Book Review: Wings

I've been working on finishing this book for a while, but once I finished it I wanted more. It was just one of those kinds of books where the beginning was a teensy bit slow, so it was easy to put down and then I didn't get back to it as quickly as I wanted to and time slipped away . . . well, you get the point. Once I got into it though, I was turning pages as fast as I could to see what was going to happen. (I finished it standing in line at my local junior high school, waiting to register one of my kids. That's how much I wanted to see how it would end!)

Wings is about a girl named Laurel who finds out she is a faerie. She has a special mission and we quickly find out there is danger looming. I love how the author makes Laurel so realistic in her teenage mind, (since I'm the mother of a fifteen-year-old, it all rang true!) with her decision-making about her own life and how she is torn between two boys.

I also loved the rich setting and the way the author leaves subtle clues as to how Laurel interacts with the world around her, further validating the idea that she is a faerie and how that all works in a human world. Especially in the first half of the book, the innocence of Laurel and her surroundings is emphasized, (loved all the biology explanations!) but that is quickly contrasted in the last half with the discovery of danger and the fact that Laurel must make some difficult life-changing decisions.

There are several more books in the series and honestly, I think I might go buy the next one today. It looks really good! And Wings had the sort of ending where you turn the last page and say, "wow, I really want to know what happens next!"

This is a YA book (yes, I've been reading a fair bit of that lately) and it is a quick, entertaining, getting-to-the-end-of-summer read. I wouldn't hesitate to pass it on to my daughter or nieces.

Here's the back copy:

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.