LOVE IT! I LOVE IT! I LOVE IT! And you will too.

This story is amazing, the characters thrilling and the action is heart pounding. The whole story captured me. I would get to a boring part and put it down and then minutes later I would find myself picking it up not caring what time it was.  Within 3 days I was finished, not daring to take my eyes off the book.

 
I loved the ending, which was very original and unique, and I liked the very end, which left me feeling content, which, with a lot of books, is hard to find.

I liked the main characters, although the boys are more who I enjoyed; Laurel was just a kill joy. She isn’t someone I would hang around and she was way too hot and cold. The boys made it interesting and exciting, with a tinge of mystery.

My favourite was Tamani; he was calm, patient, daring, and dare I say it, sexy. He was the one I rooted for. Honestly most girls would feel the exact same way.

Aprilynne has made the characters so pictureable and has described them well. Although almost everyone in the story sounded flawless.
What could have been better for me would’ve been more action. She put more detail into her characters than she did the scenes.

Wings is a nice way to escape the world around you and just get away. It’s romantic, exciting and well written.

Wings is a delightful teen paranormal with a very original concept that Aprilynne Pike has created and into a beautiful story – even if I am choosing to ignore the possible deeper meanings as a coming of age story!

Fairies seem to have taken over from Vampires and Angels in the world of Teen Paranormals, and you have probably heard the phrase “everything you thought you knew about faeries will be changed forever”, or something very similar, to describe other books, including the likes of Melissa Marr.  I just have to say, with this one, they’re really not kidding. ‘Wings’ has such an amazingly original concept for the world of the Fae. In actual fact, it would probably have been better to skip the fairy aspect altogether; or at least introduced the idea a little later in the story. But it all comes together to create a quite wonderful ending.

Obviously the whole being a fairy thing isn’t supposed to be a big deal as it was just dumped out there. But what a waste! We’ve got this attempt to build a bit of mystery and then it’s all over in a paragraph and we’ve moved on. Yes, between the blurb and the cover we could get a pretty good idea of what was going on, but it’s nice to actually have the story lead us into a bit of a revelation.

Laurel suddenly finds petal like wings growing out her back. A strange but really great concept; however with no real reference point I just couldn’t picture it, even with detailed descriptions, so it became a little confusing. Part of that confusion did come from the fairy expectation alluded to in the blurb, so wings of petals and the drama around this was unfortunately lost on me for quite some time.

Then there is the introduction to Laurel. Gosh, could she be portrayed as any more arrogant? Not the best way I’ve encountered to get the physical description of our main character in:

“Everyone stares at me like I’m a Freak” – Laurel
“They stare at you because you’re new.” – Mother
“I don’t look like everyone else” – Laurel
Her mom grinned. “Would you want to?”
Laurel rolled her eyes, but she had to admit her mother had scored a point. She might be homeschooled and a littler sheltered, but she knew she looked a lot like the models in magazines and on television.
And she liked it.

There are so many Teen Paranormal and Young Adult books where the parents are completely dysfunctional, so I am just delighted with Laurel’s parents. They’re normal people. Ok, so mum doesn’t do doctors and is completely into natural therapies, and Ms Pike has tried to give both parents a bit of a hippie feel, but we still get to hear lines like “I’m the mother, it’s my rules.”

While the ending, indeed the last half of the book, is very well written, with great drama, some nice twists and emotional depth, the first half really was quite bland. I actually groaned out loud when I read the two paragraphs; new girl, first day at high school, paranoid that the kids are steering at her, on her way to biology class... sound familiar? So I wasn’t particularly geared up to enjoy this book. I have commented in previous teen paranormal reviews that sadly the one real place that teenagers can actually meet someone new and have to communicate is in a science class. But Twilight has forever claimed biology I’m afraid, maybe try physics?

‘Wings’ is a set up book. We’re introduced to the characters, the world has been built, and the overall series plot delivered, including where the emotional drama is going to be. But having seen some of the twists the appeared in this book, I wouldn’t be so certain that what we think is going to happen will eventuate, or if it does, I doubt it will happen in the way that the ending has lead us to believe.  This is Ms Pike’s debut novel and although the beginning of the story seemed a little disjointed, by the time she was halfway through the book the story really started to pull together with flow and drama. So I am expecting good things from ‘Spells’, book two in the series.

Because I'm not so keen on the current opening of Wings, here is the opening Ms Pike originally had (from her website: http://www.aprilynnepike.com/deleted-scene-original-opening) - she thinks it may be vaugely spoilerish, but I can't really see how.

"Hustle, hustle!"

Laurel bounded off the track, breathless from the mile run. She'd never particularly liked running--or sports of any kind for that matter--but a fitness test was standard procedure for all students on the first day of gym class at Del Norte High School.

"Come on over! Hurry, you got two minutes before we need everyone to take their pulse." The stocky female gym coach was waving the class over with a clipboard. "Okay, you can get your pulse from your wrist, but sometimes it's hard to find it there the first time. That's fine, two fingers to the side of your neck and you should feel a good, strong pulse, especially after that run. If you're still having problems you can check your pulse in your groin like this." Several people giggled as Mrs. Wilson stuck her fingers between her legs to demonstrate. "Now, find your pulse and when I say go, start counting. When I say stop, stop."

Laurel's fingers went to her wrist, but she didn't feel anything except the warmth of her skin from the sun. Her eyes darted around and she was relieved to see that several of her classmates had already moved on to their necks. She placed her fingers on the right side of her throat the way the coach had demonstrated and pressed gently. Then a little harder. She changed over to the left side and still felt nothing. Most of the kids around her were standing quietly with their fingers pressed to their necks. She tried to mimic their position but still couldn't find anything that felt like the beating drum Mrs. Wilson had described. She considered trying the groin pulse, but only for a second.

She started to remove her fingers so she could raise her hand when Mrs. Wilson blew her whistle and yelled, "Okay, get ready!" Laurel jammed her fingers back into her throat and tried to act like she was feeling something.

"Three, two, one, count."

Laurel kept her eyes on the ground as she pretended to count. She glanced around the group and watched the other kids from under her lashes. Several had their eyes closed and a few were mouthing numbers as they concentrated.

"Stop!" Fingers left throats and wrists and the whole class seemed to start breathing again as one. Mrs. Wilson circled the group asking for numbers. Everyone had an answer: ninety-four, one hundred and three, ninety-seven, eighty-two. Laurel listened carefully as her classmates rattled off numbers. Then the clipboard was under her nose.

"Name?"

"Laurel Sewell."

"Pulse?"

Laurel hesitated for only a moment. "Ninety."

Mrs. Wilson did not even glance at her. "Ninety," she repeated, then stopped.

Laurel sucked in a breath when Mrs. Wilson's eyebrows furrowed. "Sewell... Jacob Sewell's daughter?"

Laurel shook her head. "Mark Sewell's. We just moved here."

Mrs. Wilson made a small grunt of acknowledgment and moved on. "Name?" she asked the next student.

Laurel released the breath she'd been holding and attempted to wander off toward the locker room as casually as the other girls.

No one stopped her or called out that she had cheated and when the gym doors closed behind her, she felt safe. But as soon as she walked into the locker room she closed herself into a bathroom stall and tried again. Her wrist, her throat, and now that she was in the privacy of her own stall, her groin. Nothing. Maybe there was something wrong with her fingers.

Or maybe lots of people had cheated.

It didn’t matter. No one knew.

She left the stall and hurried to her small locker, anxious to be back in her lightweight tank top and jean shorts. She hated sweats and the cheap gym t-shirts were heavy and stiff. It was a relief to stand in her bra and underwear for a few seconds and let the air cool the light sheen of sweat on her forehead and back. But the other girls, who were all dressing carefully with their backs to the group, eyed her as she stood so unclothed, so she yanked her clothes on, slipped into her flip-flops, and hurried out the door.