Review : Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins
Summary (from Goodreads)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?
Personal Thoughts
There's something incredibly alluring about the cover of Sweet Evil. I haven't read many angel books before, so I really wanted to jump into this book when I saw it around the blogosphere lately. Also, it has been receiving nothing, but praise. Unfortunately, I found myself being the odd one out with Sweet Evil.
Sweet Evil tells the story of Anna Whitt, a half-demon half-angel. Anna's birth mom dies while giving birth to her and at the same time her father is arrested in connection with a drug deal. Anna is soon adopted by a sweet woman, Patti. She's always been different because she can guess people's emotions from the colors of their auras, but she's surprised when she realizes that she cannot see auras around Kaidan Rowe, the hot drummer of a local band. Meanwhile, she also feels a dangerous attraction to him, although Anna can sense he's nothing but dangerous.
Anna was a seriously sweet main character. I don't think I've ever come across a character who was as nice as her. She was a true genuinely good girl. Initially, I found myself really liking her character. Her down-to-earth and innocent attitude was somewhat refreshing, but after some time she started to annoy me a little. She was over-naive and sometimes acted child-like. I also didn't like her mentality towards the girls throwing themselves towards Kaidan. She had mean thoughts about them because of the way they dressed and that bothered me because judging someone from their clothing style isn't fair at all. After some time, I wanted Anna to grow as a character. I wanted her to get out of her innocent and trusting manners and become someone level-headed, smart and brave, but to my dismay, she didn't. Because of that, I found myself having a really tough time relating to her character.
Kaidan was a typical bad boy. Sarcastic, witty, hot accent, flirtatious,son of the Duke of Lust and sexy. However, inside that tough exterior, he was actually a very warm character. His and Anna's relationship felt too much like instant-love to me. Anna herself admitted in the book that she fell in love with in 4 days. It was just unrealistic to me. I personally thought that they had great chemistry together, but little was done to really explore that chemistry. Kaidan was an appealing character, but why Anna fell in love with was just beyond my understanding. At one point in the book, Kaidan told her that they couldn't be together because they were demons and demons were not supposed to date. He then went on to tell her that they should stay away from each other. What does our dear Anna do ? She falls into a depression. She stopped eating, became silent and stopped going out. Oh and she even considered stalking him. At least she admitted it, though. Overall, I just didn't feel that the romance was satisfying. I don't know if I'm wrong, but I also felt a budding love triangle between Kaidan, Anna and Kopana, Kaidan's demon friend. I guess I expected something more realistic than this.
Some of the secondary characters were really fabulous. My favorite character was Anna's best friend, Jay. He was an adorable and over-excited character. I found myself really anticipating scenes with him in them. I really loved how supportive and helpful he was to Anna. He always looked out for her. They almost shared a brother-sister relationship and it was really cute, according to me. I also loved the interactions between Anna and her dad, who's been in prison for the last 16 years. I appreciated the fact that she didn't go bonkers over the fact that he hadn't contacted her for so long. The girl actually thought before taking any decision.
The premise of the plot was, without any doubt, interesting. The author had some very original and attention-piquing ideas about angels and demons. In fact, I'd say that I really did enjoy the whole world that Wendy Higgins has created. The whole idea of the Dukes was fairly enjoyable and I found myself really liking the details and explanations on them. Nevertheless, I still felt that she could have done something much more. The book was too lacking in action scenes. The author had the possibility of including some action-packed and adrenaline-rushing scenes. In fact, I found myself craving for such situations, but there wasn't any. I suppose the author was trying to set the tone for the next books. Wendy Higgins can write well. Her writing flows smoothly and regardless of the negative aspects, I wanted to finish the book because her writing really enticed me. I am sincerely hoping that the next installment will outdo Sweet Evil.
Sweet Evil wasn't a bad book. I had some issues with it which prevented me from completely enjoying the book. The original premise had huge potential. Overall, I found the book to be quite unsatisfactory. Maybe it's my fault for setting the bars for the book too high. Nonetheless, I will check out the sequel when it comes out.
Sweet Evil tells the story of Anna Whitt, a half-demon half-angel. Anna's birth mom dies while giving birth to her and at the same time her father is arrested in connection with a drug deal. Anna is soon adopted by a sweet woman, Patti. She's always been different because she can guess people's emotions from the colors of their auras, but she's surprised when she realizes that she cannot see auras around Kaidan Rowe, the hot drummer of a local band. Meanwhile, she also feels a dangerous attraction to him, although Anna can sense he's nothing but dangerous.
Anna was a seriously sweet main character. I don't think I've ever come across a character who was as nice as her. She was a true genuinely good girl. Initially, I found myself really liking her character. Her down-to-earth and innocent attitude was somewhat refreshing, but after some time she started to annoy me a little. She was over-naive and sometimes acted child-like. I also didn't like her mentality towards the girls throwing themselves towards Kaidan. She had mean thoughts about them because of the way they dressed and that bothered me because judging someone from their clothing style isn't fair at all. After some time, I wanted Anna to grow as a character. I wanted her to get out of her innocent and trusting manners and become someone level-headed, smart and brave, but to my dismay, she didn't. Because of that, I found myself having a really tough time relating to her character.
Kaidan was a typical bad boy. Sarcastic, witty, hot accent, flirtatious,son of the Duke of Lust and sexy. However, inside that tough exterior, he was actually a very warm character. His and Anna's relationship felt too much like instant-love to me. Anna herself admitted in the book that she fell in love with in 4 days. It was just unrealistic to me. I personally thought that they had great chemistry together, but little was done to really explore that chemistry. Kaidan was an appealing character, but why Anna fell in love with was just beyond my understanding. At one point in the book, Kaidan told her that they couldn't be together because they were demons and demons were not supposed to date. He then went on to tell her that they should stay away from each other. What does our dear Anna do ? She falls into a depression. She stopped eating, became silent and stopped going out. Oh and she even considered stalking him. At least she admitted it, though. Overall, I just didn't feel that the romance was satisfying. I don't know if I'm wrong, but I also felt a budding love triangle between Kaidan, Anna and Kopana, Kaidan's demon friend. I guess I expected something more realistic than this.
Some of the secondary characters were really fabulous. My favorite character was Anna's best friend, Jay. He was an adorable and over-excited character. I found myself really anticipating scenes with him in them. I really loved how supportive and helpful he was to Anna. He always looked out for her. They almost shared a brother-sister relationship and it was really cute, according to me. I also loved the interactions between Anna and her dad, who's been in prison for the last 16 years. I appreciated the fact that she didn't go bonkers over the fact that he hadn't contacted her for so long. The girl actually thought before taking any decision.
The premise of the plot was, without any doubt, interesting. The author had some very original and attention-piquing ideas about angels and demons. In fact, I'd say that I really did enjoy the whole world that Wendy Higgins has created. The whole idea of the Dukes was fairly enjoyable and I found myself really liking the details and explanations on them. Nevertheless, I still felt that she could have done something much more. The book was too lacking in action scenes. The author had the possibility of including some action-packed and adrenaline-rushing scenes. In fact, I found myself craving for such situations, but there wasn't any. I suppose the author was trying to set the tone for the next books. Wendy Higgins can write well. Her writing flows smoothly and regardless of the negative aspects, I wanted to finish the book because her writing really enticed me. I am sincerely hoping that the next installment will outdo Sweet Evil.
Sweet Evil wasn't a bad book. I had some issues with it which prevented me from completely enjoying the book. The original premise had huge potential. Overall, I found the book to be quite unsatisfactory. Maybe it's my fault for setting the bars for the book too high. Nonetheless, I will check out the sequel when it comes out.
Rating
Cover : 4/5
Plot : 3/5
Characters : 2/5
Writing : 4/5
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