Review: Wings- Aprilynne Pike

I'd had wings on my 'To Be Read' list for a long time before I picked it up, but I nearly didn't recognize it in the bookstore. Gone was the US cover on the left that I liked so much, and in its place was the UK cover (below), glittery and pink with kiddish font. Other people seem to disagree with me, but I much prefer the more mature US cover; the UK cover could almost represent a pre-teen unicorn novel. 

On the writing side, the book started slowly and the third person text was a little bit clunky here and there. The actual dialogue, however, made up for it and once we got into the story Aprilynne Pike's completely unique interpretation of faeries. Gone are the fluttering, mischievous quasi human beings: enter humanoid plants. Seriously. My inner biology nerd was going psycho at this point, drooling over all the funky little quirks that came with the concept. 
I laughed aloud at Laurel and David's biology class meeting. First 'Twilight', then 'Hush, Hush' and now 'Wings'! I had, however, read this post by the author so  I put it aside in my mind. It happens. Then I found that the author shares an agent with Stephenie Meyer. That was when I got annoyed. Even if the author didn't spot that, which is fair enough, her agent should have. I appreciated the fact that at least this time it was Laurel, the female lead, who was the mythical creature. What's with all the mythical men in the last few books I've read? Anyway, it was nice for 'Wings' to break the trend, though if anyone offers up a romance featuring a female vampire or werewolf with a human guy, I'll be on it in seconds.

I did feel that the romantic elements were slightly underdeveloped; Laurel's reaction to the love triangle between her, David and a faerie named Tamini felt too fickle at times. I also wanted to know more about the interesting system of magic and how it applied to Laurel- but that kind of makes me look forward to the sequel even more! I can't wait for more faerie-plant awesomeness. It really made my day. 


Rating: 3.5/5

lale