Review: Wings

Wings by Aprilynne Pike

publisher: HarperTeen

release date: March 1st, 2009

hardcover, 294 pages

intended audience: Young adult

rating:





description:

Laurel was mesmerized, staring at the pale things with wide eyes. They were terrifyingly beautiful—too beautiful for words.

Laurel turned to the mirror again, her eyes on the hovering petals that floated beside her head. They looked almost like wings.

In this extraordinary tale of magic and intrigue, romance and danger, everything you thought you knew about faeries will be changed forever.

Review: This was a fun and enchanting introduction to this series! It was sweet and romantic and magical...a very fast read. What a unique twist on faerie lore!

I really liked the main character, Laurel. Her story is kind of a double-edged fish out of water story. When we first meet her she is trying to acclimate to public school after being home schooled her whole life. I liked that she was shy, but kind and willing to make friends when they approached her, but still kind of clung to her comfort zone. It's probably a lot like I would be so I related to that. One day she notices a bump on her back, and begins to really freak out when it gets bigger each day---of course going through all the worst case scenarios in her head. I never did understand her hesitance to go to her parents with that, as they were all very close. She wakes one morning to a shock: a flower has sprouted from her back...a flower!! She freaks out a bit, but mostly it inspires her to find out more about where she came from and who she really is.

I was, of course, completely sucked in to the love triangle going on in this story. David, the first person she meets at school, is my hero ;) He is sweet and funny and charmingly geek-minded. Not to mention gallant in the face of danger and totally excepting of a girl with a weird flower growing out of her back! Tamani is another faerie and the one who enlightens Laurel on the details of where she truly comes from.When we first meet him, he comes off as a little smug and cocky. He alludes to the fact that he and Laurel have a pretty strong past together, and further on you see that he's hurting from having been forced to let her go so she could grow up in the human world. I liked him, but for Laurel, I liked David more. We'll have to see where the rest of this series goes, but by the end of Wings, I was Team David all the way.

I can't wait to read the rest of this series---so many more details that this one has left me salivating for! Why did the faeries choose Laurel to send to the human world? What is her real place in the faerie world? More about Avalon!! And I must know more about Tamani and Laurel's past!

Visit Aprilynne Pike's site here.

Purchase Wings at: Amazon • BN.com • Book Depository • Indiebound

Next in the series:
Spells
Illusions (coming May 3, 2011!)