Illusions aka Wild

I greatly enjoyed Wings. Spells absolutely captivated me. Illusions held me completely enthralled the entire way though, making me absolutely desperate for the next and final book in this series.

I love Tamani, and we get to see a lot of him in Illusions. After being sent away by Laurel at the end of Spells, I was concerned that he wouldn't be involved much in the remainder of the series. Turns out, he's not going anywhere - forever. As Laurel's personal guard, he's with her for life, so even if we don't get to see them blissfully in love (but, please let that be the ending!), the forced togetherness makes for much opportunity for both flirting and awkwardness.

Klea asks for Laurel's help keeping an eye in her new ward, Yuki, who she show more believes to be a nymph of some kind. Of course, it's obvious to Laurel and Tamani that Yuki is in fact a faerie. Is Klea setting them up? Does Yuki know what she is? What type of faerie is she and is she friend or foe? The addition of another faerie in the human world brings about many questions and even leads Laurel back to Avalon for a short time.

The constant danger of trolls, Klea and now the unknown Yuki factor keeps Laurel on her toes throughout the book. We see lots of faerie mixing which basically amounts to really interesting science experiments as Laurel tries to learn more about Yuki's powers. Equally keeping Laurel off kilter is Tamani's constant presence and its effects on her relationship with David.

One of my favorite aspects of this series so far is that Laurel now has a tight group of people she can be completely honest with. It's wonderful to see her so close with her mother, especially now that they can discuss how Laurel's faerie-ness comes into play as she debates which of the boys she should actually be with. Her relationship with best friend Chelsea is also great since there are no longer any secrets.

This series continues to amaze me. Illusions brings the romantic triangle to a head while wrapping everyone in constant danger. And the ending, oh dear lord, the ending, is a monumental cliffhanger that promises a finale of epic proportions. Illusions is nothing short of awesome. show less

Laurel is a fall fairy living in Crescent City, California, but she still returns to Avalon for training. She hasn’t seen Tamani since last year and is still getting over making him let her go. However, Laurel believes choosing David as her boyfriend was the right choice. Once back at Avalon, Laurel discovers that Yuki, a Japanese exchange student, is also under a guardianship with Klea, a troll-hunter who has helped Laurel in the past. Laurel must find out what kind of faerie Yuki is. Things also grow tense with Laurel’s love life when Tamani and David are forced to see each other every day. Tamani is still deeply in love with Laurel and will do anything in his power to protect her. There is a troll attack, and Tamani then tracks show more them back to a cabin hidden by faerie magic. This is more powerful magic than Yuki should be capable of. Laurel and Tamani decide that Klea must also be a faerie, but they don’t know how to prove it. When Tamani goes with Yuki to a winter dance, Tamani’s hands secrete pollen, which only happens when he is around a faerie in bloom. This reveals that Yuki is indeed the most powerful kind of faerie, a winter faerie, and she has been concealing her nature from them all along. Laurel and Tamani trap Yuki and see the blossom on her back as proof of her power. The book ends in a cliffhanger. Overall the book was definitely not one of my favorites. The plot had a lot of strange aspects, but I did enjoy the suspense leading up to discovering what kind of faerie Yuki actually was. show less

Honestly, I would have to say that this book was my favorite in the series. Wings started the momentum of the storyline and got everything going and Spells was kind of slow in some areas (which actually made me put the book down several times and wonder if the series was perhaps just going to get worse), but Illusions captured and held my attention in ways that the other books just couldn't.

This book is based back in the human world with Laurel only traveling to Avalon once in the whole story. That's not a problem with me since in Spells her being in Avalon was the most unexciting part. However, there is one small difference in this story. All of Tamani's training has paid off and now he's posing in the human world as a normal teenager show more (complete with blue jeans and iphone) to stand as Laurel's own personal guardian. A job he's sworn to for life. He's supposed to only be protecting Laurel but as we know from the previous books, Tamani is absolutely in love with her and can't control those feelings whenever he's near her. Which adds in some frustration and annoyance on David's part who is Laurel's boyfriend. But Laurel doesn't know who she wants anymore and when you throw in some trolls that seem to have commandeered some form of magic to make them more threatening, Klea the mysterious troll-hunter from the previous book, and a new rogue faerie that nobody knows anything about...well, the problems just seem to keep piling up.

Let me just say that I don't like David at all. I think he's not right for Laurel (kind of a wimp, just saying) and it's true that she's going to outlive him and I'm sorry but I wouldn't want to watch my husband and children die before me while I continue to live on for many many years. I think she should choose Tamani. They have this cute playful banter whenever they're together and they obviously have more in common (i.e. both faeries). As for David, I think Chelsea and him should get together. We saw some of that coming out in this book when Chelsea made clear she had feelings for David so I started to get excited. As for Laurel, sometimes she just flat-out annoys me. She's always back and forth between the two guys. Sometimes she hates them, then the next day she loves them. Choose woman!

This book, I would say, was probably the best out of the three. I can't believe I have to wait until April of next year to find out what happens! But it will hopefully be well worth it. I can only hope that this is one of the series that just keeps getting better and better with time. Aprilynne Pike really hit the mark with this one :) show less

Con Illusions, della statunitense Aprilynne Pike, siamo arrivati al terzo appuntamento con la quadrilogia “Wings”, serie fatata che narra le avventure della preziosa Fata d’Autunno Laurel, inviata sulla terra per conquistare il diritto di ereditare il patrimonio della famiglia ospitante, ora alle prese con un inquietante ed insolito periodo di tranquillità dopo l’ultimo attacco dei troll.
Dopo il suo soggiorno ad Avalon, Laurel torna a casa con la decisione di portare avanti la sua storia con David, nonostante la consapevolezza del suo amore per Tamani che, di conseguenza, decide di mettere in atto uno strano “piano” che lo porterà ad allontanarsi dalla sua Laurel.
Il piano di Tamani verrà, ovviamente, spiegato in show more Illusions. La Fata Primavera, infatti, sfruttando un programma di scambio culturale, si fa trovare a scuola da Laurel e David (cosa che il ragazzo non ha apprezzato affatto) dopo un lungo periodo di addestramento come Fear-gleidhidh (Guardiano Eterno, o qualcosa del genere).
Ovviamente le cose fra Tamani e David si faranno immediatamente tese e Laurel si ritroverà a dover fronteggiare i suoi sentimenti confusi, la gelosia di David, il fascino di Tamani, l’arrivo di Yuki (fata di dubbia provenienza), l’amore della sua migliore amica per David, i Troll e le sue capacità di Intrugliatrice che saranno più di una volta necessarie al fine di salvare la vita alle persone a cui tiene.
E quando – finalmente! – il triangolo amoroso scoppierà e Laurel si ritroverà a dover fare i conti con i suoi sentimenti… i Troll faranno purtroppo nuovamente la loro comparsa ed Avalon sarà nuovamente minacciata dall’oscuro Manipolatore che sembra esserci dietro questi continui attacchi, risucchiando tutta l’attenzione della Fata d’Autunno e dei suoi amici umani.

Il romanzo è sicuramente più introspettivo del precedente dal punto di vista romantico; il continuo scambio di POV fra Laurel e Tamani rende, infatti, tutta la narrazione più dinamica ed interessante, permettendoci di toccare con mano i sentimenti, pensieri e sogni di entrambi.
Ci saranno scene d’azione (anche se non tante quanto nel primo libro, Wings), ma i contatti con Avalon e la sua cultura saranno, invece, ridotti al minimo facendone un po’ sentire la mancanza.
Decisamente belli ed interessanti tutti i momenti da “piccolo chimico” di Laurel che fanno risplendere come una faro il suo essere “Fata”. La connessione con Avalon in quei momenti è forte ed è lampante quanto, il continuo passaggio fra un mondo e l’altro, abbia creato in Laurel una dualità che si rispecchia chiaramente nella sua indecisione fra Tamani e l’umano David.
Nuovamente la crescita interiore (e non solo!) dei personaggi viene curata ed evidenziata in ogni capitolo portando il romanzo ad allontanarsi da quella fastidiosa influenza “twilightiana” senza, però, far perdere la sua prerogativa fiabesca.
È questo lato fiabesco, dolce e delicato che caratterizza la saga di “Wings” in ogni suo capitolo. Aprilynne Pike sembra impegnarsi a non abbandonare mai i toni morbidi da favola, perfino durante le scene d’azione che appaiono dettagliate ma mai eccessivamente cruenti, mantenendo costante l’innocenza che abbiamo scoperto in Wings e riconosciuto anche in Spells.
Il Cliffhanger finale lascia un po’ d’amaro in bocca, nonostante questo dia la possibilità di immaginare un libro conclusivo decisamente positivo e sicuramente da leggere. Non ci resta che attendere il quarto ed ultimo romanzo della serie, Destined, in arrivo in America nel maggio 2012. show less

This is the third book in the Wings series by Pike; there are four books planned in this series. This was a decent book but too much of the beginning was focused on Laurel angsting about which boy was right for her. The second half of the book was really great.

Laurel has left Avalon and is all set to go back to her normal, human, school. She is hoping that her and David will get some quality time together; but when Tam shows up incognito as a foreign exchange student Laurel is suddenly conflicted about who she really loves Tam or David. Tam is leading the force of scouts that are guarding Laurel from Troll attacks. And there is a new fairy in town, this new girl doesn't seem to know that she's a faerie and Laurel and her friends can't show more figure out what her deal is.

The first part of this book is dedicated to Laurel being wishy washy about who she wants for her boyfriend, David or Tamani. I think the whole love triangle thing was really over done in this book and wish Laurel would just pick someone so that we can get on with the story. For those who care, I am very team Tamari because he is the only one who has even a slight chance of making a decent life with Laurel, but whatever. Needless to say the tension between Tamani and Laurel in the book is very high and, for the most part, well done (even if there is too much of it).

There are some things in this book that I really enjoyed. I love Pike's writing style, it is fun and easy to read. I love reading about Laurel doing all her mixing and analysis to create and identify spells (with a chemistry bkgd this stuff is just fun for me). I also enjoyed the action in the second half of the book and enjoyed some of the revelations that happened toward the end of the book.

I just couldn't get over how much time was spent on all the teenage angsting. I would have liked to see the first half of the book happen in half of the time and then spend more time on the mystery surrounding the strange Japanese fairy and the Trolls. I also missed Avalon and wished more of this book had taken place there.

The book ends with a total cliffhanger; it stops completely in the middle of the story (I hate this). There wasn't any resolution to any of the issues raised, the book just stopped. So be ready for that. If that drives you nuts, than you may want to wait and read this book after the fourth book is released.

Overall this was an okay addition to the series. I love the characters, love the spell mixing, and love that action that happened late in the book. I did not like how much time Laurel spent angsting about which boy to choose; I also did not enjoy the ending which just stopped the book mid-story. Of course I will be reading the fourth book because I need to know what happens next. show less

When Lauren made the choice to stay with her human parents, and to stay with her human boyfriend David, she wasn't sure when, or if, she would ever see Tamani again. Making that decision was the hardest of her life but how could she choose to leave them knowing without her they could all be in very real danger. She loved them all too much for that, and yet when she said goodbye to Tamani she was also saying goodbye to a piece of herself, to something she wanted but could not let herself have.

After nearly a year Tamani has come back into Laurels life, unexpected but not unwelcomed, at least not to all but David who really could have lived happier the rest of his life never seeing him again. Tamani is on a mission, not just for the faerie show more land of Avalon but also a mission of the heart, he is determined to win Laurel's heart and no human, not even David, will stand in his way. However when a wild faerie enters their lives all bets are off and all hearts will be broken.

Illusions continues Laurel's story where now, in her senior year, Laurel has more to consider then just her weekend plans. Laurel is facing either a future in hiding among the humans she loves or a future as herself in Avalon and away from the only world she knows. But before a decision can be made there is a threat to vanquish. With disappearing trolls, a wild faerie and a love triangle that is quickly becoming a complicated mess, this story is has a little of everything for everyone. show less

To be brutally honest, I didn’t really dive into this book with high expectations. I was kind of put off by the first two, and only gave this one a chance to see what Tamani was planning at the end of Spells. But I was pleasantly surprised.

Most of the things that bother me about this series are still there, like Laurel’s back and forth feelings with David and Tamani and a new one that really got me to me: Laurel’s anger at either one of the boys for feeling jealousy. (They’re both in love with you. And they both know you have feelings for the other. Jealousy is pretty rational at this point) But I was happy that this installment focused more on the trolls and the mysterious new exchange student, Yuki, and her strange show more relationship with Klea. Wings and Spells pretty much took care of the love triangle quota for this series, so hopefully the next book will continue to balance the romance and the plot as well as this one did.

Overall, it’s safe to say that I’m not a huge fan of this series, but Illusions was a pretty satisfying installment. While I still have my issues with Laurel and the way she handles her relationships with David and Tamani, (TEAM TAMANI FTW) this book focuses more on the looming danger to Avalon and enemies that threaten its safety. Definitely pick this up if you’re a Wings fan, of course, and if you’re still on the fence about this series, give this a try. It might just sweeten your opinion a bit! show less