Book Review: Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins

Sweet Evil is the first book to the Sweet Trilogy by Wendy Higgins. Here is the 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 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? This book was interesting to read. I was always one of those readers who loved fantasy and romance and this book has a good mix of both. I loved Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunter Chronicles about Nephilim so to see this other book about Nephilim was really cool. It wasn't the greatest book but it wasn't the worst. Still... I'm excited to read the next one.

Now, go ahead and read this book if you haven’t because we are going to get into spoilers.

Spoilers: This book follows Anna Whitt as she discovers that she is Nephilim, which are the offspring of a demon and a human. However, Anna is unique in that her mom is an Angel and not a human. I thought that it was really interesting how Anna always knew she was different because she could see other people’s emotions. I feel like a lot of books start out with protagonists getting introduced to fantasy worlds and have them never knowing any differently about the world than a regular human. Therefore, it was refreshing to see that right from the start, Anna knows she’s different.

I thought that the way Nephilim are in this universe is so sad. They are taken in by their fathers and used to spread the sin they are most tempted by to others and are basically killed if they go against their parents or if there are too many of them. Also, if they fall in love with someone who is also Nephilim, they’re slaughtered. When they give birth, they die. It’s just so awful and they don’t even really have any control over their own lives.

Okay so let’s talk about Anna. Anna is a really nice girl and I think that her empathy is really interesting to see. She feels other people’s emotions as well as see them and can even compel people into doing some things. She also as a Nephilim can see humans’ guardian angels and eventually sees the demon whisperers. Her temptation towards addictions and drugs and alcohol was really interesting and it was weird how quickly she changed her tune and was able to manipulate those around her during the test on New Year’s. I feel like she is really going to toe that line in the future. Also, Anna was deemed worthy to hold an angel sword. Whoa. I’m so invested in what will happen and how she’ll use it later on in the series and I have some questions. How many uses can she get out of the sword? Is it only one? Is that why the angels stopped her. In addition, I wonder if she is ever going to meet her mom. I mean, we saw how the angels came down when she was in trouble at the end and I can’t help wondering if her mom will show. Hmm… maybe we’ll find out.

Let’s move on to the story about Anna’s parents. I was enraptured by it! The idea about her dad, Belial, regretting his choices and just hiding his feelings from the other dukes and demons is so tragic and it’s an idea I’ve never thought about. In other stories about demons, it’s apparent how they thrive off of the negative components of humans and don’t regret choosing to go with Lucifer so I had never thought of a storyline like that. The thought of how Belial and Anna’s mom, Mariantha, had always had a connection and how she broke the rules to be with him on Earth was so touching. I honestly would be majorly invested in seeing that storyline as a book on its own. Can you imagine? I’d probably cry. I love Belial because it is so obvious he genuinely cares for Anna and regrets his choices. I can’t wait to see more of him in the next books. The only grudge I have against him is his obvious dislike of Kaiden.

Kaiden Rowe. I have to admit I wasn’t as taken with him as I have been with other book characters but I still think he’s great. His banter with Anna drew me in really well and he’s the son of the Duke of Lust. It’s obvious how much he cares about Anna and even though I get why Anna’s dad was all upset that she had traveled across the country with the son of the Duke of Lust, I think he shouldn’t judge Kaidan by the sin that he was born into.

Some of the major highlights for Kaidan:

1. He got Anna the turquoise necklace she wanted. I called it right when it happened, but I still melted into a puddle of goo when I read it.

"See anything you like?” Kaidan asked. I hadn’t heard him walk over. “Yeah It’s all beautiful, isn’t it?” “Can I… get you something?” A rush of heat flowed to my face from the surprise of his offer. I kept my eyes on the table. “Oh. No. I don’t need anything but thank you.”

2. He went against his father’s sin for Anna even though he always feels the temptation for that and he probably feels it more for her.

I let the meaning of what had happened soak in. We’d come so close, and Kaidan denied himself. For me. He’d made his very first self-sacrifice. For me. He’d defied his demon father. For me.

We love a guy who goes against what he usually does for the girl he loves.

3. Even when Kaidan was trying to push Anna away so that they wouldn’t get too deep in love and get killed, he really cares about her. We saw this at the Halloween party.

“Wait,” Kaidan called from behind me. I squeezed my eyes shut for a second, but kept walking. Then I felt his hand around my wrist, spinning me in a half circle and pulling me to his chest. His face was so close. He reached down and cupped my face with one wooly hand, and wiped the top corner of my lip hard with his thumb. I flinched back. “What are you doing?” “I…” He appeared to have no idea himself. “I wanted to see your freckle.”

Awww. One reason why it’s easy to see how much he cares/loves Anna is that he thinks the parts of her that she hates are beautiful( like her freckle).

There are so many others but those are a few I loved.

Now to the end. Why would Kaidan just leave without saying goodbye?! I’m sure we’ll find out in the next book but I have my own suspicions. The first one is that he is trying to distance himself further from Anna because he jumped up with a knife to protect her and that probably startled him if he didn’t know how he felt about her. The second is the old favorite that is used by so many books: he was warned/threatened to stay away from her. One guess as to who did it is Belial because he obviously dislikes Kaidan. Belial why?? I love you but why??

A guess I have as to what will happen in the next book?

Two words: Love Triangle between Kopano, Anna, and Kaidan. Kaidan was obviously jealous about Anna and Kopano talking to each other and I sneaked a peek at the description for the next book and it said that Anna and Kopano would be traveling around together. I’m not sure how I feel about Kope yet but he does seem nice.

I guess we’ll see.

Okay overall rating for this book is 3/5 stars. It did get slow at a few times but I pushed through. I think the world building was well done and the storyline was really clever. I just thought that the characters need more development and the timing was weird because I thikn it said months passed at a few times and it didn't feel like that.

Anyways, let me know what you think.

Bye! Marina Fuso