Book #98 - Sweet Evil (Sweet Evil #1)

Sweet Evil (Sweet Evil #1), Wendy Higgins
453 pages
paranormal romance, urban fantasy
Started 9/5/12
Finished 9/6/12
4 STARS

The copy of Sweet Evil that I read this month was signed by the talented Ms. Higgins herself at a book signing I attended a few weeks ago. At the time I saw her, HarperTeen had not yet decided to pick up any subsequent books in the Sweet Evil series. Happy, according to Wendy's blog, HarperTeen has now agreed to print the Sweet TRILOGY! Hooray and congratulations, Wendy!

Anna is weird. She's a goody-two-shoes (where did that phrase ever come from, anyway??) on crack. Which, it turns out, is a good way of putting it since her mom was an angel of light and her dad is the demon of substance abuse. Till this point in her life, it appears her angel side has dominated her life - no lying, no trouble, no partying. No boyfriends. And then she meets Kaiden, the son of the demon of lust (oh yeah), and he tells her who she really is. Now, Anna is on a mission to meet her dad and to discover her place in her life. And, Kaiden REALLY wants to help.

Ok - I'll admit. For about the first third of the book, Anna bugged the crap out of me. I get that she was supposed to be acting inherently good. She's projecting her angel side - and, therefore being the exact opposite of her demon side. But, honestly, it was a bit much. Here's what I don't get. If she's 50% angel and 50% demon, how is it that the bad stuff hasn't shown up as much as the good stuff?

It's an interesting concept though, isn't it? What would you be like if you were half good and half bad? If you had the two extremes inside you, which would win out? Or, would it depend on the situation?

Kaiden - he's exactly how I would picture a demon of lust. Which is a good thing. :) I like how he didn't wuss out when he realized he was in love with Anna. He still did his job and acted like an ass some of the time. I wouldn't expect a demon to change his spots, even for a pretty girl. Not that I don't think he will before the trilogy is over - I'm just glad it's not an instantaneous thing. That would be a little too unrealistic for the story.

The world and the rules its built on were revealed at a nice pace. The world is interesting - the concept of demons being in charge of different horrible things in our world is cool and creative. I'm interested to see where Higgins takes this in the next book. Which is, as yet, untitled and not due out for a very. Long. Time. Now THAT is sweet TORTURE!!