Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins

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 towards 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?

Rating: 4.5 stars

I was expecting better, I'll admit. It was amazing, but with the reviews I had read about it, I was anticipating either beyond fabulous, or absolutely terrible. This book was neither. I loved it, don't get me wrong, the characters were easy to fall in love with and the plot was solid. I absolutely cannot wait for the second book to come out. Read this book, I beg of you.

Now you're probably all going, if it wasn't as amazing as you hoped, why do you want us to read it so bad? Well, despite my unhappiness it didn't blow me to a galaxy far far away and back, it did blow me to a galaxy far away, which is still pretty freaking awesome.

The story has mostly to do with demons instead of angels, which was a nice break. It's hard to find a good angel story, they're becoming more and more stereotyped like vampires and werewolves and such. So demons were a nice break, but, be that as it may--they weren't nearly as kick-ass as I had hoped they would be. They were brutal, and I think Higgins really tried to make them horrifying, but to me they weren't much scarier than a bunch of sadistic people. I know that's awful, but it seems most bad guys are that way and I was really hoping for something truly and deeply awful about these ones. They kill, and they lead people towards sin, but hey, that's modern day society for you.

There are different statuses demons have, there is Satan, the top dog, beneath him is his messenger Azael, and then there are our main guys, the dukes. There is a duke for each of the seven deadly sins (greed, lust, pride, envy, wrath, sloth and gluttony (sloth and gluttony got paired up as they often go hand in hand)) and then there were a few more added as time went on (lying, hatred, murder, theft, adultery, and substance abuse) which makes for a total of twelve dukes. Beneath the dukes are the whisperers. The whisperers do exactly as the name entitles them, which is go around and whisper into peoples heads, giving them negative thoughts and steering them towards evil and such. The dukes command the whisperers, and all the whisperers want to be dukes, but will never get there.

Anna was a nice character. I like her, she was always sweet and nice and doing her best not to do drugs, which she is constantly being drawn to because of her father, who was the Duke of Substance Abuse. But one thing about her kept nagging throughout the entire book. She was always crying! She had very dramatic mood swings into sorrow. But other than her little crying problem, she was a real sweet girl. I was surprised when she didn't turn Kaidan down though, that guy must have some serious skill...

Anna was a bit of a crybaby, and often times I have dreamt of knocking some sense into that half-demon head of hers. She didn't seem to understand anything, unless it was about her heritage. I guess maybe she just heard what she wanted to hear, but it still annoyed the heck out of me.

Speaking of, Kaidan was by far my favorite character. I mean, the son of the Duke of Lust. Duke of LUST. *cue swoon moment* Kaidan (pronounced Ky-den) was your classic cocky, self assured, jack-ass guy. And I loved him.You could see how much he cared for Anna, even when she didn't. He was positively adorable, in a get-in-my-bed-right-this-instant kind of way. My favorite scene had to be when he was teaching her about the, erm, sense of touch ;) And I liked the fact that Higgins didn't focus to much on his band, Lascivious. I love bands, just not in books. In books they tend to focus too much on the band and to little on the plot and the characters, so I was really pleased to see that the band had just enough attention to make it important, but not enough to make it over the top.

Anna's father is pretty hard core. Just saying. He's the ultimate bald guy. Like Bruce Willis. On drugs. While trying to persuade other people to do drugs as well. You know, typical father kinda stuff.
That aside, John LaGray was bad-ass--not above and beyond bad-ass--but just bad-ass enough to get your attention so you go 'wow, this guy is bad-ass' (Yes, I am aware I used the words 'bad-ass' four times in one sentence)

Kaidan's father (I forgot how to spell his name) was pretty much the rain on my parade. Here we have a beautiful love blooming, and then there's whats-his-face to go and screw
+ it all up for us. Whenever he was mentioned, I was practically screaming to just ignore him. It was upsetting me.

Kopano was nice enough. I liked him, he was a sweet guy, but I just don't see him as a legitimate love interest. He was there for Anna, and that's all well and nice, but I am officially Team Kaidan. There was something about Kopano that kept me interested in his character. I don't know if English was his first language, but he always said things out, no slang or anything. He was so proper, but it worked with his character.

The beginning just went a bit to fast for me. Every bit of information was just whizzing by, and Anna had this knack of accepting all of that stuff really easily, but when it came to Kai, she just couldn't take a hint. It seemed as though Higgins was a bit of a novice writer in the beginning, but by the middle the writing got a whole lot better and I started enjoying the book a lot more.

Everything considered, I would recommend this book very highly, and I enjoyed it very much.

xxAvalon

The Selection by Kiera Cas

For thirty-five girls the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth.  To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and princess jewels. To live in a palace and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon. But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crow she doesn't want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by rebel attacks. Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she's made for herself--and realizes that the life she's always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.

My Rating: 4.5 Stars

I was pleasantly surprised with this book. I was expecting a really dull, boring read, but I was actually entertained through the entire thing.
It starts off with America Singer, a very well educated girl knowing French, Spanish, and English. She is also accomplished in the piano, violin, and guitar, but her main talent is singing. Apparently everyone in her caste has a special talent, and hers would be singing, her mother's is piano, her older brother's is painting, etc. I found this a bit odd, considering how incredibly undernourished and uneducated her caste was supposed to be, although I suppose she might've had help from others in her caste.

I found America a surprisingly likeable character, despite her blunt personality, she is just trying to care for her family. She is pressured into signing up for the Selection by her boyfriend, Aspen, and her mother. But when her name is selected out of thousands of girls to one of the top thirty-five, she is astounded and set on going home as soon as she can. But things change when her douchebag boyfriend breaks up with her, very effectively crushing her heart. But this is one of the things I like about America, she gets back on her feet and moves on with her life. Instead of moping around wanting Aspen back, she recovers fairly quickly for a heart broken girl and immediately starts concerning over her family again.

So she goes to the Selection and immediately humiliates herself in front of the prince. I laughed at this part, because no matter how little sense she made during this conversation he always tried his best to stay polite. I found this weird, because usually the love interests in books are jerks, possessive, or at least sarcastic. Never well-mannered gentlemen. I found Maxon a breath of fresh-air, a sweet loving guy who just wants to find someone to love in a world where everyone just wants to use him. (Screw Aspen, I'm on Team Maxon already)

Aspen was officially a first class jerk who I wanted to strangle for most of the book. So first he confesses his undying love for America, then he breaks up with her. Then he moves on with some random girl, right in front of America. Sixth class bastard right here. Then he pulls that stunt at the end, which I just think is a scam, personally.

Maxon was fabulous, what a sweet guy! He was always polite, even when he wasn't being formal, which he was almost always. He was constantly forgiving towards America, no matter what stupid mistake she made. And on top of that, he wasn't the stuck-up spoiled prince like most. He is yet another example of 'Why Can't This Story Character Be Real?'

I'd recommend this to whoever likes futuristic dystopian, fierce competitions, perfectly timed romance, and a pretty awesome heroine.

xxAvalon

The Iron Fey Series by Julie Kagawa

Rating: 4.5 Stars


I loved this series, what a page turner. In reality, it took me a total of a week to read this entire collection. I didn't want to put it down!

Meghan was an amazing heroine. She had just enough ability to make her kick ass, but not too much, which would have made her unrealistic. Additionally, she was a really likeable character, and that made me sympathize with her. She was a quick learner, but she had a few bumps along the way which weren't necessarily her fault.

Onto Puck. Puck was an amazing guy, and I instantly fell in love with him, even though I was on Team Ash. He was the prankster, and yet always sweet and caring and going way out of his way for Meghan, which made me switch to Team Puck in the middle of the Iron Daughter, and then a bit indecisive in the Iron Knight. Puck had that fun personality that made the book light up, and (Spoiler Alert!!!) I was cracking up when he and Ash fought and he kept having all the copies of himself. He was such a sweet character that I always look for in books.

Ash, oh Ash. I don't think there could be an improvement made on him. He was the dark and mysterious love interest, and I, personally, love that kind.  He made me smile, cry, laugh, scream, all with just the simplest actions. He was just so perfect. Ash's faithfulness and unfailing loyalty made him so...desirable. What girl doesn't want an extremely sexy, loyal, loving and protective boyfriend? His character was beautifully sculpted and amazingly consistent, except in the last book, where I was a bit disappointed.

Now to my favorite character, Grimalkin. Grimalkin is my favorite cat of all time. His indifference and boldness made me smile every time. I don't think I ever expected this much sass coming from a cat, but Grimalkin just figured he'd put his two-cents in on everything, and then some. He was the only completely unchanging character, because he already knew everything. His comments and bland statements kept the book full of humor, and interesting, seeing as even his most bored statements could change the entire plot of the book.

I took off half a star off my personal rating, because of the fourth book. This paragraph will contain spoilers, so if you haven't read the last book, don't read this. The Iron Knight was about Ash's journey to get Meghan back, but it was mostly revolved around Ariella, which was a bit annoying, because most of the time he was thinking about her, instead of who he should've been thinking about. It was very frustrating, and it made it seem, the few times he was with Meghan, almost like he was cheating on Ariella. His indecision with Ariella and Meghan made me think about switching to Team Puck, but I stayed on Team Ash because he's just so perfect for her <3 . Female writers writing from a male's point of view and vice versa is very dangerous, especially with a changing character. Ash was going through some serious character changes and I just didn't feel she expressed his emotions and thoughts quite according to his character as shown in the previous books. Don't get me wrong, I still love Ash, I just didn't feel like he was quite...him in the last book. On top of that, he might not age?! Might is a very flexible word, I would much rather have heard he had just enough fey magic to not age at all, and then all my worries and concerns would be washed away.
I didn't want to take any more stars off because, despite my personal issues with Ash, it was amazingly written and I absolutely loved it.

This series is a definite must-read

xxAvalon