A Want So Wicked by Suzanne Young
Series: A Need So Beautiful #2
Published by Harper Teen on June 26, 2012
Genres: Paranormal
Pages: 282
Format: ARC
Source: ALA, Publisher
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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?

A Need So Beautiful was one of my favorite books of 2011. A Want So Wicked is definitely going to be on my list of favorites for 2012. I am in awe of Suzanne Young’s talent and I can’t wait to see what she does next.

The story is a bit confusing in the beginning. Things are going on with Elise that she can’t quite figure out and to be honest, neither could I. Things all went back to Charlotte, the Needs, and Onika but the reader was definitely kept guessing through most of the book. There were so many twists and surprises. With all that you don’t know and want to find out this book is nearly impossible to put down.

Elise is a lot like Charlotte. She is kind, brave, funny, smart, and oh, extremely attracted to Harlin (for reasons she can’t explain at first.) Elise is most like Charlotte in the fact that you can’t help but cheer for her. It’s impossible not to want this girl to triumph over evil and get her happy ending. Then there are the boys; Harlin and Abe. Harlin is just as amazing as he was in A Need So Beautiful. He is actually better because he has grown in his time without Charlotte. Abe is a bit of a mystery. He is very clearly a bad boy but you can’t help but like him. He has his moments. As for Elise’s family, Lucy and her dad, they were great. Lucy had secrets of her own but her love for Elise always showed. Their dad may have had to work a lot but he was always there for them. He was a great parent.

The romance in this book has to be one of my favorite things. It is intense and steamy and sexy and just so real. It is not insta-love and you can actually see the attraction between the characters growing into something so much bigger. Suzanne Young has a gift for romance.

Overall, A Want So Wicked is the best possible follow-up to A Need So Beautiful that readers could have asked for. It may have actually been better than the first!