Title: Wings
Author: Aprilynne Pike
Series: Wings
Rating: ★★★★

I had not heard of Aprilynne Pike until I was in a small conversation with her and a couple other authors on Twitter. After that conversation, I looked into her books and decided to give them a try. Wings is the first of a series and the first book of Pike’s that I read. I went in expecting nothing and was pleasantly surprised.

Laurel has always been just a little different, but it was always explainable. She stood out, but not too much. She’s starting public school for the first time after being homeschooled for most of her life. She’s making friends and trying to blend in. She never expected to be so different from everyone else. When she starts growing petals out of her back, she can’t run from the truth. She turns to David, her first friend, to help her understand what is happening and from there the story grows.

Laurel isn’t quite the strong character I love, but I can understand why. She’s young, starting public school for the first time, dealing with things she expected and some things she never expected. She grows through the novel, though, and that’s why I don’t mind it. She’s gaining strength and confidence and that’s what I find important. She’s learning to accept her new life and find a way to live her human life while accepting her faerie life. I’m looking forward to seeing where Pike takes her in the next novels.

David is the perfect first relationship. They start as friends and grow from there. It’s sweet and swoony, and I’m glad Pike has written a relationship like this. It feels real and is a good connection for Laurel to the human world. David keeps her thinking and rational, when everything happening around her screams at her to lose that rational side. I’ll be interested to see how this relationship grows and changes in the coming novels after what happened at the end of Wings.

As far as a first novel goes, this provides great set-up and world building. There was a little action and plot development, but for the most part, Wings is centered on establishing the faerie world and Laurel’s journey to accepting who she is. There is plenty of time to create action and drama, so I’m relived Pike focused instead on her characters in this novel. I feel like I know them and that’s a good feeling to have when I read the rest of the series.

Wings was a great first novel. Pike has built an interesting world that has drawn me in and made me care about her characters. There are puzzle pieces being dropped and it’ll be fun to see where Pike takes the rest of the story.

If Wings sounds like your kind of book, you can purchase it here:
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