Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: HarperTeen (May 5, 2009)

Back cover blurb:

Laurel has never been the kind of girl who believes in fairy tales and myths, fables and legends...until the day she learns the stunning truth about her own identity, forever changing her world.

My Review: YYYY

This enchanting story begins with fifteen year old Lauren, a not so typical girl, adjusting to her life in a new town and school. Having been previously home schooled (by her hippie mother) her entire life in a tiny town, Lauren finds this new arrangement overwhelmingly daunting. She soon finds comfort in David, a boy that is handsome, sweet and completely understanding of her strict vegan diet, and through his caring nature and persistence Lauren begins to adjust and make new friends.

Life could not be any better...until, Lauren begins to feel a bump between her shoulders that quickly grows and eventually blooms to become these petal like wings. Unable to confide her recent affliction to her parents she seeks answers in David, whom together begin to investigate the strange phenomenon of her wings. If that's not enough, her parents are soon approached by someone that wants to purchase the family property that Lauren has called home for many years. This prompts a trip back to the family home and Lauren's world is forever changed when she encounters Tamini a faerie that seems to have the all answers that she has been seeking and whom she is inexplicitly drawn to. Apparently she is also a faerie...

When Laurel was three, she was left on her parents’ doorstep in a basket, with no knowledge of where she came from. She was sent to her parents to guard the land that they lived on, a land that holds something very important to the faeries, but when Laurel’s family moved and put the land up for sale it jeopardized everything. The gate to Avalon that the Fae have protected for ages is now threatened and Lauren is the key to saving it. That is quite a bit to take on especially when her father becomes gravely ill. She realizes that she has to help save the faeries’ secret, protect her family, sort out her confused feelings for an almost boyfriend, David, and a faerie, Tamani, whom she feels connected to, and figure out her own identity and place in both worlds.

When I began to read Wings, this debut novel by Aprilynne Pike I had no idea of the magical adventure that I was about to embark on. As the wondrous story of fairy myth and legend surrounding the life of a not so typical girl unfolded in the pages before my eyes I could not stop reading, I was so engrossed. Wings is extraordinarily written and I am left positively enchanted and totally in love with this new world of adventure filled with unforgettable characters that are now dear to my heart.

I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to adult and teen alike, and I was thrilled to read on Aprilynne Pike’s website that this is one of four books about Laurel and her world. I already cannot wait for the sequel.