08 December 2011

(ARC) YA Book Review: Wings of the Wicked by Courtney Allison Moulton


Release Date: 1 February 2012
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Format: ARC
Source: Around the World ARC Tours


Pre-Order It! Amazon | B&N

Goodreads description:
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 Thoughts...

I was going to wait until closer to the release date but I couldn't wait to share this one with you! I enjoyed Angelfire but if you read my review, then you know that it took me a good chunk of the book to really warm up to Ellie.  She bothered me for reasons I won't rehash, but Courtney Allison Moulton left me with a lot of hope for her character at the end of Angelfire, so of course I was excited when I got the chance to read this early!  Let me tell you--Ms. Moulton didn't disappoint me with Wings of the Wicked--not for one moment!

From page one, Ellie is kicking butt and taking names. Her personal growth from book one to book two is perfect.  She's totally coming into her power and it's awesome to watch.  She's a lot tougher than I think I gave her credit for in Angelfire.  She's still pining are Will, which is to be expected, but I liked that at the beginning we weren't bombarded with angsty teenager junk from her.  She was dealing the best she could with what she had learned about herself and trying to accept Will's reasons for staying away romantically, even though they are clearly into each other.

This book was also way more emotional for me than the previous.  On top of the forbidden love, Ellie is dealing even more with the struggle between being the Preliator and having a "normal" life with friends and family.  Things really hit home (um...literally) in this novel and the emotional and physical blow that's dealt Ellie is intense.  She has a lot to deal with and her grieving and pain is something that's relateable and real.  She is finally realizing just how much she really needs the support of her friends and family but how much danger she puts them in on a regular basis.  I can't imagine how torn she feels between her duty and her wants and desires.

Will is still the swoon-worth gentleman and kick-butt fighter that we experienced in Angelfire, but I felt like I learned a lot more about him and his history with Ellie in this book.  And when he finally got up the cajones to disobey Michael and follow this heart, well, I cheered. :)  There's too much violence and death and uncertainty in their world not to let yourself love.  (What's the saying? "It's better to have loved and lost then to have never loved at all"? Yeah, that describes it pretty much perfectly.)

If you're not into this for the romance, then pick it up for the action! When I said that Ellie is kicking but and taking names...well, I mean that pretty darn literally.  Ms. Moulton has provided her readers with intense action scenes that the adreneline junkie in all of us will most definitely appreciate.  Between the action scenes, the emotional scenes, and the sexy scenes, Wings of the Wicked will keep you turning the pages up until the very end--and then it will leave you breathless and absolutely begging for more.

2 comments:

Heidi said...

Excellent Jess! Sounds like a good one. No love triangle kicking butt and taking names...good stuff. You even quoted Dickens! I just signed up for the ARC tours looks like fun! Hope you are surviving the end of your semester!

Xpresso Reads said...

Ooh this sounds really good! I haven't heard much about it before I def. will add it to my TBR list :)

Giselle
Xpresso Reads

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