AnjaIsReading

Sweet Evil was one of the books I was dying to read. The blurb: so promsing. The cover: so alluring. The reviews: so enthusiastic. The rating: so outstanding. Those points altogether: so frakking misleading.

Hell, I wanted to like this book. I wanted to love this book. I wanted to get sucked in, I wanted to fall for Kaidan. But from almost the very first line I knew: not going to happen. What I found when I started reading was not what I expected.

With its whole new spin on the nephilim-based stuff the plot itself might have had lots and lots of potential. I mean, come on, a bunch of evil guys representing the seven deadly sins resp. the ten commandments (as in the Duke of Adultery, Duke of Lust, Duke of Substance Abuse, Duke of Envy, Duke of Pride and so on) and their offspring working hard on making men to commit as many sins as possible - sounds pretty awsome to me. But reading this book was anything but. It was boring, in parts even incredibly stupid, most of the characters were shallow, annoying as hell, and self-contradictory, and ... well, I have no words to describe how much this book irked me.

First (and biggest) nuisance: (Saint) Anna, sweetperfectinnocent Ms Goody Two-Shoes, who doesn't lie, who doesn't swear, who doesn't even has the word "sexy" in her vocabulary, but says batshit things like "Kai, like Thai, only yummier" and reminds her teachers to collect the homework. Ugh! She's so dumb that it hurts. Every time she opened her mouth I just wanted to strangle her. And when she's not babbling random cheesy bullshit (e.g. "Gosh, his eyes were gorgeous—the color of tropical honeymoon waters ringed in dark sapphire and enclosed by thick lashes"), she's crying over random cheesy bullshit. She really aggravated me... what makes her a bad girl. Not bad-bad but bad as in boring, annoying, dumb.

Then there is Kaidan who's according to Anna "smokin’ hot. As in H-O-T-T hott. ... This guy was extra-T worthy." UGH! I don't get why everyone considers him swoon-worthy. Admittedly, he is very well qualified to be drooled over; he's good-looking, he's a drummer, and the Duke of Lust is his father - a pretty much awesome basis to work with. But I'm sorry to say that he bored me to death with his attitude and his English accent (side note: English accent - so fucking overused, blargh). He has little personality and all he does is either screwing around or trying to screw Anna.

Last but not least meet Anna's foster mom, Patti, the most awkward parent ever. Patti is... incredibly stupid, overprotective, and the most contradictory character I ever met. There's no way that someone like Patti (who's extremly concerned about Anna's virtue) would let go her precious 16-year-old Ms Goody Two-Shoes on a road trip, alone, with a guy like Kaiden, whom she just met. Think again... She's a helicopter mom par excellence, want's constantly to stay in contact with Anna, but doesn't even give her a cellphone... frightfully clever *rolleyes*
This woman is the queen of making dumb decisions - from not telling Anna what she is to, instead of getting her head out of her ass, whining about what Anna learned about herself. I think Patti is the most moronic person I had the ~pleasure to read about...

Unlike the main protagonists I really liked most of the side characters. Jay is pretty cool and the Duke of Lust, Pharzuph, makes an awesome stinker ^^ He's a charismatic asshat, reminds me a little of J.R. Ewing xD Anna's dad is beyond words - in a good way, I even liked Kaidan's neph friends. Thanks to the side characters Sweet Evil was somewhat tolerable.

... which is more than you can say for story progression and pacing. The story dragged on and on. About the first two-thirds of the book were slow and boring as hell. At some point I was tempted to give up, but willed me to read on. Matters were complicated further by the fact that I was on every occasion confronted with illogicality and idiocy. I mean... sterilized neph? Srsly? Can it get any dumber?
Maybe by falling in love (after four days!) with someone you find disgusting. Most implausible ~romance ever.

The last chapters, however, got a little better. There was fun and thrill and activity. That didn't compensate the crappy beginning and all, still I enjoyed myself... until I stumbled over the book's biggest fail. Someone's shouting in German, "Gerlinda! Erhalten Sie auf der Bühne jetzt!" Google translator much? German words that make no sense... This is so embarrassing. Thank you for butchering my native language. If you can't even manage to get one single sentence right, you should ask a native speaker for help. Google translate without counter-check is more than unprofessional.
(I know, my English isn't the best, sentence construction and grammar are my weak spot. So who I am to judge? (And btw, I'm sorry for butchering YOUR language.) But in marked contrast to published authors I'm not trying to make money with my word salad ^^)
Apart from this the writing was okay, admittedly, too much question-answer sessions and too little showing instead of telling, but still okay.

Sweet Evil had its moments, but it is by no means a good book. So it's 2 bored stars for this quite underperforming reading matter.