Wings (Wings, #1) by Aprilynne Pike, Book Review

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.

Title: Wings

Author: Aprilynne Pike

Publisher: HarperTeen

Pages: 294

Release Date: May 1, 2009

Source: Bought

Format: Hardcover

Rating: 4/5

The first thing that instantly drew me to Wings in the first place was the cover. I mean, come on, how enticing (haha, inside joke...you'll understand after you read the book) is this cover? Ah, so beautiful!

I enjoyed more than the cover, though! First, the romance. Wings tells the story of a sixteen-year-old girl named Laurel who moves to a new town and enrolls in a public high school after being home schooled by her "hippie parents" in a much-smaller town than the one she moves to. The book opens with Laurel's first day, and on her first day she meets David, the cute (the really, really, really cute!) "boy next door." Now, in most paranormal YA books, the two lovers instantly fall in love and are more than willing to take a bullet for their one true love the second day they know each other. And, while that earth-shattering romance is great and all, my one complaint is that they always FALL IN LOVE TOO FAST! I mean, in Wings's case, we're dealing with fifteen/sixteen-year-olds here! What happened to that cute, innocent infatuation that grows and matures into that earth-shattering love? I don't know, but Apprilynne Pike unearthed it and brought it back to life, thankfully! Laurel and David start out as friends, and then they progress into close friends, and become closer and closer until they start to feel strong feelings for each other. I really liked that aspect because you really got to see them grow and mature together.

And then you have Tamani...or Tam, for short. Tamani is the tall, dark, handsome sex god faerie who protects the faerie world from ghoulish enemies who are hell-bent on the faeries' destruction. David and Tamani are like black and white, Yin/Yang. David is the cute, reliable, safe, caring third of the love triangle, and Tamani is the adrenaline-pumping, exciting, risky one. Throughout the book, Laurel juggles David and Tamani, constantly wondering who she'll choose and you go along that ride with her.

If you thought that was enough pressure on a fifteen-year-old girl, check this: Laurel is a faerie, a very important faerie, too, and a major decision lies on her shoulders and her shoulders alone. And while David and Tamani are there to support her and help her out, she herself has to go on a journey of self-discovery to find out who (and what) she really is.

Besides the romance, I loved the characters. I couldn't help but feel like they were real, three-dimensional people. Laurel, David, Tamani, and Chelsea were my favorite characters, and I found it uncanny how similar the character of Chelsea is to my real-life best friend Chelsea (both name- and personality-wise!)

I recommend Wings if you enjoy fairy tales mixed with romance, danger, action, and a ton of cute boy action! *wink*

-Casey