(clicking on the cover will take you to Goodreads!) | Title: The Appeal of Evil Author: Pembroke Sinclair Published on: January 13th 2014 Genre: Paranormal (YA) Author's blog Part of a series?: The Road to Salvation #1 Get a copy: Amazon I Barnes & Noble Katie wants to invest her heart and soul in love, but she may lose both to Hell. Katie, a senior in high school, is torn between loving the "good" guy, her childhood friend Wes who makes promises he doesn't keep and abandons her when she needs him the most, and the "bad" guy, the new kid at school Josh who is also a real demon from Hell. Katie wants someone who pays attention to her and puts her first, but what is she willing to give up to find him? |
(I received a review copy of The Appeal of Evil -thank you!- in exchange for an honest review. My review is written in my own opinion and is uninfluenced by anyone.)
I've only read a few books that center around the "Bad Boy" trope. After reading The Appeal of Evil, I'm fairly certain that while some people love bad boys in their books, I just can't stand reading about them. I only got through a few chapters of Beautiful Disaster before deciding to DNF it for the sake of my sanity, and I'm sorry to say that The Appeal of Evil only fared somewhat better because it actually had potential. By that, I only mean at the beginning of the book. But before I do that, here's a small quiz to ascertain if you'd enjoy the book or not:
Question: If you were dragged off to an abandoned warehouse by a demon and witnessed a fight (supposedly to the death) between said demon and a Praesul who's broken your heart before, who would you choose?
A. The Demon
Congratulations! You will love this story - although I'm quite confused as to why one would choose a demon over a living person. However, if you only chose the demon to see if things would get interesting...I would say don't bother.
B. The Praesul
Well, at least you make sense. Because Katie doesn't.
Leave it to Katie, the female protagonist of the book, to side with the demon. At the beginning I was mildly intrigued in the premise because heck, it did sound interesting. What - the hot guy who everyone's lusting over at school is suddenly following Katie around and has an interest in her is a demon? Cool! I wanna see how Katie deals with him. How? Oh, I don't know - at least tell him to SHOVE OFF, MAYBE??
I'd understand if the author was trying to make the plot more interesting by making Katie choose the demon first and then getting all kick-ass after. But any promising details that I would enjoy this story vanished when Katie actually thought that Josh -the demon- was better than Wes -the Praesul- because he kept his promises and Wes didn't. And repeatedly thinks about giving the demon another chance to prove that he was good, despite being a demon. Just because he kept his promises.
First off, Katie - are you perfectly aware that Wes kept away from you so many times because he was a Praesul, and was trying to do his job? Not to mention the backstory behind Katie's distrust and hate for Wes seemed quite undeveloped to me - Wes would always leave Katie, who had a crush on Wes, when she needed him. Katie would always try to forget Wes but he always found some way to barge right back into her life. Those were the reasons for why Katie hated Wes and chose the demon over him and although they were plausible, I could not feel them. At all. Katie could repeat again and again how untrustworthy Wes was and how he broke her heart multiple times and I wouldn't give a damn in the world. I think that was the ultimate reason for why the story failed for me, because a lot of the plot relies heavily on Katie's hatred for Wes.
Moving on to the characters, they didn't get much development in the story, which I hated. Most of the characters was just the same as they were from the beginning of the book. Wes and his father were promising, but when geared toward the ending I just decided that my effort to like them was wasted. Most of the time, Katie was always arguing or disagreeing with someone else when I was hoping for a different turn of events. Besides, the characters appeared in the story only when it was convenient - Katie's mom didn't appear for a good full chapter even though it was mentioned that she was in the same house as Katie, and Deb, Katie's alleged BFF, was practically non-existent until Katie needed her.
Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, the ending just flat out disappointed me. I thought Katie was starting to redeem herself for choosing the bad guy - she was showing signs that she'd felt remorse. Unfortunately, her decision at the end of the story that I think was supposed to be a plot twist was sickening. Really, Katie? Why save all the trouble, ping-ponging back and forth between good and evil and just make your decision in the warehouse? That would certainly save a lot of time, both yours, mine, and Wes - the poor guy.