Wings
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.
I was surprisingly charmed by Wings. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it but in the end it delighted me. The story is your standard young adult paranormal novel formula with a love triangle, some paranormal, and something out to get the heroine. Despite the stereotypical feel of the book, I still liked it. It was cute. Speaking of cute, the cover is adorable, but that has nothing to do with my review.
Laurel was adopted, well more so, left her on a doorstep in a basket, and that’s not the only unusual thing about her. She can’t eat anything that’s not fruits or vegetables or she will be sick. Her family lived in a remote area by the woods far away from cities. In addition, she’s been home schooled for all of her life. When her parents move away from her childhood home, Laurel has to attend public school for the first time in her life. When she goes to school and interacts with other students, her unique qualities really begin to stand out.
As mentioned earlier, the faeries in this book are a little different than your average faery, so as Laurel was learning about faeries the reader is also learning new things about faeries. Laurel makes a few friends that help her adjust to her new home and public school. Then there’s the strange boy named Tamani she meets in the woods near her old home, who makes her life even more interesting.
Even though this book is about faeries, you only get a glimpse into the faery world. Most of the novel is about Laurel learning what she is. Laurel’s interactions with Tamani are as close as we get to the faery world, until the end. The mystery of faery world is intriguing but at times I wish the author had offered more about the faeries. However, the next two books in the series dive deeper into the faery world so it’s clear the author did this intentionally.
On Goodreads, Wings has a lot of mixed reviews. To all those who are skeptical about reading it, I recommend it and I think if you give it a chance you will enjoy it. I’m looking forward to reading Spells, the next book in the series, however, I’m not running out to the bookstore to get it anytime soon.