Wings by Aprilynne Pike

[description from Kelsey's review; she got it from somewhere else.]

"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."

When a flower blooms in the middle of her back, Laurel discovers that she is a faerie and was placed with human parents as a child. As Laurel learns about her true background and the dangers that face the faerie realm, she struggles to find her place in both worlds.

Review:

This book is a lot different that I thought it was going to be, but I can't really say why without spoiling it. GRR. This review might be a little worse than normal since I can't spoil the book, so you'll just have to trust me when I say this book is really good and has something I've never seen before.

I've previously established that I'm not a big fan of third person narrative, but in this book it worked well. While I think I would have liked it more in first person so that the mostly flat characters could have more depth, the third person perspective allowed for a broader look at events, and allowed the book to focus more on the plot, which really was the best part of the book.

The plot isn't terribly exciting until the end, but Laurel's discovery of the faerie Tamani and discovering things about her wings, with help from potential boyfriend David, is interesting and unique. The long details and descriptions of Laurel's "condition" (I don't know what else to call it) do slow the book the down a bit at parts, but overall, the writing flows well and the book goes by quickly.

I don't have much to say about Wings, except that I'm interested to see where the story goes, I hope the characters are more developed in the next three books, and I think Wings undeniable uniqueness will set it a part from other faery books.

7.5/10

Also, Wings hit number one on one of the NYT lists this week, so CONGRATULATIONS APRILYNNE! You deserve it. (:

Links: Aprilynne's site/blog/Twitter/My interview with Aprilynne.

HarperTeen/$16.99/Amazon/Barnes and Noble/Borders/IndieBound