[REVIEW] Wings of the Wicked by Courtney Allison Moulton

Published: January 2012
Publisher: Harper Collins/Katherine Teagen
Age Group:  Young Adult
Series: Angelfire #2

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. (From Goodreads)

Firstly, it's been awhile since I read the first book so I had to read over my previous review. Well sadly I was not as excited by this one as I was before. I blame the fact that it's the middle book. I always dislike the middle book.

In Wings of the Wicked, Ellie has to face her destiny and her complicated relationship with Will, no different from the first novel. The only difference is the gravity of the situation.  both issues are now huge and play a large part in this book. The first part of the story was more focused on Ellie's relationship.  Honestly it was like a typical teen romance novel. I find Ellie and Will's relationship to be that of a soap opera. There is so much drama and honestly, I hate Ellie. I just really don't like her character.  I mean Will is absolutely  amazing and all Ellie does is hurt him and push him away. Arrrgh, what a stupid girl. Clearly I was frustrated with the majority of this story.  As Ellie says "I don't deserve you" (page 329) Damn right! Ellie, you don't deserve Will. Okay, now that that's off my chest back to the story.

The second part of the story was good. I think the reason why I liked it was because it focused more on the fight as oppose to the drama.  The second part was more similar to the first book (that I quite liked) as oppose to the first part.

Also is it just me, but when I read this series and they mention reapers, I picture something like this:
If anyone's wondering, the picture is from the anime Bleach.

Another problem I found in this story is that Courtney Allison Moulton writing is very basic and it doesn't do much to get me hooked to the story line, characters and plot. In fact there are also very abrupt changes in emotion (sort of like mood swings!) that make it very hard to relate to the chracters situation and what they're feeling. For instance, Ellie may be mad for 4 pages and than all of a sudden, she's happy! Yay...except I had no idea how it happened...

There's also a very obvious plot line.  And the amount of time passed doesn't really make sense either. It's sort of a very predictable, confusing story (for me at least.)

Lastly, there seems to always be a character that is used to explain what happens in the story. Caden was a messanger in this story. He appears out of nowhere, says or does something important and then leaves.  He's also suppose to be the other person in Ellie's love traingle...but he does a pretty bad job at it.

It hurts me to say this but the ending was quite interesting. The cliffhanger was truly a cliffhanger and I felt really attached to it. Its quite sad that it took me that long to finally enjoy this book. 


I think it's fairly obvious that I wasn't pleased with this book.  Like I said before, I usually hate the middle book in a trilogy so here's hoping the last one will be better!

MEH

[REVIEW] Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton

Published: February 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins / Katherine Tegen Books
Age Group: Young Adult
Series: Angelfire #1

First there are nightmares.
Every night Ellie is haunted by terrifying dreams of monstrous creatures that are hunting her, killing her.

Then come the memories.
When Ellie meets Will, she feels on the verge of remembering something just beyond her grasp. His attention is intense and romantic, and Ellie feels like her soul has known him for centuries. On her seventeenth birthday, on a dark street at midnight, Will awakens Ellie's power, and she knows that she can fight the creatures that stalk her in the grim darkness. Only Will holds the key to Ellie's memories, whole lifetimes of them, and when she looks at him, she can no longer pretend anything was just a dream.

Now she must hunt.
Ellie has power that no one can match, and her role is to hunt and kill the reapers that prey on human souls. But in order to survive the dangerous and ancient battle of the angels and the Fallen, she must also hunt for the secrets of her past lives and truths that may be too frightening to remember. (From GoodReads)

Well the cover instantly got my attention. You see a girl (the main character) holding her sword, which is revealed in the book to be a Khopesh sword. She's dressed entirely in black with her red hair behind her. Well besides the cover, the book itself is pretty good. 
The story is about a girl named Ellie who has recurring nightmares and has no idea why. Later she meets a guy named Will who seems vaguly familar to her and on her 16th birthday, she soon figures out why. Turns out, she's the reincarnation of the Preliator, someone dedicated in saving the world from the "reapers" (think demons). 

Throughtout the book, Ellie meets various foes and discovers the plan that those on the evil side are hatching, so to speak. The author really explains the story well and when I read it, I really could relate to the characters. All their emotions and actions are written very well. 
The only part I disliked about the story is when the author writes about Ellie's nightmares, more visions later on in the book. They take away from the story and I feel there was no need to have about three pages dedicated to these visions when it could be summerized in a brief paragraph. I'm pretty sure my reaction would have been the same from either or but I would prefer the paragraph because it would involve reading less of what I considered the boring parts. 

Angelfire is a story about angels, no surprise there. this one, although similar to other angel books with the whole save the earth mission and the whole future angelic war, this story seems to have a seperate plot. Moulton introduces many new ideas that i have never read about in any other books. Her explanation of the reapers in her book is very concise and explains it very clearly. Each character is also developed and described in that you can relate to their personality and behaviours. 
The ending to this book was sort of a let down. I remember getting to the end and flipping the page expecting a new chapter and only getting the acknowledgment section. Angelfire is part of a trilogy so there is more but the transition between each novel could have been better. 

Another problem is that the main character's personal problems often overshadow the main plot at certain points. Of course I do love reading about Ellie's family or friend issues but I feel it takes away from the entire plot as a whole. One page we're talking about saving the world and the next it's about relationship issues. 

Overall this was an excellent read and I can't wait for the second one. To all those who enjoy action, romance, and stories about angels, definitely give this book a try.





4/5
(originally posted in the TPL Word Out program)