Review--Wings by Aprilynne Pike

Laurel was mesmerized, staring at the pal things. 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.

Laurel's life is the very definition of normal...until the morning when she wakes up to discover a flower blooming from her back. As it turns out, nothing in Laurel's life is what it seems. Now, with the help of an alluring faerie sentry who holds the key to her true past, Laurel must race to save her human family from the centuries-old faerie enemies who walk among them.

So I have finally gotten around to reading Aprilynne Pike's Wings! It's only been on my Kindle for nearly 3 years or so! And it was simply magical!

I was a little leary of reading at first, Laurel is just too good. Like the perfect daughter who can do no wrong. She's a little socially awkward since she was home-schooled up til she was 15, but that can be expected. Yet she still just seems to have this...way about her. She feels like the perfect goody two shoes. But she doesn't really come off to me as being annoyingly so. She may have been a little too innocent at times, but it kinda worked for her.

Laurel always knew she was adopted--well the story's a bit more detailed, but I won't get into it. She's also know she's always been a bit different. She only eats fruits and veggies. She drinks sugary sodas--yet is amazingly thin! She has fair skin and hair, and loves the outdoors. So we can see something mystical building about her. When a flower--yes a flower!--suddenly starts growing from her back, she panics. Something is wrong with her.

With the help of her new friend David, they sort of study her. They look at her flower petals, test her blood, and other things--Laurel isn't really human. She's faerie. But not like the faeries we know. In fact, these faeries don't have wings and don't fly. In fact a lot of the myths humans have about faeries are pretty much all wrong.

The majority of the novel is sort of a self discovery thing going on for Laurel, but there is more. Such as trolls! And other faeries. Laurel soon meets Tamani, a faerie who seems to have all the answers. She learns a great deal from him, including info about her enemies. Who are after her family's old house for it sits on "sacred faerie land". Laurel must now do what she can to stop them and keep her family safe.

There was some romance in this as well. Tension runs thick between David and Laurel. And if these two don't get together I want to scream. The tension was that thick! Yet Laurel also feels an attraction to Tamani. Hello love triangle. 

The storyline overall was pretty interesting. Although, I'm hoping this is a case of first book scenario--where the first book is like the intro to the series and that later books will be more exciting--because this one, while exciting, just wasn't as adventurous as I would've hoped for the first in a series. But still, it was entertaining. Laurel is definitely a refreshing kind of heroine!

Overall rating 3.5/5 stars