Aprilynne Pike

15-year-old Laurel has just entered public school for the first time after always being homeschooled. Besides for normal teenage issues such as trying to make friends and getting close to a boy named David, Laurel also has to worry about a mysterious growth on her back, which suddenly blossoms into an actual flower!

With the help of a familiar-looking fairy named Tamani, Laurel learns that she is, in fact, a fairy with the very important job of protecting her adoptive family’s land from show more possession by the trolls. The trouble is, her parents seem intent on selling the land, and even more so when tragedy strikes. Now, Laurel must face this set of seemingly unbelievable facts about herself and the world in order to protect the ones she loves, as well as the ones she may love.

What a disappointment. WINGS garners attention as being similar to Twilight, but let’s just say that the over-hyped vampire series is still a lot more interesting than anything this book has to offer.

Where do I even begin? The characters lack personality or appeal. Laurel has not a stitch of mental or physical strength on her. Her choice of actions have no validity or sense. The love triangle between Laurel, David, and Tamani is extremely contrived: I sensed no attraction at all between any of the three, no real reason why the boys would like Laurel the bland “heroine,” and no appeal in the caricatures of the boys, David the goody-two-shoes good friend, and Tamani the “dangerously attractive and mysterious” fairy (adjectives placed in quotes because, uh, he’s not. At all). If you’re trying to copy off the popularity of the Twilight love triangle, at least develop the males well enough that readers are encouraged to take sides. There will be no Team David or Team Tamani here: there will be a Team Run-Away-As-Fast-As-You-Can!

The concept of fairies being similar to plants was fairly interesting; my favorite parts of the book are when David geeks out and begins doing all sorts of scientific experiments on Laurel to prove to her that she is a plant. It was quite fascinating, all of the ways that Aprilynne came up with to link fairies to plants! Unfortunately, the story lacked everything else: engaging dialogue, plot, movement. The word that sprang to mind most when I read this book was “contrived;” it felt like we readers were told how we were supposed to feel about the characters and their predicaments instead of actually letting us feel anything. Anything that readers needed to know about the plot was explained in endless pages of stationary dialogue, which I wouldn’t even mind if not for the fact that the dialogue feels forced and the characters are not explaining anything of worth or interest to me anyway.

Alas, it seems like I and other reviewers can blither and blather all we want; the audience (and publishers) clearly know what they want, and that’s some more horrible Twilight spin-offs. Seriously, though, if you’re looking for some more fantasy love triangles and fairy wars etc., don’t check here. In fact, don’t read this book at all if you can. It won’t be long before you’ll be wondering about how you can get a refund on your time. show less

I hunted down a copy of this YA novel solely as a modern retelling of The Scarlet Pimpernel - and, probably unintentionally, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) - but wasn't expecting too much. First person narration? American high school, which I don't think has changed since Happy Days? Sigh, here we go.

But this is actually a really clever twist on Orczy's plot and characters, although the supernatural and the superhero elements felt like two stories glued together. The 'Percy' character, Jeff show more Clayson ('Only you, Jeff!'), is a seventeen year old student who has recently moved to a wealthy, white private school in Santa Monica from Phoenix. 'Marguerite' is Serafina Hewitt, a red-headed cheerleader who Jeff is instantly drawn to, while maintaining a healthy distance from her wrestler brother, Khail.

Unfortunately, Jeff also makes a new friend on his first day - Kimberlee, the ghost of the school mean girl, who drowned two years ago. She wants to 'move on' and thinks the only way to earn her wings is for Jeff to help her return her ill-gotten gains - a cave of stolen treasure, pilfered from students, teachers and shops during a 'reign of terror'. Jeff agrees, to shut her up, and becomes the 'Red Returner', after the red roses on the apologetic labels he attaches to his reverse-haul. The little nods to the original text were exciting to find, and I was constantly thinking, 'That's the League!' and 'Kimberlee is the St Cyrs/Comtesse de Tournay!' Of course, it's not necessary to know about the Scarlet Pimpernel but the connection adds an extra layer of fun.

The narration is slightly dated, even for 2013, and the subplot about Khail's past is disturbingly puritanical (he is 'outed' as gay and his boyfriend is sent for conversion therapy?? and everything is hushed up), but I enjoyed both Kimberlee's journey of self-discovery in the afterlife and Jeff's high school Pimpernel-esque quest to right her wrongs. show less

DESTINED, by Aprilynne Pike, is the final book in the Wings series. Goodness there is so much I want to say about this book but most of it will spoil the ending. I can't tell you if I loved or hated the end because then you will know who Laurel chooses (If you don't know already, I am 100% Team Tamani). I am going to navigate this review very delicately so bear with me.

I have been waiting to get this book in my hands since I finished the jaw-dropping end of Illusions. Yuki turned out to be show more something I never expected but yet I was curious about her. Tamani, Laurel, Shar, David, and Chelsea were trying to get information from Yuki to no avail. Klea turned out to be the bad baddy, a very dangerous one at that. This book starts off where Illusions ended so I was ready to delve in right away.

After the first chapter, this book was non-stop action. And Tamani, Laurel, David, and Chelsea found themselves in the thick of it. Klea's plan to destroy Avalon left these four no choice but to return to Avalon to warn the fey. Klea and her army of trolls were always nipping at their heels and the fights that ensued were bloody and horrific. Pike did an AMAZING job writing the action scenes. I felt that I was right in the thick of the action and my heart pounded each time one of the main character's was close to getting hurt (or did in some cases).

Pike had built up to this moment throughout all the books and I find myself wanting to re-read them all in order to experience it again. Klea's plans were present throughout the series and I was completely duped. Even though Klea was not a good character, I found myself very interested in her background and how she became that way.

There were small moments of swoon-worthy romance between Tamani and Laurel that I cherished. But a majority of the book was them fighting for Avalon and their lives. No character was safe in this book but I felt that it made their situation more real and made me read the book that much faster to see who would survive!

I will not say if I liked the ending...but I liked how Pike left part of it open so that (hopefully!) in the future she could return to write more books about my favorite characters! Also, when the book ended there was a little Afterword from Pike giving the ending to the series the way she wanted to. I didn't know if I would like it, but I wished she would have made it the actual ending. It was bittersweet but with the preface of creating a story about what a human would do if they found out about magic I thought it was perfect.

Cover note: I loved all the covers in the series, but this one is my favorite. I love the colors and lighting of the flower very much! show less

Wings was completely different than I had expected; different from any faerie story that I've ever read, really. Its fresh new look at faeries was completely fascinating. Aprilynne Pike took a faerie's known affinity for nature and used it to weave a story somehow both less and more mystical than the known origins of the creatures.

Laurel's reactions to the changes in her body seem almost painfully real. Her fear was honest and as a reader you could feel her anxiety as if it was your own. show more Even her love triangle had understandable problems. How do you chose between the boy who is everything you thought you were and the boy who is everything you never knew was possible? I find that love triangles are more believable when I can't even chose one for the character and Wings is definitely one of those books where there is no "right" choice.

A short bit in the middle of the book explained some faerie history and featured a few of the typical, go-to fantasy characters. While everyone loves to see old favorites featured in new ways, I found it almost disappointing given the utter originality of this novel. It's a minor complaint, but it stopped me in my tracks. I had to put the book down and wonder why did the author decide to take this route. I can only hope that it's part of the bigger picture of the series and that I just don't see the significance of it yet.

I was highly impressed by Wings. It is based on an intriguing premise that absolutely shines in its presentation. Future installments of the series are coming and I for one can't wait to see this new take on faeries flourish. show less