Review: Wings of the Wicked by Courtney Allison Moulton

Published Date: January 31st, 2012
Finished Date: Febuary 6th, 2012
Publisher: HarperCollins / Katherine Tegen Books
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 516
Series: Angelfire #2
My Rating: 4.5/5
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Blurb from Goodreads:
Life as the Preliator is harder than Ellie ever imagined.

Balancing real life with the responsibility of being Heaven’s warrior is a challenge for Ellie. Her relationship with Will has become all business, though they both long for each other. And now that the secret of who she really is has come out, so have Hell’s strongest reapers. Grown bold and more vicious, the demonic threaten her in the light of day and stalk her in the night.

She’s been warned.

Cadan, a demonic reaper, comes to her with information about Bastian’s new plan to destroy Ellie’s soul and use an ancient relic to wake all the souls of the damned and unleash them upon humanity. As she fights to stay ahead of Bastian’s schemes , the revelations about those closest to her awaken a dark power within Ellie that threatens to destroy everything—including herself.

She’ll be betrayed.

Treachery comes even from those whom she loves, and Ellie is broken by the deaths of those who stood beside her in this Heavenly war. Still, she must find a way to save the world, herself, and her love for Will. If she fails, there will be hell to pay.

My Review

Disclaimer: If you haven't read ANGELFIRE yet or are averse to spoilers, please DO NOT read this review.

WINGS OF THE WICKED is one awesome emotional roller coaster ride - so full of action, tragedy, and romance. A great sequel to Angelfire that I loved. Every part of it was so intense and utterly memorable and I loved them all.

My Brief - albeit with a lot of spoilers - Summary
We return to the world of the reapers where Ellie, who is really the archangel Gabriel in the flesh, is still trying her best to maintain a balance between her reaper life and high school-normal teenager lifestyle. Things are getting tougher for Ellie, with Bastian becoming more aggressive and sending higher-level reapers after her - namely, Merodach and Kelaeno, two of the oldest reapers recorded in Nathaniel's history texts.

Add into the fray Cadan's shifting loyalties and frequent visits, the arrival of an old friend - and maybe ex-lover - of Will's, and the many deaths that always seem to shroud Ellie's future, she's still got to find a way to save the day. Cause, as the synopsis says, if she doesn't, there really will be hell to pay.

My Thoughts
I thought that WOW was written really beautifully - vivid, suspenseful scenes, thrilling action, forbidden romance, and to top it all up, an exciting plot with lots of curveballs. The anticipation for the release of WOW, personally, was all hyped up way before its expected publication date because of Moulton's amazing 10 weeks countdown at her blog. So naturally, my expectations were pushed way up the bar, and I wasn't disappointed. I just loved the way Moulton described each scene and her writing style. I loved the suspense and surprises - both good and bad - that were thrown at us throughout the book; It kept me on tenterhooks, and it kept the pages turning swiftly.

As for the characters, I must say that I could've done without all the parties and pink dresses on Ellie's part. I know she's trying her best to keep her normal, teenager life, but I think that that's going a little too far. She's a tough-assed heroine who still attends high school and who loves to shop, and I think that that's plenty cool already. Will is still his usual brooding self, but we get to see more into his past life as he opens up to Ellie and as she starts remembering her previous incarnations. (I love that Will likes it when Ellie combs her fingers through his hair!:P Just saying.)

Another bone I had to pick with Ellie is that, she's supposed to be the best fighter amongst her little group of friends. Like the ultimate, archangel, in-a-league-of-her-own best fighter, but Will seems to be the one who's saving her ass in every fight she gets involved in. I'm not a fan of weak heroines who depend on their oh-so-strong hero to come saving their day, so this part didn't sit that well with me.

There were more secondary characters that were introduced - Ava, Marcus, Merodach, and Kelaeno. Marcus is awesome, period; Ava's.....she's still on probation for me; Merodach's awesome too, in his own mysterious, powerful-villain way; Kelaeno's seems like the crazy-witch villain to me. Ok, she's beautiful and all (like every other reaper), but my subconscious just have this cackling-witch image whenever her name pops up. I wonder why...

Anyway, as for the ending, I wasn't a big fan of it. I'm just going to go ahead and reveal the big spoiler (not all the way, of course) - someone died. Someone who's very much an integral part of the story died, and I didn't like it. Not one bit. I know that there will always be casualties in war, but ARH. He's not supposed to go so suddenly!! And..ARHH! Ok, I'm incoherent, but you get the point. Not only that, it ends with a cliffhanger.

I will reiterate this again - WINGS OF THE WICKED is one awesome emotional roller coaster ride packed with a larger dose of action, tragedy, and romance. If you're still hesitating on picking this up, wary that WOW will not be as good as ANGELFIRE, then rest assure, WOW is as good as ANGELFIRE, and with more high-level-reaper fighting, sexual tension between Ellie and Will, and emotional scenes that will render you speechless.

*Won this book at a giveaway at CAM's blog.

My Rating