Review: Sweetly by Jackson Pearce

Sweetly by Jackson Pearce
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After being disappointed with Sisters Red, I was hoping that Sweetly would live up to my expectations and for the most part it did. I found Sweetly to be a lot better than Sisters Red. Almost all of the problems I had with the previous book in this series wasn't an issue anymore.

The Good
I liked how Sweetly felt like a modern retelling. When I was reading this, I never thought that this would be better if it was set back in the day.

Another thing that I liked, and is a huge plus in this book, is that Gretchen grew up. In the beginning she's a girl who is trapped in the past, but as the story progresses she changes to a girl who takes action instead of waiting for her brother to do things.

Plus, she was complex and fleshed out quite well. This made her a stronger heroine, because she felt real.

But I think the biggest plus for me in this book was the logic actually made sense.

The Okay
Sophie was a character that was intriguing and mysterious and while I never hated or liked her, I was expecting more from her. In the beginning it seemed like she may be a witch, mainly because Ansel falls for her almost automatically and Gretchen feels safe and not afraid to open up when around her. Also, the men in Live Oak seemed a lot nicer to her than the women.

In the end, she wasn't a witch, but I do wonder if that was some sort of missed opportunity there. [It would have been nice to see her having a sinister motive instead of just working with the Fenris....which is sinister, but not as sinister as a woman working alone and doing evil things. (hide spoiler)]

The book was also kind of predictable, so there was never really any surprise when the secrets were revealed. When it came to Ansel and Gretchen, I understood why they didn't figure things out. But Samuel, he didn't really have an excuse.

Yes, he knew things, but it's not until Gretchen does most of the work that he figures things out. This surprised me because he's a hunter and is Silas', the hunter from Sisters Red, brother. It just didn't make sense to me.

The Bad
I never bought the relationship between Samuel and Gretchen. It seemed like the only reason they got together was because they didn't really talk to anyone else in their age group. Everyone thinks Samuel is crazy and Gretchen...well it kind of seemed like there was no young guys in Live Oak.

Samuel doesn't even seem to like Gretchen at first, so when he gets together with her I was wondering where it came from. I don't know, it kind of seemed like it was thrown in because YA novels always need to have a romance in it.

I did like that it didn't dominate the plot though and there was very little of it, so I suppose I can't complain too much about it.

Overall:
Sweetly was a vast improvement to Sisters Red, the writing is still crisp and the story made sense for a modern retelling.

I have a feeling that the next novel in the series will be even better. The Little Mermaid is a dark tale, so I wonder what Jackson Pearce will do with it. [I just hope there are no Fenris there, but I kind of think there will be since it was revealed that the girls by the ocean are the dark ones, girls who have lost their twin and are now the lovers of Fenris.........I think I just figured out how then ext book will be. (hide spoiler)]


Rating: 4 stars