Posts Tagged: courtney moulton

Book Review- Wings of The Wicked

27 Dec, 2011 by in urban fantasy, wings of the wicked 12 comments

Wings of the Wicked
Angelfire #2
by Courtney Allison Moulton
528 pages
Expected publication: January 31st 2012
by HarperCollins
Katherine Tegen Books
Series: Angelfire #2
Book Source: Publisher
4.5 stars

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.


I’ll be the first to admit that I am not big of action movies, horror, or monsters in abundance so the fact that Courtney Moulton keeps me engrossed in her latest book, Wings of The Wicked is a huge accomplishment on her part. I sat down yesterday to refresh my memory for this review and 10 chapters later I was swept up again in Courtney’s world. You know a book is REALLY interesting when I read it more than once!

Book two in the Angelfire series finds Ellie tyring her hardest to balance her life as the Preilator with every day life as a high school student, friend and daughter. Her days are spent in class and nights in training with two new angelic reapers, learning to wield the kophesh and angelfire. By her side is guardian Will who continuously puts himself on the line to protect her life. Things are really heating up between the two of them and their chemistry was my favorite element of the storyline. As Ellie is starting to get some of her memories back from her previous lives, her love for Will runs even deeper than the here and now. But he is often stand offish and sullen. Cadan is back from book one, and shows up when you least expect it to shamelessly flirt with Ellie in an attempt to steal her heart. Underneath his identity as the enemy is much much more than readers will bargain for. Lines become blurred between what is evil and what is good, and where loyalties lie.


Courtney has a gift with creating all kinds of creatures superimposing them onto the human world. This is a book that starts right off with non-stop action and keeps the pace until the very end. My only struggle that kept me from giving it a full five stars was that some of the scenes were too disturbingly violent for my personal taste. Ellie is not a weak teen protagonist. She gets out there and kicks some butt. However, if you can’t stomach blood and swords this series may be a bit much because the author is not afraid to kill off her characters!


Content: This book looks at grief and guilt, as well as what could and often does happen when under age teens drink too much at parties and put themselves in a bad situation. Other content includes domestic violence, moderate swearing and talk of sex as well as tension. This is one is best suited for older teens and adults.



I can’t say I’ve enjoyed an urban fantasy quite as much as Wings of the Wicked in a long time. The writing is brilliant, characters well developed and pacing perfect. Courtney not only made me crave Coldstone cookie dough ice cream in a waffle cup, she also left me craving the next book in the Angelfire series. I can’t wait for you all to read this one coming out just in time for Valentine’s Day because Will + Ellie = pure perfection. Thanks so much to Harper Teen for an awesome action packed holiday read.

You might also like: Dark Goddess by Sarwat Chadda

About the Author: Courtney Allison Moulton lives in Michigan, where she is a photographer and spends all her free time riding and showing horses. She has always loved reading about ancient mythologies, studying dead languages, and telling scary, romantic stories. ANGELFIRE is her debut novel.

Goodreads/Twitter/ Website

Watch the trailer and enter to win a signed ARC of Wings of The Wicked on Courtney’s site here.

Our Giveaway: We met the author at BEA this year and we have three awesome bookmarks with Will, Cadan and Ellie to giveaway. To enter to win a set of three Angelfire bookmarks simply comment below. Ends January 7, 2012 and is open internationally.

Book Review- Angelfire

27 Jan, 2011 by in Uncategorized 1 comment

Angelfire
by Courney Allison Moulton
Hardcover, 464 pages
Expected publication: February 15, 2011
by HarperCollins / Katherine Tegen Books
ISBN0062002325
series Angelfire #1
3 stars

Summary: This debut, the first novel in a trilogy, is achingly romantic, terrifying, and filled with blistering action.

When seventeen-year-old Ellie starts seeing reapers – monstrous creatures who devour humans and send their souls to Hell – she finds herself on the front lines of a supernatural war between archangels and the Fallen and faced with the possible destruction of her soul.

A mysterious boy named Will reveals she is the reincarnation of an ancient warrior, the only one capable of wielding swords of angelfire to fight the reapers, and he is an immortal sworn to protect her in battle. Now that Ellie’s powers have been awakened, a powerful reaper called Bastian has come forward to challenge her. He has employed a fierce assassin to eliminate her – an assassin who has already killed her once.

While balancing her dwindling social life and reaper-hunting duties, she and Will discover Bastian is searching for a dormant creature believed to be a true soul reaper. Bastian plans to use this weapon to ignite the End of Days and to destroy Ellie’s soul, ending her rebirth cycle forever. Now, she must face an army of Bastian’s most frightening reapers, prevent the soul reaper from consuming her soul, and uncover the secrets of her past lives – including truths that may be too frightening to remember.(less) This debut, the first novel in a trilogy, is achingly romantic, terrifying, and filled with blistering action.

When seventeen-year-old Ellie starts seeing reapers – monstrous creatures who devour humans and send their souls to Hell – she finds herself on the front lines of a supernatural war between archangels and the Fallen and faced with the possible destruction of her soul.

A mysterious boy named Will reveals she is the reincarnation of an ancient warrior, the only one capable of wielding swords of angelfire to fight the reapers, and he is an immortal sworn to protect her in battle. Now that Ellie’s powers have been awakened, a powerful reaper called Bastian has come forward to challenge her. He has employed a fierce assassin to eliminate her – an assassin who has already killed her once.

While balancing her dwindling social life and reaper-hunting duties, she and Will discover Bastian is searching for a dormant creature believed to be a true soul reaper. Bastian plans to use this weapon to ignite the End of Days and to destroy Ellie’s soul, ending her rebirth cycle forever. Now, she must face an army of Bastian’s most frightening reapers, prevent the soul reaper from consuming her soul, and uncover the secrets of her past lives – including truths that may be too frightening to remember.

Ellie is your typical 17 year old teenager except for the nightmares where she is fighting something dark and ugly. As her birthday approaches a mysterious boy names Will turns up on the scene and she can’t quite figure out if he is a nuts stalker or someone she should remember. Things around town get even more strange when her favorite teacher is found dead and the nightmares become reality. Ellie is much more than an average teen…she is the Preliator, reborn each time she dies to fight the creatures of the Grim. Wielding khpoesh swords and angel fire as an ancient warrior, her life become filled with hunting the reaper and trying to contain the forces of evil. Will is much more than the dark and brooding young man watching her from afar. He is her Guardian, a tragic hero, sworn to put Ellie first and to protect her with his life over and over again. He is sent to reawaken her powers and her memories of past lives.

I truly enjoyed the history behind Will and Ellie. Will was my favorite character of the book; a conflicted man with a love he can’t pursue. I admired his loyalty and selflessness. I admit I had a really hard time connecting with Ellie’s character and growing to like her. The discrepancy between who she was as a teenager and who she is as the Preliator was too big of a stretch for me. And I couldn’t buy the big reveal of her identity in the end.

Sadly, there was a lot that didn’t work for me in this book. First and foremost was the violence. It was above and beyond what we normally see in YA fiction and this would definitely be rated R if it were played out word for word on the screen. There were times I would describe the fight scenes are gory and unnecessary. There were also unfinished questions for me that I hope are addressed more fully in the sequel. What is up with Ellie’s dad? Is he some possessed person now working for the dark side? He’s downright abusive and the change is drastic from the way he was when Ellie was a child. Also, the angel mythology seemed to come out of the blue near the resolution of the book and I couldn’t swallow it.

I’m on the fence about whether I would read the sequel. Will is a big draw for me, but it’s not a book I would run out and buy. I wouldn’t recommend it it for any child under 17 simply for the violence. As far as other content, there is brief mention of underage drinking and some domestic violence. I give it three stars. Angelfire is action packed with plenty of tension and an interesting premise, but a little too gnarly for my taste.

Special thanks to Net Galley and HarperCollins for the preview.