Monday, April 22, 2013

Review: Sweet Evil #1 by Wendy Higgins

Title: Sweet Evil (The Sweet Trilogy #1)
Author: Wendy Higgins
Release Date: May 1st, 2012
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 453
Source: Bought from Chapters Indigo


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 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?

My Thoughts:
Sweet Evil is enchanting, addictive and downright sinful. I have never read an angel book like this before and I absolutely loved it. The storyline was fast paced and exciting. I couldn’t get enough.

We start off with Anna “the good girl” who can see people’s aura and decipher what they are feeling. She doesn’t know why she is able to do this and why she is able to feel people’s negative emotions but she knows she is different from everyone else around her. On her sixteenth birthday, more strange things keep on happening and she meets the elusive, Kaiden Rowe. When she sees him, she knows that he is also different and there is an undeniable attraction between the two of them. Anna starts to learn about her heritage and what it means to be a person of her kind.

I loved the author’s writing. It is fluent and easy to follow. The setting fit the story well and the author was very descriptive, I was able to imagine the places Anna went perfectly in my mind. It felt like I was there to with them.

The title suits the book very well. Anna is always battling between the good and evil/temptation within herself. The cover of the novel is PERFECT. I love how on Anna’s side there is light and on Kaiden’s side it is dark but with some light peeking through. The cover signifies the premise of the novel in every way.

The characters is another aspect that made the book AMAZING. Anna is good to the core and I really liked that about her character. I also like how she always saw the good in other people and made them see it in themselves. Kaiden was a great character as well. Many times he came across as a man whore (mainly because of who his father is) and you would think you would be disgusted with him but it worked well in the book. The chemistry between Anna and Kaiden…I have no words. The author did such an exceptional job portraying their chemistry. All I can say was that it was electric, I could feel it myself. This quote  Jay said to Anna when they first met depicted it perfectly:
“Man, y’all looked like you were gonna rip each other’s clothes off!
You can imagine how much the chemistry grew and changed into something more as they got to know each other more. The other characters: Anna’s father, Patti, Marna, Ginger, Kopano, Blake, Jay and Veronica were also great and added something unique to the book.
My favorite passages and what makes my heart ache every time I read it:
“There was nothing healthy about desperately wanting something you couldn’t have”
“I’d always know he’d been willing to die for me. Nobody could take those things away.”
This book affected me in ways I never thought possible on a personal level. I was right there with Anna’s emotions because I was feeling the same way too. I don’t know why I waited so long to read this book and I am looking forward to Sweet Peril (book #2) in the series. I am definitely going to get my copy the first day it comes out.

 My Rating:

5 out of 5 stars

Cover Reveal & Giveaway: All My Life by Rucy Ban


Title: All My Life
Age Group/Genre: New Adult Contemporary
Author: Rucy Ban
Expected Release: May 2013

Synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Kari meets Neil Mars. “Neil as in Armstrong and Mars…as in Bruno.” A boy who beats every vampire, werewolf, highlander fantasy Kari has ever had. But she knows can’t get close to him. Not ever. Because that would mean telling him everything. Coming clean. And Kari can’t bear the idea of changing the way Neil looks at her. Like she’s the only girl in the world. His reverence is something too precious to lose. Perhaps even at the cost of losing him.
But Kari doesn't know why Neil calls her his ‘Angel’ and when she finds out, she realizes what love is all about. Boundless joy, unending longing and a fuckload of heartache. 


Excerpts from All My Life:

“I can take care of myself,” I tell him.
His lips twitch in response. “Oh, I’m sure you can, little shrub.”
“You are warned!” I take my voice down a notch and point my ring at him, “I’ll tunnel your leathery knighthood right out of this galaxy!”
Neil suddenly halts in his tracks and pins me down with eyes. “Batman vs. Green Lantern? Batman wins. Every. Single. Time.”
“Ohmygod! So not true. In the…”
He cuts me. “One word…yellow.” I stare at him with my mouth half-open.
“‘Nuff said,” he says smugly and then tugs on my hand.


******
Maybe I’ll forget this feeling someday. Maybe it’ll just be reduced to a memory made up of a flickering gas heater, the salty dew of his skin and the love in his dark, inky eyes. This feeling of pure unadulterated joy. Of reaching a high so potent that your spirit feels like it’s soaring across the universe…and falling from that glorious peak only to find yourself enveloped in someone’s warm caring hands. When you feel like you’ve just died or been born, right at the same time.
It could be that I’ll forget this feeling someday. But I’m sure it won’t be anytime soon. Maybe when I’m a hundred and looking forward to my lunch of mashed bread. Not one single day before.


About the Author:

Rucy Ban was born in 1978 and still continues to thrive. Ever since she first met Francine (the protagonist of her favorite novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn), Rucy fell in love with the written word. Rucy has a B-school degree in Marketing which she now puts to good use teaching lovable rowdy rogues and negotiating with her equally belligerent adolescent. In her previous avatar, she handled corporate communications for companies. At present, Rucy lives in Sao Paulo, travels often, speaks decent, if not quite fluent, Portuguese and really hates talking about herself in third person.


New Batch (5): New Books

Releasing April 21-April 27


I have waited a long time for some of these books to be released. All I can say is...finally!


Release Date: April 23, 2013

Crush (Crash #3) by Nicole Williams
Release Date: April 23, 2013

Release Date: April 23, 2013

Unbreakable (Unraveling #1) by Elizabeth Norris
Release Date: April 23, 2013

Release Date: April 23, 2013

Arclight by Josin L. McQueen
Release Date: April 23. 2013

Release Date: April 23, 2013

Release Date: April 23, 2013