Book Review: Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins

Pages: 454

Genre: YA Fantasy

Pub. Date: May 1, 2012

Source: Personal Copy

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Goodreads says, "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."

Anna Whitt isn't your average girl.  Anna doesn't know much about her background as she is adopted, but when she turns sixteen, she finds out that she is the daughter of a demon and a guardian angel, which is really rare.  She holds special powers, but doesn't always use all of them as she is the quintessential good girl; in fact, she didn't even know about her powers until she ran into Kaidan Rowe, who is also like her.  Kaidan is the son of the Duke of Lust and is pretty much the opposite of Anna in every way possible.  Through Kaidan, Anna learns all about this new world while they are on a road trip to meet her father and a nun who is responsible for Anna's adoption.  Anna plans on learning all about her family history through her father, the Duke of Substance Abuse, who has been in jail for many years.  However, on the road trip Anna's boundaries and good girl mentality are challenged by the elusive and extremely dreamy, Kaidan, who tempts her in every which way.  While on the road trip, Anna uncovers many truths about her new life and comes to find she's got a challenging road ahead of her.  All in all, Sweet Evil is an intense fantasy debut that fans of the paranormal genre will love.


Anna is an interesting protagonist; she wasn't what I expected at all.  She's such a goody- two-shoes and while that was endearing, I wanted her to stop crying about things and man up.  Thankfully, she does delve into her darker side as Sweet Evil progresses.  On the other hand, Kaidan, is everything a paranormal fan could want out of a leading man.  He's an elusive bad boy that Anna just cannot resist.  This makes for an interesting time on their  road trip fraught with sexual tension.  Which leads me to my next point.....this book is steamy! I wouldn't recommend this for younger YA readers; it's definitely for more mature readers as this book delves into topics like sex, drugs, and under age drinking. 


The world-building in Sweet Evil is also complex and this is coming from an avid fantasy reader.  At first, it was hard to keep track of the various Dukes, the Nephilim, and Higgins' mythology surrounding the demons and angels.  Once I got the ins and outs of the fantasy world straight, I was able to sit back and enjoy the plot.  Yes, some parts of the plot were far-fetched and were very cookie-cutterish (especially towards the end), but I had no problem getting over that. Simply put, I was extremely entertained and couldn't put down the book partly because Higgins' writing style is superb.  It's been awhile since a novel has kept me up late reading and Sweet Evil accomplished that.  


One thing is for sure, I've never read an angel/demon book as unique as Sweet Evil.  In fact, I hear that they are in talks to publish the sequel and if so, I will most definitely be getting my hands on a copy.