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?




A surprisingly interesting plot ensues!


When told that you're about to read what is classified as "a paranormal romance where the girl is an angel and the guy is a demon", there's only so much (positive) expectation you allow yourself before it gives way to a healthy dose of skepticism. Or maybe it's just me.

The plot of Sweet Evil was, therefore, a surprise as pleasant as any.

In a world where twelve of Lucifer's most trusted demons spread the twelve deadly across the earth, a girl by the name of Anna knows virtually nothing about it at all. Raised by a non-supernatural stepmother in a non-supernatural home, all Anna knows is that she herself is especially special - her senses rival Spiderman's, she can actually see people's emotions in the color of their auras, and she can remember as far back as being in her mother's womb. Especially special Anna can explain these things no better than anyone in her immediate vicinity - anyone, that is, until a drummer in a band casually comes up to her, asks where her angel is, and promptly proceeds to explain exactly what Anna is. Kaidan Rowe, therefore, is the bearer of all the information Anna has ever wanted. It's just too bad that he also happens to be the bearer of a devilishly sexy smile and a(n unhealthy) dose of arrogance.

And in a more peaceful (under)world, Anna might have been given the chance to adjust to all the newfound knowledge about the supernatural and her role as an inherently supernatural being. But the world of Sweet Evil is the fast-paced world of sin and temptation, and Anna is plunged into it with no preamble, left with only the hope of making it to the surface relatively unscathed.

It is my recommendation, therefore, to give this book a chance even if the beginning is not the most fast-paced of beginnings. Because it picks up, and then picks up some more, and soon you're on a whirlwind you wish would slow down, and you're wondering if this is what it means to "be careful what you wished for" and why you even wished for it to get more fast-paced. Because, boy, does it ever.

And as the pacing chances pace (yes, I went there), the characters follow suit. From an unapologetic, incurable bad boy, Kaidan Rowe goes so far as to offer virtually selfless favors. From a solitary special in a group of ordinaries, Anna Whitt swan-dives into a world where she seems tame and mundane by comparison to its other inhabitants. Nor are any of the supporting characters to be overlooked. Kaidan's four friends, each with their own brand of defiance, present a most unusual group - the kind that to all appearances shouldn't function, but miraculously it does. The congruousness of the incongruous. And, a foreigner to this new world that she is, Anna fits right in with the out crowd.

Angels, demons, citrus pheromones, monks, sins, scary fathers, love and loss ensue.

On a side note, I really wouldn't mind having a chat with the son of Lust. Just sayin'. Kaidan has to be the first English character who is actually written as such, along with the slang and the inherent Englishisms rather than just be given a cop-out "sexy English accent" while speaking run-of-the-mill American English. He also goes so far as to attempt to point out that his accent is English and not British, which is a distinction I haven't heard since Mara Dyer's Noah Shaw and which I dearly missed. Silent clap for Wendy Higgins. Silent. Clap. Clap. Clap.