April's review of 'Wings' by Aprilynne Pike

Wings (Wings #1) by Aprilynne Pike

Publication Date: May 1, 2009

Publisher: Harper Teen

Number of Pages: 290

Format: Paperback

Buy: Amazon | Barnes and Noble 

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.

 In this amazing debut we are swept into the magically world of the Fae. Laurel had lived in a small town with her parents while her mom home schooled her. When her father decides to buy a bookstore in a town almost an hour away, the family moves into a bigger town and Laurel has to go to public school for the first time. You can tell early on that Laurel is different from everyone else. The only thing that she can eat are fruits and vegetables. Being indoors all day with no natural light also drains her and she doesn't like a lot of noise. David, a boy in her biology class, is the first to befriend her along with his friend Chelsea. Everything seems to be perfect in her life until she wakes up one morning to a bump on her back. Initially she believes it's a zit. But each day the bump gets bigger, until the morning she wakes up and there's a flower coming out of her back.

I think Laurel handles the flower a lot better than anyone else would of. She does clip a piece of it off and takes it to David's for him to look at under his microscope. He confirms that it's a plant, and amazingly believes her when she tells him that it came from her. Laurel goes with her parents to their old house, a cabin surrounded by a bunch of land that has been in her mom's family for generations. While wandering through the forest she encounters a man, Tamani, who claims to have the answers to her questions. Tamani tells her that she is a faery and indeed a plant. Not wanting to believe him she runs away from him. Telling David about the encounter he believes that Tamani is telling the truth and urges Laurel to go back to talk to him. When a mysterious realtor, Jeremiah Barnes shows up to buy the land. Laurel immediately gets an uneasy feeling from him. With Tamani asking her to try to stop the sale, Laurel begs her mom not to sell. But when her dad falls ill and looks like he's going to die, her mom has no choice but to take the offer. Following him to his office, Laurel realizes that Barnes isn't who he claims to be. It's a race to stop the sale and to find a cure for her dad before the clock runs out. 

I'm actually surprised how much I love this series. Pike's depiction of the fae is very original and creative. You can tell that there's a romance building through David and Laurel's friendship. David is a very sweet and kind guy, but I felt like something was missing. When we met Tamani you could feel the chemistry between them two. She is drawn towards him and has to fight her feelings. We learn that the fae age differently then humans, and even though she looked 3 years old, she was really 7 but the fae are more mentally mature. Through a series of events she's been giving a potion that made her forget her fae like, and that she had a whole another life and knew Tamani. By the end of the book I was on Team Tamani all the way. 

Rating:

5/5