Book Review: Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins

By: Wendy Higgins

Published by: Harper Teen

Released on: May 1st, 2012 TODAY

Source: ARC from publisher to review

4 stars: I Enjoyed It

Purchase from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

What if there were teens whose lives depended on being bad influences? This is life for sons and daughters of fallen angels in Sweet Evil.

Tenderhearted Southern girl, Anna Whitt, was born with the sixth sense to see and feel emotions of other people. She’s aware of a struggle within herself, an inexplicable pull toward danger, but it isn’t until she turns sixteen and meets the alluring Kaidan Rowe that she discovers her terrifying heritage, and her will-power is put to the test. He’s the boy your daddy warned you about. If only someone had warned Anna.

A cross-country trip to meet her father forces Anna to face the reality that hope and love are not options for her kind. When she confronts her destiny, will Anna embrace her halo or her horns? -quoted from Goodreads

Seductive, Sweet, and Intense, Sweet Evil is a book paranormal romance fans will devour. There's something about a forbidden romance, hot character chemistry and a fascinating paranormal world that makes for a read that's hard to put down, and Sweet Evil is one of those indulgence I couldn't stop reading. I was not excepting to find myself as wrapped as I was with this book. Wendy's world building, character development and engaging plot line made for an exciting read. 

Before I talk characters, I want to mention the world building. I was captivated with Wendy's ability to create a world that was both fascinating and intense in the sense I couldn't stop reading it. I wanted to know more about the world, the characters and their history. Don't write this book off for another YA book about angels and demons. There's much more than that happening in Sweet Evil. Yes, Sweet Evil has angel lore in it, but the main focus of the story is the characters who are the off spring of Demons, the fallen angels who followed Lucifer out of heaven and were banished to hell. Twelve of the strongest were made Dukes and reside on earth, and one is a Lord over one of the 12 indulgences humans fall victim too, lust, addictions, greed etc. Many of them have at least one offspring, hence the story of Anna.

I thought Anna was a great protagonist. She starts off as this sweet and completely innocent girl, but as the story goes on finds out far more than she ever thought possible about herself. She's the daughter of a Guardian Angel and a Demon. Her father is the Duke of Addiction. Here's the think I like about Anna, was getting to see and understand her inner battle over the good vs evil that she constantly faces on a daily bases. Being half and half makes her a powerful girl, but it also makes her naive to the things going on around her. I liked how much her grew as the story goes on, even though she does do a few surprising things. She not only meets her father for the first at sixteen and gets thrown right into this darker world, but she also falls in love for the first time. She meets Kaidan at a time when she's trying to figure out more about who she really is and what these abilities are that she has. 

Kaidan, who just so happens to be the son of the Duke of Lust knows how to bring it in this story. This boy come loaded with charm, experience and hotness. One of the things I liked about Kaidan is how straight forward he is with Anna and really everyone. There's no sugar coating anything with this boy. The chemistry between Anna and Kaidan is smoking! I seriously loved how the two of them were intrigued with each other, couldn't stand each other, then were intrigued with each other again. Through out much of the book they fought the feelings they had for each other. They definitely had some steamy moments between the two of them, when they gave into their impulses. Being that heir love was strictly forbidden, and could result in death definitely upped the stakes in this book.

Aside from Anna and Kaidan is a cast of colorful characters who all added a richness to the story. They all had a purpose being in this book and I liked getting to know some of them more. Anna's Dad is someone who intrigued me the most. I loved that his bad a guy who ruled part of the dark underworld had this soft spot not only for Anna's mom before she did, but Anna as well. I mean he's not someone you want to mess with, but the tenderness he shows got to the softer side of me. I loved getting to know more about his story with Anna's mom. That's the thing that Wendy does with this book that hooked me. She creates such realistic characters, has these rich descriptions that just suck you in and allow you to feel and connect with the story, and she leaves wanting more. Not just from the main characters, but from all the characters.

The funny thing about this book is I was more drawn to the cover of it than the synopsis. I honestly thought there would be all this stuff going on in the book like a bunch of teenage partying, sex etc and I personally didn't want to read it. *gasp* I totally judged a book before reading it, and I'm so pleasantly surprised it proved me wrong! Yes there's sensual scenes, underage drinking, mentions of fooling around, rape and drugs, but there's no profanity, no sex or hard core stuff in this book. In fact, Anna is a virgin and her virginity plays a huge role in this book, and I liked that. This book is more about choosing your destiny, redemption and rising above what's expected of you vs what you know is right. From the moment I opened the book I couldn't put it down. The way in which Wendy unravels her plot line and allowed me to get to know her characters more and understand her world building was addicting and so refreshing for me. I'm hoping there's going to be a sequel to this book!