Review: Sweet Evil

Title: Sweet Evil
Author: Wendy Higgins
Genre: YA Paranormal, Fantasy

See it at Goodreads


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?


This book was almost laughable. So cheesy, yet engaging enough to hold my attention and keep reading. In fact, despite how much I was annoyed by this one, I’m almost sure that I’ll read the sequel to see what happens.

The positives in Sweet Evil were that the mythos and back story had been really well thought out. It wasn’t confusing in that area, or just some weird nonsense that’d been tossed in. It was the parts that actually felt a bit real, original, and redeemed it overall because of it. It’s quite obvious that Higgins took a lot of time thinking the history through, and I quite liked that. The writing was also descriptive and lovely, sprinkled with some humor here and there, and nicely paced.

But what I didn’t like? That was a list of small annoyances. I couldn’t connect with any of the characters. Kai and Anna especially. Anna was too good. It was annoying. For a teen, I just didn’t see it fitting, no matter what she was. The idea of romance with Kai was not romantic at all. The guy was a complete jerk, constantly abandoning her, belittling her, and leading her on--only to go off and sleep around with others. And as always, we have a character that thinks it’s okay to be treated that way. I didn’t have any kind of emotion toward the two until closer to the end of the book when I may have finally felt some sympathy toward events. Who knows? Maybe I could like them better in the next book.

Also, should I mention this absolutely ridiculous idea of Anna’s guardian allowing her on a road trip across the country with Kai--someone they both barely know at this point--after Anna’s guardian had just had a fit a few pages before that about Anna hanging out with the guy? Yeah….that really makes sense.

The thing about Sweet Evil is that I see the appeal, I really do. I think I’m the oddball here because I know many people who adore this book. All of the crazy, positive reviews are what attracted me to it even though I’m always a bit wary about picking up angel reads. It was engaging and held my attention. A quick read with a few laugh-out-loud moments. Despite my annoyances throughout, I’m still curious to see what comes next.