YA Novelties

Hrm. This one's a tuffy to review. It's great, but it's not great at the same time. Bnaiovmaklfjopekmbko!!!! I am so not in a writing mood today. It's really difficult for me to put into words, but here goes nothing.

Let's start with the cover and summary. Cover: so cheesy, I can taste it. Seriously. Girls in long flowy dresses have become so overrated these past few years. Come one, especially with a creepy guy in the background wh Who didn't Plot: also, very cheesy. It tells us close to nothing and is so repelling it's hilarious to watch my friends read it and ask me why I even bothered to read it. However, it's still really worth reading.

In this story, Satan is in charge of a committee, if you will, of 7 Dukes, each representing one of the 7 sins. These dukes are fallen angels, otherwise known as demons. As Dukes, it is their job to influence humans daily to make the "wrong" decisions. They never have the power to directly influence a person's choice, but they can whisper into a humans' ear. Anyway, so these Dukes can produce offspring by possessing a human female. This female usually dies in childbirth from the strain of giving birth to a nonhuman soul. These half demon children are called Nephilim. It is their duty to continue their father's legacies by "working" to influence humans' decisions. If they don't follow their orders, they are killed (and unfortunately, they always end up in hell). And so anyway, Anna, the main female POV is born from a guardian angel mother and demonic father.

So anyway, Anna's father is the Duke of Substances (drug dealer basically) while Kaidan's father is Duke of Lust/Pleasure. Anna falls in love with the kid who is oozing pheromones, danger, and a wicked English accent.

Based on what other people have said not many people are too enthusiastic about the main characters Kaiden, otherwise known as Kai, and Anna. It's really funny how stereotypical each of the characters are. Anna is a goodie two shoes girl who hasn't done anything wrong in her life - like, ever. She's religious, she gets good grades, she never lies and she always follows the rules. She's so wonderfully angelic and a crybaby and yet, she still manages to fall in love with demon-boy.

Dude, I just wrote a poem about Kaidan.

Kai is a guy
Who plays in a band.
He's really qutie English
Oh my gawd, he's so delish
He's on the top rung!
With his proper tongue
He woos the gals
And loses his pals
He'd be a real nice guy- but-
Well, he's just a man-slut


That's right. Yours truly, a half-demon boy that sleeps with other women on a daily basis to relieve his "needs." Yup, you heard me right. His needs. As a man. Demon. Thing. Ya know.

I really don't understand what is so attractive about a guy who absolutely has to sleep with other women every night because it's his so called "job." Oh, Anna, where did yo' common sense go?

The tone was very dramatic. Uber dramatic. Kind of hilariously dramatic. But because you can be so easily swept into the story, you really don't notice how dramatic it is until you take a step back and really look at it.

But I do have a confession to make. I love it when the main characters have super powers. I loved the fact that all Nephilim, induding Anna and Kaidan, had extensive senses and had certain abilities according to their father's "sin." Nor do Anna and Kaidan ever get sick and are able to withstand high alcoholic content, as well as other harmful physical variables.

Then again, Anna and Kaidan do make some stupid questionable decisions here and there....
I don't know! It's all quite confusing in my head right now! I want to write something, but then it doesn't come out quite right and I don't really think this really counts as a review... more like a jumbled mixture of ideas and thoughts spread out with maybe a thin lining of craziness.

That leads me to another point. I really like Wendy Higgins' writing style, and I can get really lost into her story - no matter how unrealistic or fake the characters are. It's so natural and so easy to relate to, well, at least for me. I love reading first person POVs because I like reading how the character feels and thinks at a certain moment in the story. It allows me to connect with the character deeper level than I normally would in a 3rd person narrative. (Which is why Harry Potter should have been written in first POV!!!!) I kept flipping and flipping the pages, until, whoa! Finished already?! If only physical exercise time went that fast amirite? Good website, by the way.

I did not, however, enjoy how this book concluded at all. It was rapid, quick, and a job left unfinished. Obviously, not as much time was taken in the end of the story compared to the wonderful beginning of the story. It's really quite a shame, because Higgins was really going somewhere with that story. She rapidly ended it in order to scrape up as many readers as she could to read the rest of the trilogy. There are more elegant ways you can end the first book of your trilogy! Find a conclusion while slyly leading readers in for more.

I'm really kind of looking to see how the second book goes because I really don't see where this book is leading. It got especially confusing in the last 100 pages or so when Higgins introduced 4 other characters. Clearly made to separate the two love interests from each other, these poor characters just muddle the pile of whositsandwhatsitsgalore even further. Creating complicated love triangles that are comprised completely of Nephilim (the worst kind of relationships according to Dukes), it is just crystal clear that these guys are   S-C-R-E-W-E-D with a capital SCREWED. There's no real plot line other than the fact that Anna has to survive being half angel and *gasp* half demon. Anna basically has to look like a bad girl in order to not get in trouble with the other demons. I found it equally ironic as Anna when she pointed out Demons are the only creatures where if you do something bad, you'll be praised but if you do something good, you'll be punished.

Goodness I'm tired. Okay, time to wrap this up. Overall: it's okay. I would recommend it because I like the idea of angels and demons and Nephilim in the world that Higgins creates and I love it when female POVs have superpowers. Read it if you like fluffy pleasure reads, but don't read it if you're looking for something really analytic or quick. The second and third books don't come out for quite a while.  So don't read it if you can't stand waiting for answers and for impatient people. Hrm. Well, that's a wrap.

Happy Reading, Everyone!