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Monday, February 18, 2013

NICOLE'S REVIEW: Wings of the Wicked by Courtney Allison Moulton

Title: Wings of the Wicked
Author: Courtney Allison Moulton
Format Acquired: Hardcover
Publication Date: January 31 2012
Publishing House: Katherine Tegen Books
ISBN: 9780062002365
Source of Copy: Purchased from National Bookstore

Summary:

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, thought 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.

 (Image and information courtesy of Goodreads; Summary lifted from actual book)

Review:

Wings of the Wicked is the second installment in the Angelfire series. In my opinion, this book is an improvement as compared to the first book. In Angelfire I found Ellie a bit too whiny and too spoiled and Will a bit too stiff for my taste. The one character who actually caught my attention in the first book was Cadan. It's a good thing he has more scenes in this book.

Wings of the Wicked is basically about Ellie kicking demonic reaper butt while evading capture by Bastien and his thugs. They need her for this crazy ritual that involves the reawakening of some really scary angels that will lead to the end of the world as you know it with chaos and fire and brimstone. There are a lot of action scenes which are pretty entertaining although sometimes I wish Ellie did more than stand around narrating scenes for us readers. 

The characters were better developed here. Ellie isn't that annoying anymore although she still likes to go to parties and be all frivolous because, let's face it, she's still a teenager even if she's a reincarnated archangel. She's still careless sometimes and oblivious - I mean, if people were out to get you, wouldn't it be pretty obvious that they'd go for those you love too? But at least she stopped being so whiny and vapid. Will, on the other hand, is still brooding and sulky but I like how we get glimpses of the lighter side of his personality what with his banter with Nathaniel and his sweeter moments with Ellie. They both suffer a lot of heartbreak in this book and I'm hoping that this will only help their characters progress. Cadan is an interesting addition to the gang and while he does have a few more scenes here than in Angelfire, I still wish to know more about him. Admittedly I couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that he's in love with Ellie because there was no build-up, no indication whatsoever that he harbored feelings for her. He just popped up out of nowhere with his heart on his sleeve - such a cutie pie. His relationship with Will is of interest too.

So Wings of the Wicked is an improvement on Angelfire - the romance was sweet and the action intense, it had better characters and had a few interesting developments. Why do I find myself unwilling to give it 4 stars/rainbows? Maybe because I wanted to see more of Ellie's archangel powers develop and probably because the book is around 516 pages long and it dragged on some parts. Don't get me wrong. I like thick books but I just felt like there were a few scenes in Wings of the Wicked that weren't exactly needed and totally unnecessary. I didn't really need to know about the parties Ellie attends and I don't think that Cadan loving Ellie was actually needed because Ellie, despite all her flaws, is loyal to a fault and it's pretty obvious that she loves Will and Will alone. But in spite of all that, this was an entertaining read and that cliffhanger at the end had me itching to get my hands on the next book.

Rating:

                       

4 comments:

  1. I'm glad that Wings of the Wicked is a huge improvement from Angelfire! I had to force myself to finish Angelfire because I couldn't stand Ellie - who really cares about cars and parties when YOU are the only one that can save people?

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    1. Definitely! I wanted to chuck the first book out the window out of irritation. Ellie was too carefree and vapid and if the fate of the world really did rest in her hands I'd be really, really scared. Thankfully in Wings of the Wicked she seems to have somewhat grasped the gravity of her situation. :)

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  2. Nice review Nicole and I am sitting here kicking myself for not having read Angelfire yest..despite the fact that I own it..eep, and I am excited you liked this one more!

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    1. Thank you for stopping by! Angelfire was...okay. I really didn't like Ellie in the first book, she was too vapid. But I'm glad that I decided to give the second book a chance.

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