Sweet Peril

Sweet Peril
By Wendy Higgins

I read and reviewed the first of the series, Sweet Evil, back in September of 2012. This is the story of Anna Whitt who is the daughter of two angels - one who is a guardian and one who is fallen.  She falls in love with another Nephilim (child of a fallen angel), Kaidan, whose own father is not as nice as Anna's. You can read my review here. I loved Higgins' first book, so the second had a lot to live up to.

So, how was it?

The book felt rushed. The story begins with the summer before Anna's senior year in high school and 371 pages later she has graduated and is headed to college. Details on how Anna became a bad girl in order to trick the demon whisperers who follow her almost everywhere are missing. We just see that she now has multiple piercings, skimpier clothes, and parties every weekend. Then, she is suddenly given an important prophecy and pages later is off with Kopano to begin recruiting other Nephilim.

Even if the bad girl transition had not been told in greater detail, I did want more time for Anna to become accustomed to not being in a relationship with Kaidan. I felt Anna's time with Kopano was not long enough for them to build any kind of relationship, whether as just friends or a little more. Then Anna is suddenly in California trying to recruit Kaidan and another friend. Of course, the ill-fated couple immediately tries to deal with the fact that they can't be together without losing their lives.

I understand that Higgins is anxious to get to the final book and the result of the prophecy. However, sometimes the journey there makes the better story. I had hoped to spend more time on the journey.

What did this book have to do with my faith? In the first book, I thought a lot about the concepts of temptation. In this book, I thought more about appearances. What does it mean to appear on the outside to be a follower of Jesus Christ? Do we need to be clean-cut in order to be a believer? If our immediate actions seem unchristian, can we still do things that are good? Anna and the other Nephilim spend a great deal of time on looking like bad-you-know-whats. And yet, they are truly good people, especially Anna. I wonder how many folks that I meet who are the opposite -- they appear righteous yet deep down they are ready to tempt everyone around them. Where do you fit in?

I recommend Sweet Peril if you liked Sweet Evil. May change my mind when Higgins publishes the final book in the series.

Happy reading!

Amelia