Synopsis:
Anna Whitt, the daughter of a guardian angel and a demon, promised herself she’d never do the work of her father—polluting souls. She’d been naive to make such a vow. She’d been naive about a lot of things.
Haunted by demon whisperers, Anna does whatever she can to survive, even if it means embracing her dark side and earning an unwanted reputation as her school’s party girl. Her life has never looked more bleak. And all the while there’s Kaidan Rowe, son of the Duke of Lust, plaguing her heart and mind.
When an unexpected lost message from the angels surfaces, Anna finds herself traveling the globe with Kopano, son of Wrath, in an attempt to gain support of fellow Nephilim and give them hope for the first time. It soon becomes clear that whatever freedoms Anna and the rest of the Neph are hoping to win will not be gained without a fight. Until then, Anna and Kaidan must put aside the issues between them, overcome the steamiest of temptations yet, and face the ultimate question: is loving someone worth risking their life?
Favorite Lines:
“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without words, and never stops at all…”
“I was more myself with you during those three days than I’ve ever been with anyone in my life. It’d be easier if I could be fake with you, but you bring out everything in me, little Ann. All of it.”
“’Spend the night with me. I’m tired of living like I’m not alive.’ He dropped his hands from my face to grip my shoulders. ‘I’m bloody sick to death of it. I want one night to be alive. With you.’ He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead on mine. ‘Please, Anna. One last night and we’ll go back to being safe again. I need this. I need you.’”
My Opinion:
Coming into this book, I read the synopsis and figured there wouldn’t be any Kaidan but I was desperate for whatever I could get so I dove in. Naturally, I got hooked and stayed up until 3am to finish the book in one sitting; I’m a sucker. Sweet Peril, and the whole Sweet series for that matter, takes place over an extended period of time. Because of this, the books will jump ahead every few months and then pause to spend some time in each area. I usually don’t like this way of writing because I feel like you are missing out on a lot of the character time, but Higgins really makes it work in Sweet Peril. If anything it really adds to the build up and anticipation of the story.
At the end of Sweet Evil, the first book in the series, Kaidan moves to L.A. without saying goodbye to Anna and sends her a postcard that breaks your heart in such a simple way (you’ll understand if you have read it). Sweet Peril, focuses on Anna as she tries to navigate the world alone without Kaidan in the same state as her. Like I said above, I was sure that there would be no Kaidan and the story was going to focus on Anna but Kaidan does make his appearances every once and awhile and these were the moments I was living for. Because he was out of the state, Kaidan was not around much but Anna would seek him out for obvious reasons and when they saw eachother….my heart would stop beating and I would hold my breath (you would think I was Anna seeing him or something). Your heart will actually stop every time she sees him; that’s how good Higgins is. She builds up with such anticipation and makes you want the ship to happen so every little second that you get with them is like sweet, blissful, torture.
One thing that I have love/hate feeling towards is Kaidan’s behavior. I get why he is doing what he is doing and it becomes more clear towards the end of this book why he acts the way he does, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating. He is such a little butt for denying her for so long but I feel for him and think its sweet. I still want to just skip to the part where he admits his feelings and stops being all “knight in shining armor” in his own way. But ultimately the way he acts is part of his personality that draws readers to him and makes us love him even more.
Something that I am going to admit and wish that I didn’t feel this way because it’s slightly embarrassing is that I relate to Anna and the way she feels about Kaidan on a cellular level. I think that is what makes me relate to her so well and how I see myself reflected in her. She knows how she feels and she gets rejected over and over and some of her thoughts throughout the series so far are her trying to deal with that rejection and figuring out how to live her life. I think a lot of us readers have been in her shoes but I have never read a series that laid out feelings so similar to mine and let me relate in a much deeper and more personal level. The vulnerability that Anna feels is not something that a lot of writers can nail on the head as well as Higgins did.
Summary:
Overall, I am in love with this series so far. So much so, that I might even venture to say it’s in my top 5 for favorite series. I am seriously going to have to reread all the books once I finish the series, which is not something I normally do right away. If you want all the feels with biblical references thrown in here and there, then this is the book series for you. It is extremely well written and addicting. I can’t wait to read the next one!
Likely Story 