who don't "believe in rules." Why? Because they are "artists." After all, this allows Violet to do whatever she wants without any kind of supervision, while also giving her a giant rotting mansion to lounge around in (and despite supposedly being broke, they have no problem buying expensive imported foods). 
 Violet is also the sort of protagonist you'd expect that promising-yet-awkward teen to produce -- a pretty bookish blonde who is smarter than everyone else, and spouts a lot of faux-ironic hipster remarks and awkward literary references. She also drops mentions of her well-traveled, cooler-than-you life whenever possible, which kept snapping me out of the narrative. Please note: Actual cool, well-traveled people don't talk about feeling "European." 
 She's also the kind of post-Bella-Swan heroine who looks down on everyone with contempt (including her brother and her supposed "best friend"), with the exception of her smoldering love interest. There's also a nasty misogynist streak in Violet -- whenever Sunshine is around, Violet regards her as a skanky bimbo because... well, she's prettier than Violet. And she finds boys attractive. Ah, the smell of feminism. 
 In fact, the only person Violet seems to actually like is River, mainly because he's the only person with the right clothes, attitude and sophistication for her. He has to be worthy of her, after all! The fact that he has the personality and sexual allure of a Ken doll doesn't help. 
 "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" shows that April Genevieve Tucholke has a lot of writing talent, but she also has a lot of pretension and an obnoxious heroine. Skip this in favor of "Beautiful Creatures" or something by Maggie Stiefvater.