I've read this series twice now and I still can't pinpoint why I like it so much. I would immediately dnf another book for many aspects of this series, but this one is just something else.
One notable thing about the Sweet series is the main character, Anna. Unlike most other YA books, she has so much faith and does her best to make the world a better place. I can just feel her hurt whenever she sees something sad.
Now, where my hesitations about recommending this series come in: the content. As the description suggests, almost all the main characters have not-good parents to say the least. The parents force characters to work at convincing humans to sin and turn from God. As such, there is a lot of talk of drinking, drugs, s*x, etc. However, there is a massive transformation in certain characters throughout the series that makes the terrible situation hopeful. When it comes down to it, I would say that this series is firmly in the NA category.

One thing I forgot to add earlier, I really like how this series takes place over four years. In a lot of fantasy books, the story is over a couple of months. With a four-year time span, you can really see the characters grow and mature.

Content Note (for the whole series): There is no premarital s*x between Kai and Anna. An important part of Anna's journey is waiting until marriage. That being said, there are some parts to skip in each book because they do toe the line. ( )

I absolutely loved this book! For me it started just a tad bit slow, but man it sure did not take long to pick up, and I am not going to spoil it for anyone so READ it. You won’t be disappointed. ( )

Child prostitution and sex is in this book. Because once they are eighteen they're expected to have sex with anyone, and it's also implied that they were having urges as teenagers. And several of them lose the virginity at thirteen. That's my biggest problem with this book. This is supposed to be treated as a normal thing and this is how they develop but this sounds awful.

So the back story is basically all these horny characters that live in hell are that way because as children they were made to be horny and do sex stuff with people of any age. And once they were legal adults they were still forced into these awful relationships. At one point Kaiden implies that when he's thirteen, he works with his peers, which when you are talking about sex you can't say "work with your peers" and me not scream. But seen as adults so it's perfectly fine to have them have sex with anything and that's in the book: anything.

I really hate when virginity is a huge focus of a book, but you got to know that to make it the worst book experience, have characters that can smell her virginity and actively sniff her and talk about how her virginity is tasty or delicious smelling.

In a book that is extremely horny and constantly talking about sex, there's also supposed to be a Christian message. More on this at 6 tonight on my reviews.

Things I remember most from this series off the top of my head: the book trailer where she sounds like a southern character straight out of Honey Boo Boo. And how I actually read it vs the voice given to us and I don't think of her as that kind of voice. But the trailer came first for me so now that I've seen the trailer and know the trailer is about this book... if you watch the book trailer you permanently alter how you hear the character and it can really make the rest of the book bad. For me, the book trailer is what I found first so automatically I thought she was just a dumb person and talked like she didn't know english.

It's not a surprise that a fallen angel / angel hybrid book is about religion. And force is religion. There are many Angel books out there who have angels in demons without going full religion. I know that sounds weird, but I've read several weird Angels and demons exist but they don't start quoting the Bible or talking about God and Jesus and shoving it on people they just exist and that's it. I miss those books right now.

I don't care about our main character. I can already say I cannot care about her.

Our main character has the superpowers of hyper empathy whenever she chooses to will it, and seeing auras, all eight super senses, cannot get ill catch diseases etc, can see both great good and great evil, and can all but mind control them. I'm so terribly used to Mary Sue overpowered angel hybrids that I honestly wanted to have something to say here, but the problem was is that it felt like all I wanted to say was "another one?".

But then she barely ever uses these Powers so they just exist to exist and be there.

Not a great sign.

We break a free of the seven deadly sins aspect at least, there are thirteen different things that are being encouraged. Thirteen different sinful traits.

When you're a child of one of these elements you basically are born with that feeling set on max. So like say your dad is the duke of gluttony, you will inherit an urge for gluttony at a young age. Of course, we couldn't have something that makes sense like that, we had to have a child born with the element of lust. Which means we have a baby born with those feelings. I can't unsee that. So we have Kaiden, a teenager who is constantly feeling lust and horniness and it's explicitly said that it's because of his father... I need a shower.

Kaiden is surprised when our main character, Anna doesn't immediately fall for him because he is irresistible and so hot that no matter what they are drawn to him. My eyes rolled into my head but not in the fun way, in the groaning and hating it way.

Don't fall for me. I don't do relationships.
It's just that bad.

My brain stuttered up this point because I realized if there are thirteen dukes of hell, what is the relationship between them? Like. Genetically. Are they all related, or what?. So, when Anna sees her dad is completely reformed and a good guy even though he's an ex duke of hell my brain went does she have any relation to Kaiden. Would a relationship to Kaiden actually matter?

Weird little things catch my brain, and the relationship between Anna and Kaiden on a genetic level is what got stuck there. Probably better off contemplating the genetics in this book than the child sex trafficking.

2 stars.

It just... Exists. ( )

1.5 Stars ( )

I have heard mixed reviews on this series and have put off reading it for so long. I have all of the books though and decided to give it a go. I went into this with very low expectations, but ended up enjoying it more than I was expecting.
This started off pretty strong. I was actually flying through it. It did slow down towards the middle/end and was longer than it needed to be. However; I did enjoy it. Yes, this does deal with younger teens “working” around the sins of the world. Triggers for drug use and underage partying and sex. I can see why others do not like this as it does talk about forcing younger kids to have sex and touches on kids in sex slavery. I knew some of this going in though.

The reason I really enjoyed this so far, is the relationship between Anna and Kaiden. Their romance was much needed within the story and I actually wanted more. We only get limited scenes with them and it really stops once you hit the half way point.

Overall, I did enjoy this more than I was expecting and plan to continue the series. ( )