Book: Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins

Published May 2012|Published by HarperTeen|303 pages|Purchased for my Nook

Part of a series? Yes, The Sweet Trilogy #1

Genre: YA/Paranormal- Angels

Find out more: Goodreads|Barnes And Noble|Amazon|Wendy Higgins’ Website

Goodreads.com Summary: Embrace the Forbidden

What if there were teens whose lives literally depended on being bad influences?

This is the reality for sons and daughters of fallen angels.

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 Anna, the ultimate good girl, has always had the advantage of her angel side to balance the darkness within. It isn’t until she turns sixteen and meets the alluring Kaidan Rowe that she discovers her terrifying heritage and her willpower is put to the test. He’s the boy your daddy warned you about. If only someone had warned Anna.

Forced to face her destiny, will Anna embrace her halo or her horns?

I like this whole Nephilim trend, and Sweet Evil was great.  I like that she has a lot of good in her, but also has a dark side as the daughter of Belial.  It’s a really interesting take on angels and demons, and I like that she has a little bit of both in her.  I really loved the hierarchy and the mythology of angels.  There’s definitely a structure as far as demons of hell go, and I loved reading the world the Higgins built.  Especially because the whole hierarchy was based on the seven deadly sins (plus a few others).

I thought the characters were pretty typical for the story Higgins wrote.  I didn’t mind, though, because everything else in Sweet Evil was good.  In a way, I was reminded of A Beautiful Dark by Jocelyn Davies, and I think it’s because Anna has both good and evil in her.  I can see Anna needing to choose between two different sides, much like Skye had to do in A Beautiful Dark.

Anna is pretty innocent, which was a little annoying at times, because she’s such a good person.  But at the same time, it was quite nice to see a character who’s still pretty innocent.  In some way, it’s a little hard to believe that she could be so innocent, but I think it works really well.  I have a feeling that it may become important later on in the series.

The romance was great- Kaiden and Anna make an interesting couple in so many ways.  There a lot of obstacles to overcome…if they ever figure out how they can be together.  There is a hint of a love triangle, and it’ll be interesting to see if Kapono and Anna ever have a thing, and to see how Kaiden feels about that.

And as much as I enjoyed Sweet Evil, it kind of felt like something was missing.  You get a good idea of how things are, and who the characters are, but it felt a few things could have been explained a little more.  Like, not a lot was mentioned about Anna’s mom, and I’m curious about her angelic side will play out, and if it’ll have a bigger role in the other 2 books.

Final thoughts:

I really liked Sweet Evil.  Higgins definitely created an interesting world in Sweet Evil, and I love the hierarchy of the demons.  There are a few things that need more of an explanation, but overall, Sweet Evil was a fun read.  It gets 4 stars.