Wings of the Wicked

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)

This book was actually far better than I was expecting. Sure, it was a bit long and the plot dragged a bit at some points, but it's lack of cliches in some parts made up for this. And once the plot actually started, it didn't stop.

For the first thing, in this book compared to the first, Ellie is way less whiny and Mary Sue-ish. Sure, she has her moments, but as the book goes on, she becomes more and more like a real person, not some cardboard stereotype. She grieves when she needs to, tries to balance her paranormal and regular lives, and doesn't let all this stuff about being Heaven's warrior get to her head. In other words, she was a narrator whose head I didn't mind being inside. She was also still as kickass as in the first book, maybe even more so in this one, and it was nice to see a narrator that didn't sit back and let everyone else do all the work. 

I also liked the fact that Ellie and Will's relationship went beyond chaste kissing. In fact, nothing about their relationship really annoyed me (except for, of course, the fact that he's about a thousand years older than she is). He got a bit possessive at times, but backed off quickly. If you ignore the age difference, it could seem like a relationship that normal teenagers today have. 

Kate was a pretty cardboard character, but the fact that Ellie didn't totally forget about her in favor of Will was really nice. So many 'best friends' are lost after page 20 when the main character meets her 'soulmate/love/significant other/whatever'. 

So, the love triangle. I suppose it is one, according to today's standards, but for once, Ellie actually picked the guy that she's known longer over the guy she's just met. Even though I don't really like either love interest, it was still gratifying to see that. 

In fact, there was only one real problem I had - the ending. It's not the fact that the ending was a cliffhanger, or the fact that it was sad. It was the fact that, even though there's supposed to be a sense of urgency in it, I didn't really feel any of it. 

Except for the ending, I actually enjoyed this book, much more than I originally thought I would.