Release Date: May 1st 2012
Published By: Harper Teen
Pages: 453
Goodreads: Add it to your reading list

Rating: 4 out of 5

Synopsis:

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: Sweet Evil is one of the most hyped books I’ve heard of in a while! It’s been on my TBR list for some time and so I bought the audiobook version (which by the way, is really good - the southern accent in Anna and Kaiden’s English accent made this book all the more enjoyable!).

The story is told from Anna’s perspective. Anna has always known she was “different”. She can see people’s emotions in the form of auras. That is, until she meets hot bad boy English rocker Kaiden Rowe. Kaiden is the type of guy your mother warned you about, and Anna can see this, but she still has a stange attraction to him. Kaiden is “the same” as her. After Anna speaks to her guardian Patti about this, Patti ends up telling Anna the truth. She is an angel - a nephalim. Her mother was an angel, and her father is a demon (a fallen angel). Her father is the duke of substance absuse. Kaiden is the same, except his father is the duke of lust. With more questions than answers Anna seeks out Kaiden to answer her questions and in the meantime she starts to fall for him.

Kaiden is all sorts of incredible, however I still kinda wanna hate him a bit. I just felt like he probably isn’t good enough for Anna. I put those feelings aside enough to indulge in how smoking hot he is, and if you know me, you know I do love a bad boy. But Kaiden Rowe maybe even crossed my “bad boy line of acceptability” at times. That is saying something!

Anna is a little too naive and goody-too-shoes for my liking. I didn’t *dislike* her though, I just found I rolled my eyes at a lot of decisions she made. I mean, example numero uno right here. Kaiden goes out to “work” all night (ie sleep with all the women he can) and Anna is apparently okay with this? I mean, sure, she’s not GOOD with it, but being as passive and non confrontational as she is sent out the message that this was okay. And she was still confessing her feelings for him? Oh girl. You have a lot to learn about the world. And THEN I have to tell myself that she IS 16 years old.

All naivity and eye rolling aside at Miss Anna’s antics… I have to say, that their hook up scene was probably one of the best I’ve read in YA (considering not a whole lot happens). Sooooo I am willing to overlook the above, based on this nice save by Wendy Higgins. She definitely did a good job at capsuring the sexual tension between the two of them! Good job.

I feel like at this point, there needs to be a side note here. This book actually does have a fair amount of drug use (underage drug and alcohol consumption), as well as above mentioned raunch. If you’re strongly against this type of thing (or you’re the parent of a YOUNG teen), this book probably isn’t for you. I’d probably recommend this book for teenagers over 16 perhaps but keeping in mind that these are themes within the book (considering she is the daughter of the duke of substance abuse…).

Overall, I am going to say that this book has the swoon-worthy factor going for it, plus the second half of the book is what I am personally referring to as the “shit-got-real” side of the book, when things really hit the fan, and I enjoyed the direction the book went in (The sequel should be really good!). Overall, I would say that this book is worthy of the hype - I found it thoroughly entertaining.

Book Trailer: