A Want So Wicked by Suzanne Young

Release Date: Out now!

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Pages: 288pgs

The Story

Elise is a normal seventeen-year-old girl until the day she wakes up in a desert park, with no idea who she is.

After that episode, her life takes a bizarre turn. She's experiencing unexpected flashes of insight into people's lives - people she's never met before. Strangers frighten her with warnings about the approaching Shadows. And although Elise has never had a boyfriend, she suddenly finds herself torn between two handsome but very different young men: Abe, the charming bad boy whose effect on her both seduces and frightens her, and the mysterious Harlin, who's new to town but with whom Elise feels an urgent, elemental connection - almost as if they are soul mates.

Now Elise begins to question everything about her life. Why do these guys both want her so desperately? What are the Shadows? Why does the name Charlotte inspire a terrifying familiarity? And who is Elise, really?

The Review

In Suzanne Young's next book, A WANT SO WICKED, the second installment of the A Need So Beautiful series, seventeen-year-old Elise is your average teenage girl: She's a pastor's good-girl of a daughter, she has a great relationship with her father and sister whom care about her very dearly, and she seems to have her life finally on track - just as it should be. Only problem is, when she looks in the mirror she can sometimes see someone else looking back at her. Someone rather too familiar to her. But when visions - ones that seem almost too-real to imagine - start to plague her mind and when she meets a stranger named Harlin and begins to form a relationship with the bad boy named Abe, everything is about to change in Elise's life and as her memories get clearer and clearer each day . . . Elise cannot help but think . . . what if she's someone else . . . from another life?

A Need So Beautiful was one of my favourite books from 2011 as it was so epic and heart-aching both at the same time. So, in saying that, I had very, very high expectations for this upcoming sequel and when I finished it . . . it sure didn't disappoint me. That is for certain. While I did prefer the first book to this one because it was what made me fall in love with this series in the first place, but the best of all best things I can honestly say about A WANT SO WICKED was that it had such a different feel in comparison to the first installment, the way it was much more darker, complicated and just had this edgy rawness to it in which I couldn't stop praising about, so well done Suzanne Young on that part!

When it comes to our main heroine, Elise (who is obviously our Charlotte from the first book, only this time round she's in a different human body and she can't exactly remember her past) is not like Charlotte at all, though in some respects she is also like her as well if you get my meaning. She's just . . . someone else for the most part of this book. Now much like Charlotte's personality, Elise is a very smart, brave, funny, and a very kind-hearted sort of girl who has this inexplicable connection with Harlin (a boy she can't help but feel attracted to), which only goes to prove that there's something very strange going on with her right now and this 'other girl' she believes used to be her. Straightaway Elise's character was so easy to connect with and I couldn't help but cheer for her to get that happy ending that she clearly deserves. She was naive at times (that's for sure) but she was so . . . normal and down-to-earth and I liked that.

Then of course there's the boys: Harlin and Abe, the two love interests for Elise. One bad and one possibly good-and-bad or rather both. Harlin, for starters, was introduced to us in the first book as Charlotte's dedicated boyfriend (so complicated, right?) and I still couldn't believe he didn't know about Elise (rather who she is) and her so-called 'visions' and 'feelings' that were somehow connected to his Charlotte. It frustrated me so much to a point of madness and yet I was still so head-over-heels with Harlin after reading this book. He is so perfect people! Throughout the time lost between him and his beloved Charlotte, I think Harlin really came into his own and matured along the way in  A WANT SO WICKED and just when things are revealed in the end, he's straight back to being the Harlin we all used to love and adore, and I just swooned, swooned, swooned again over him. Hey, I couldn't help it! With Abe on the other hand, the new potential love interest for Elise/Charlotte, I wouldn't exactly call him a love interest per se. He was more . . . a possibility for Elise's character. Another path she could and may choose to take. Now for me Abe was a really tricky character to like because you loved him one moment and then hated him the next. But right off the bat, I knew he was going to be trouble and - like always - I was right . . . but he definitely had his moments of making situations really interesting . . . so I won't say with what exactly but he was interesting to get to know. But for the meantime, I shall swoon over Harlin's hotness. Dude, I love you to pieces!

Overall, as a far as endings go, I believe A WANT SO WICKED ended with a total bang for its readers and I loved it just as much as the first book despite some minor things that made me frustrated. While this sequel finished in a way that was both satisfying and utterly bittersweet, it still left room for a possibility of another sequel to be written so whether Suzanne Young decides to write another book or not for this series, A WANT SO WICKED remains to be a fantastic finish to the Charlotte/Elise story and everyone must go read it ASAP to get a taste of the darker side. It's totally worth it!

The Rating

4 1/2 / 5 stars