Book Review: Sweet Evil

Sweet Evil (The Sweet Trilogy #1)
by Wendy Higgins
Paperback, 454 pages
Published May 1st 2012 by HarperTeen
Source: Bought
Buy the book: Amazon | Book Depository

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?

Review:

When I first met Anna Whitt, I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like her that much. She didn’t seem like an exciting character to me. She was an extreme Ms. Goody Two Shoes, she always told the truth, she cried so easily, she didn’t have vices and she wasn’t even funny. In short, she was boring. In most cases, if a character already bores me not more than 30 pages into the book, I would think twice before continuing to read it. However, in Sweet Evil’s case, my extreme excitement for the book overshadowed my indifference for Anna. Besides, I thought Kaidan Rowe was especially hot.

There’s no argument that Kaidan is a certified YA hottie. Brown hair, blue eyes, cocky attitude, an awesome drummer and oh, British accent, anyone? *Swoon* Too bad that as the story progressed, he became less and less enticing to me. Not that I don't love him as a character anymore (the guy is too sexy to ignore!) but my dislike for Anna dragged him down too.

I was never a fan of insta-romance so I was disappointed to find one in Sweet Evil. This insta-romance also involves a forbidden love, which is something I generally like in my YA books but weirdly enough, something I didn't appreciate in this book. Especially when the relationship of Anna and Kaidan confused me so much. One moment they're so into each other and the next, the other is all we can't be together blah blah. I also didn't like how Anna acted when Kaidan told her off. And though her reaction was quite understandable given that it was her first love, I couldn't help but be irked by it. My respect for her as a girl went couple of notches down then and there. I most especially didn't like how much emphasis was given to Anna's virginity. At first it was funny but then I just got tired of it. Practically every character in this book knows about her virginity. Even the evil bosses are calling her out for it. How weird is that?

Speaking of weird, Sweet Evil has a rather unique but weird concept. Nephs here are taught not to do good things contrary to others where kids are taught not to do bad things. However, I think Higgins's concept for this book is questionable. Wouldn't it be more pleasing to the evil bosses if the Nephs are not following the rules? Because violating the rules is evil, right? (That or maybe Philosoraptor is rubbing off on me.)

But by all means, I genuinely liked reading this book. In terms of plot, Sweet Evil is well-paced. The side characters are likable especially Jay and the other Nephs. Despite Anna's tendency to be annoying and confusing, I couldn't help turning the pages one after the other. I guess in spite of its flaws, Sweet Evil still has that grasping quality to it that makes it hard to put down. And did I mention that Kaidan Rowe is hot? It's just sad that I don't share the same hype that majority of the YA blogging community has for this book.

Rating: 3/5 stars