Review: Wings of the Wicked by Courtney Allison Moulton

WINGS OF THE WICKED
By: Courtney Allison Moulton
Published By: Katherine Tegen Books / HarperCollins
Release Date: Jan. 31, 2012
Series: Angelfire (#2)
Pages: 528
Genre: Paranormal
Reading Level: Young Adult
Source: ALA Midwinter
Buy the Book: Amazon

Disclaimer: This summary may contain spoilers if you have not read the first book in this trilogy. To read my review of ANGELFIRE, click here.

Goodreads 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, 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.



Angelfire was one of my favorite books of 2011, so I've been dying to read Wings of the Wicked for a very long time now. I was very eager to delve back into the world that Courtney created and see what Ellie and Will faced this time.

Ellie and Will thought that they had a hard fight in Angelfire, but the worst is not over. Demonic reapers are still after her, and Bastian has certainly not forgotten about her. Even with the help of more angelic vir, Ellie is finding it harder and harder to escape from the demonic. And in addition to all of this, Ellie still has to deal with warnings from Cadan as well as being a senior in high school. Furthermore, with the stress and Will's moral conscience, things between the Preliator and her Guardian are strained at best, very tense at worst. Now not only does Ellie have to fight for her life against demonic reapers, she also has to decide how long she can fight her heart...

Wings of the Wicked in one word: Wow. Sometimes sophomore novels don't live up to the first book, but with Wings of the Wicked nothing could be farther from the truth. This book was darker than Angelfire, but with this came an intensity that made this book impossible to put down. Somehow 500 pages flew by and yet still weren't enough. The world and its angel lore, the action, the romance...all were taken to a new level during this book. Every fighting scene was incredibly vivid, and Will and Ellie's relationship by turns sizzled off the page or made me smile ridiculously or even tear up. And Will. Oh, Will. I'm positive I claimed him as one of my book boyfriends already, but if not, let me do that now. He is swoon-worthy to the max and practically perfect in an endearing way. Then there's Cadan, who definitely surprised me in this book. I'm very curious to see how things will turn out for him in the next book. Finally there's Ellie. Despite her rough patches, she really grew into her own over the course of this book. And all of these characters are woven into a story full of twists and turns that take you on one crazy ride.

It's hard to say what the best part of this book is, because I love the characters, the story, and the writing. Courtney's writing style truly makes every scene come to life and made me feel everything that these characters felt. There's also a bit of evil genius at work in this book...I'm convinced that a few scenes were in there to torture us readers (and Courtney has admitted to her evil ways...).

Be prepared to lose sleep, to laugh, cry, grieve, and rejoice along with Ellie, Will, and the others. I am dying to know what happens next and will be impatiently awaiting the final book in this trilogy!