REVIEW : Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins

REVIEW : Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins

   10:43 PM       Elisa

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Sweet Evil

Author      : Wendy Higgins
Publisher   : HarperTeen
Source      : Bought
Pages        : 453 (Paperback)

Summary from Goodreads :

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:
I need to confess that at first I decided to buy Sweet Evil because of the cover, look how pretty it is! For the story, actually I didn't expect too much, I even have prepared myself I might not like this book because from the revealed summary, the story could go wrong like some other books about Angels and Demons. But maybe it's a perk of not expect anything on the first place, because this book is surprisingly very AMAZING! I totally fall in love with the story!
The story is well-balance, not too complicated, not too paranormal, even feels a bit more contemporary, but it's still very intriguing and fascinating, thanks to Wendy Higgin's exceptional writing skill! The characters are so wonderful and charming in their own way and talking about the chemistry between them especially the romance between Anna and Kaidan, WOW! Even the 'almost' moments can be so steamy and sexy *fanning myself*. Glad to find another refreshing Angel series which is quite unique and original, evil yet sweet in the same time, the title tells it damn right! =D

Higgins took a different side of Nephilim and mixed it with seven deadly sins concept (and she even added some sins). It's very interesting and I enjoy every detail of it. They are sons and daughters between demons and humans and they have a purpose in this earth, to spread bad influences to humans in this world based on their demon-parents job. This concept was actually the one that make me a bit worried at first. I really love Anna's characters and can easily relate her to myself. I loved and respected her for being such an angel, so genuinely good, and not that sickening kind of good, innocent and sweet, willing to control herself to refuse any bad temptations. But then she meets Kaidan Rowe, a nephilim, a son of Demon of Lust who literally flips her world almost upside-down. While I read this book, I was actually waiting for the moment when Anna would disappoint me, like turned to be a new bad girl since she was mandated to be one, lost all the goodness in her in the name of love to Kaidan. Well, I can't actually blame her though because who won't be in love to a hot, perfect bad boy like him??? Instead, every page made me so excited, I didn't find any single disappointing moment. I even grew to love Anna and Kaidan more on each page! Thanks God! Anna is still the good Anna although she grows stronger and more determined than before and Kaidan totally stole my heart. I found myself rooting for the forbidden love between Anna and Kaidan, I sympathized him so much and felt bad for everything that happened on him and other fellow nephilims.
The support characters are also very wonderful. I really liked Patty and Anna's demon father. He's very cool! I also especially enjoyed fun moments we met other nephilims like Kopano, Blake, Marna and Ginger.

I used to be a bit worry about this, but in reality thankfully I wasn't. One thing you should know, Higgins subtly included some religious (Christianity) aspects in this book. So obvious but yet not too overwhelming so it can be enjoyed by all people. And what made me so grateful is that she did it with a lot of respect. I didn't find it offending at all and the Christian side of me still can enjoy it as a part of fiction's flavoring. Thank you so much, Wendy Higgins! =D

Right now I'm impatiently waiting for my copy of the sequel, Sweet Peril. The ending was very heartbreaking and my heart bled for Kaidan actually, yeah he successfully makes me so cheesy *sobs*. I really can't wait to know what would happen with Anna, Kaidan and the other Nephilims on the next book! =D
Of course I have to highly recommend it to everyone, though considering some steamy scenes in this book (and Kaidan is son of Demon of Lust, you can guess what would you find then) maybe this book is more suitable for older young adults. However, this book is well worth to be read so don't miss this awesome debut series! Oh, and maybe you want to read two special chapters from Kaidan's POV that you can find on here (chapter 1) and here (chapter 26). Trust me they are so swoooooooooon-worthy! ;D
Happy reading! =)

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REVIEW : Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

REVIEW : Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

   2:40 PM       Elisa

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Unearthly

Author      : Cynthia Hand
Publisher   : HarperCollins
Source      : Bought
Pages        : 435 (Paperback)

Summary from Goodreads :

When Clara Gardner learns she's part angel, her entire life changes. She now has a purpose, a specific task she was put on this earth to accomplish, except she doesn't know what it is. Her visions of a raging forest fire and a mysterious boy lead her to a new high school in a new town but provide no clear instruction. As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make--between the boy in her vision and the boy in her life, between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. . . . When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?

Book trailer :

Review :
I thought these days I already got enough of supernatural beings like Vampires or Werewolves, and also Angel. Aside of The Mortal Instruments (which I really LOVE), I had a hard time with some Angel-theme series like Fallen and Hush Hush, both were frustrating me very much. But then I saw my paperback copy of Unearthly sitting there prettily for quite a long time and well, also being pushed by gazillion amazing reviews about this book, finally I decided to give a try at the edge of year 2012 (yeah totally procrastinating). And guess what? So glad I did and I loved this book! =D. Really nice to know that a good angel series doesn't need to be all gloomy, moody and angst so it didn't ruin my mood over this book.

The angel or half-angel concept in this book is quite unique and different from any reading in the same theme I've read. Despite of supernatural-like premise about Clara, a half angel half human who is seeking what's her true purpose based on some vision's fragments that struck her, this book is nicely flowing, down-to-earth and the story is quite close to basic daily life. It's like reading contemporary romance with sort of supernatural twists and mysteries here and there, some were surprising me though, and that's quite refreshing.

Clara is very likable and her voice is pretty easy to follow. Though she has known herself as a half-angel for quite some times, she still needs to find what her true purpose is and I enjoyed her journey to find it out. To be honest, I still can't choose between Tucker and Christian. Tucker is a ranch boy type that I adore, who seems to brighten your mood every time he makes appearances and Christian with his cool and mysterious vibes. I can understand very well Clara's confusion over these two guys because Hand created such appealing boys for her but well, I really excited to see who Clara will end with.

For you who recently get disappointed with some angel series like I did, I suggest you to try this one. Maybe Unearthly could fix it at least a bit. The twist of fate at the end... wow, I really didn't see it coming! Surely I have to get Hallowed pretty soon, really curious what would happen next!

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MINI REVIEWS : Demonglass, Silence, The Reckoning

MINI REVIEWS : Demonglass, Silence, The Reckoning

   3:49 PM       Elisa

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MINI INTRODUCTION:
From now on I'll add 'Mini Review' which contain short reviews of several books I've read long ago but still haven't made reviews of them. I have busy and procrastinator life so yeah I think this feature is necessary for this blog of mine =)

Demonglass

Author : Rachel Hawkins
Publisher :
U.S : Hyperion Book CH
Indonesia : UFUK Publishing (paperback)
Source : Bought Indonesia version
Pages : 449
Rating : 4 glasses

Review :
Like Hex Hall, I enjoyed this book very much. Sophie's voice is as crazily funny, entertaining and sarcastic as before, one factor that can make me falling for a story very easily. I love how the story is nicely developed here, with Sophie's journey and her encounter with new people, including her father (btw, I like him, what a cool father =p), with unexpected identity and facts, things getting darker and more complicated about who's the real good people and who's the real bad people. It's really shocking and gosh, what an ending! It makes me really want to get Spellbound right away! ><; One thing I like in this series is that the love story somehow doesn't really dominate the whole story, instead it focuses more about Sophie's adventure finding the truth about her identity and the other things. But I can't deny that I also want to know how Hawkins will do about love triangle between Sophie-Archer-Cal at the final book. Secretly I ship Sophie and Cal more because I feel I know about Cal more than Archer. Archer is still a blurry image even after I read two books. Well, just patiently wait until I get a chance purchasing Spellbound one day =p.

Silence

Author : Becca Fitzpatrick
Publisher :
U.S : Simon and Schuster
Indonesia : UFUK Publishing (paperback)
Source : Bought Indonesia version
Pages : 592
Rating : 3.5 glasses

Review :
Thankfully my curiosity won over my soul and I didn't drop this series earlier, because somehow for some reason I couldn't really get into the story, mostly getting confused here and there and I got a hard time with the previous book, Crescendo. That book was just really frustrating for me and made me disliking almost everything (read : Nora), even Patch. Well, I never really liked him though, somehow he's not really stand out among other book boyfriends out there and especially I just couldn't understand his strange behavior. But I was glad I was still willing to read this book.
Everything seems getting better, somehow Nora is like being 'renewed', she's like other person comparing to her in previous book, probably amnesia is good for her, lol. She's maturer and willing to take a risk and surprising responsibility that appears at the twisted end of the story. Wow, truthfully I've never seen it coming, quite surprised me!
And I was more surprised because this series has the forth book. Well, just hope this series would have satisfying ending.

The Reckoning (The Darkest Power #3)

Author : Kelley Armstrong
Publisher :
U.S : HarperCollins
Indonesia : UFUK Publishing
Source : Bought Indonesia version
Pages : 366 (Paperback)
Rating : 4 glasses

Review :
I've never expected I would enjoy this series very much! It's getting better and better on each volume and The Reckoning probably is the best sequel of all. What a pleasant ending! Though most of the story of all three books is about Chloe's and her friend's attempt to runaway from an evil organization (means lack of action, actually), it's still very exciting to read, especially when their power are revealed one by one (Chloe's is the scariest, with those zombies with any unbelievable form, seriously can't read this at night!). I loved to see how Chloe becomes maturer in here. She's no longer a spoiled whiny girl and finally she can accept her destiny and her power and also willing to control it. I also love to see the relationship development between Chloe and her friends, especially with Derek. Awww, they're just really sweet together! Their relationship grows naturally, because they want to protect each other. Just sweet! I always enjoyed every parts where both of them involved in and I was beyond satisfied with the ending =D. Such a wonderful series!

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