Review: Sweet Peril by Wendy Higgins (The Sweet Trilogy #2)

Title: Sweet Peril by Wendy Higgins

Published: April 30^th, 2013 by HarperTeen

Source: Puchased in Audible

Format: Audio book narrated by Erin Mallon

Group age: Young adult

Genre: Paranormal romance

Challenge(s): 2013 Books in a Series

Grade rate: A+

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?

My Review

Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!  I’ll try to get over my incoherent babble and get on with the review, but seriously, Sweet Peril is incredibly good!

Last year, I was lucky enough to win an ARC of Sweet Evil from Goodreads and I devoured it in no time (see my review here), thus I have been impatiently waiting for book two, and boy was it worth it!  I don’t know about you, but I sometimes get an unfounded fear of sequels when I love a book to much; I’m afraid that the next book won’t live up to my expectations and let me down.  I should have known better and never doubted you Ms. Higgins :)

Sweet Peril starts a couple of months after the end of book one and finds Anna starting her senior year of high school.  She is missing Kaidan (who wouldn’t!), and pretending to work on her dad’s trade as a result of increased surveillance by the whisperers; she has gained a rep as a party girl.  Due to an unexpected and old prophesy, Anna and her dad start looking for other Neph that will be willing to ally with them in a fight to banish the demons from Earth.  So our story stars with a quest to find others; Anna and Kopano travel to different places to talk to these Neph.  We get to meet new characters, like Zania and Flynn and visit with old ones like Ginger, Marna and Drake.   I also enjoy to read about Anna’s relationship with Patti (her adoptive mother), and her dad.

I love Anna’s character!  Even though she is a sweet southern girl, she is smart, loyal and has a big helping of common sense.  She knows to look at the final goal and how important that is even if they have to break a few eggs to get there.  Since I was listening to the audio book I can’t tell you for sure, but it seemed to me that Kai is not in the first third of the book.  This is a true testament to Ms. Higgins writing:  first, I didn’t get bored because all the information was relevant and interesting and, second, Kai was present all the time in Anna’s thoughts and conversations with the other Neph. 

Kaidan is, as I stated in my review of Sweet Evil, one of my favorite characters ever!  I can’t get enough of him, and of course neither can’t Anna.  Kai tries to be so tough and do the “right” thing, but it is so plain to see that he is crazy about Anna.  The scenes between Kai and Anna are extremely HOT; like in ‘handle with care’ hot.  That’s all I’m saying about that!

As you can tell, the characterization on this book is amazing.  I adore these characters and even the Dukes are so bad, but distinct from one another. The plot is so good, it varies from slow and steady, to hot, to action. The writing is outstanding, Ms. Higgins as an incredible talent.  Ms. Mallon did a terrific job with the narration and with the English accents! 

Overall, Sweet Peril was a worthy sequel to one of my favorite reads from last year. I cannot wait for Sweet Reckoning due to be published in May of next year (and the wait starts NOW).

Some quotes for you:

“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.” – Kaidan

“God, you smell nice," he whispered. "I've missed that smell. I've missed everything about you, little Ann.” - Kaidan

“We had a secret knowledge that demons couldn't fathom. They saw love as a weakness, but they were wrong. Love would keep us going, love was our strength.” - Anne

About the cover: A beautiful and fit companion for the cover of Sweet Evil! I love the contrast in colors and how both Anna and Kai are dressed in black now.