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3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
Rounding up to 3, since I like the flower fairy idea. Otherwise, it's not my reading preference at the moment.
What a disappointment. WINGS garners attention as being similar to Twilight, but let’s just say that the over-hyped vampire series is still a lot more interesting than anything this book has to offer.
Where do I even begin? The characters lack personality or appeal. Laurel has not a stitch of mental or physical strength on her. Her choice of actions have no validity or sense. The love triangle between Laurel, David, and Tamani is extremely contrived: I sensed no attraction at all between any of the three, no real reason why the boys would like Laurel the bland “heroine,” and no appeal in the caricatures of the boys, David the goody-two-shoes good friend, and Tamani the “dangerously attractive and mysterious” fairy (adjectives placed in quotes because, uh, he’s not. At all). If you’re trying to copy off the popularity of the Twilight love triangle, at least develop the males well enough that readers are encouraged to take sides. There will be no Team David or Team Tamani here: there will be a Team Run-Away-As-Fast-As-You-Can!
The concept of fairies being similar to plants was fairly interesting; my favorite parts of the book are when David geeks out and begins doing all sorts of scientific experiments on Laurel to prove to her that she is a plant. It was quite fascinating, all of the ways that Aprilynne came up with to link fairies to plants! Unfortunately, the story lacked everything else: engaging dialogue, plot, movement. The word that sprang to mind most when I read this book was “contrived;” it felt like we readers were told how we were supposed to feel about the characters and their predicaments instead of actually letting us feel anything. Anything that readers needed to know about the plot was explained in endless pages of stationary dialogue, which I wouldn’t even mind if not for the fact that the dialogue feels forced and the characters are not explaining anything of worth or interest to me anyway.
Alas, it seems like I and other reviewers can blither and blather all we want; the audience (and publishers) clearly know what they want, and that’s some more horrible Twilight spin-offs. Seriously, though, if you’re looking for some more fantasy love triangles and fairy wars etc., don’t check here. In fact, don’t read this book at all if you can. It won’t be long before you’ll be wondering about how you can get a refund on your time.
Where do I even begin? The characters lack personality or appeal. Laurel has not a stitch of mental or physical strength on her. Her choice of actions have no validity or sense. The love triangle between Laurel, David, and Tamani is extremely contrived: I sensed no attraction at all between any of the three, no real reason why the boys would like Laurel the bland “heroine,” and no appeal in the caricatures of the boys, David the goody-two-shoes good friend, and Tamani the “dangerously attractive and mysterious” fairy (adjectives placed in quotes because, uh, he’s not. At all). If you’re trying to copy off the popularity of the Twilight love triangle, at least develop the males well enough that readers are encouraged to take sides. There will be no Team David or Team Tamani here: there will be a Team Run-Away-As-Fast-As-You-Can!
The concept of fairies being similar to plants was fairly interesting; my favorite parts of the book are when David geeks out and begins doing all sorts of scientific experiments on Laurel to prove to her that she is a plant. It was quite fascinating, all of the ways that Aprilynne came up with to link fairies to plants! Unfortunately, the story lacked everything else: engaging dialogue, plot, movement. The word that sprang to mind most when I read this book was “contrived;” it felt like we readers were told how we were supposed to feel about the characters and their predicaments instead of actually letting us feel anything. Anything that readers needed to know about the plot was explained in endless pages of stationary dialogue, which I wouldn’t even mind if not for the fact that the dialogue feels forced and the characters are not explaining anything of worth or interest to me anyway.
Alas, it seems like I and other reviewers can blither and blather all we want; the audience (and publishers) clearly know what they want, and that’s some more horrible Twilight spin-offs. Seriously, though, if you’re looking for some more fantasy love triangles and fairy wars etc., don’t check here. In fact, don’t read this book at all if you can. It won’t be long before you’ll be wondering about how you can get a refund on your time.
“It didn't matter to her that Tamani only had weak magic, he was magic.”
This was a super quick and cute read. Though it's more middle grade than YA, I think it had a unique take on fantasy. Laurel is a high school girl who has some odd eating habits. She only eats vegetables and only drinks Sprite. Her family recently moved from their estate to a suburban area in California. She starts school and becomes friends with David and Chelsea. As she grows closer to David, she tells him how she's adopted, but her biological family left her in a basket at the age of three. Her adoptive family took her in and raised her as their own. She has no memories of her adoption.
Suddenly, Laurel develops a giant bump on her back that eventually blossoms into a giant blue flower. She doesn't tell her parents (why would she) but confides in David. He takes a look at her "wings" under his microscope and determines that it's a flower, but it's shaped like wings. The two do their best to conceal the growth from friends and family. During all of this, her parents are in the process of selling their previous estate. They take a trip back to the land where Laurel is pretty much lured into the forest and meets Tamani. He remarks on her flower, telling her that she is a faerie and that this forest (and the land with the estate) is her rightful property. The lore in this story is that faeries are highly evolved, sentient, plants.
She breaks down and tells David everything that happened with Tamani and he's somehow very accepting that she's a walking, talking, plant. The suspension of belief is STRONG with this one. With some further "tests", David discovers that her blood is clear (like xylem) and that Laurel doesn't have a heartbeat. They also figured out that Laurel exhales oxygen and inhales carbon dioxide. The two go to the school dance together and her blossom starts to wilt, leaving petals everywhere. Laurel heads back to her family estate to find Tamani and get answers about this flower and her powers as a faerie. Tamani lives on the land because he's guarding one of the portals to the Faerie realm, which is conveniently located on her family estate. He also tells Laurel that she was sent to live with her adoptive family so that she could inherit the land, and keep the portal safe.
And then, chaos.Laurel's father becomes very very sick. Nothing is helping and the family breaks down and takes him to the hospital. The potential buyer of the estate turns out to be a troll, and trolls hate faeries. David and Laurel try to investigate the buyer but get caught. The trolls chain up the kids and throw them into the river to drown. But! Laurel expels oxygen! So the two can survive long enough to make it to the surface alive! 😂😂 The trolls poisoned Laurel's dad to force him into selling the land, as they want access to the fae world. Laurel explains the chaos to Tamani, and he sneaks into the troll's house and kills the other trolls by snapping their necks, but Barnes (the buyer) discovers him and shoots him in the leg. Laurel shoots Barnes in the shoulder but he escapes. The fae world gives Laurel a cure for her father and some diamonds to offset the cost of moving, keeping the land in their family.
This was a super quick and cute read. Though it's more middle grade than YA, I think it had a unique take on fantasy. Laurel is a high school girl who has some odd eating habits. She only eats vegetables and only drinks Sprite. Her family recently moved from their estate to a suburban area in California. She starts school and becomes friends with David and Chelsea. As she grows closer to David, she tells him how she's adopted, but her biological family left her in a basket at the age of three. Her adoptive family took her in and raised her as their own. She has no memories of her adoption.
Suddenly, Laurel develops a giant bump on her back that eventually blossoms into a giant blue flower. She doesn't tell her parents (why would she) but confides in David. He takes a look at her "wings" under his microscope and determines that it's a flower, but it's shaped like wings. The two do their best to conceal the growth from friends and family. During all of this, her parents are in the process of selling their previous estate. They take a trip back to the land where Laurel is pretty much lured into the forest and meets Tamani. He remarks on her flower, telling her that she is a faerie and that this forest (and the land with the estate) is her rightful property. The lore in this story is that faeries are highly evolved, sentient, plants.
She breaks down and tells David everything that happened with Tamani and he's somehow very accepting that she's a walking, talking, plant. The suspension of belief is STRONG with this one. With some further "tests", David discovers that her blood is clear (like xylem) and that Laurel doesn't have a heartbeat. They also figured out that Laurel exhales oxygen and inhales carbon dioxide. The two go to the school dance together and her blossom starts to wilt, leaving petals everywhere. Laurel heads back to her family estate to find Tamani and get answers about this flower and her powers as a faerie. Tamani lives on the land because he's guarding one of the portals to the Faerie realm, which is conveniently located on her family estate. He also tells Laurel that she was sent to live with her adoptive family so that she could inherit the land, and keep the portal safe.
And then, chaos.
So, this book has been on my nook forever. I finally sat down and read it after hearing so many reviews about it. Great, another new series to keep track of, LOL!
Laurel has always been different from other kids her age. For one thing, she is adopted--she was left on her parents' doorstep as a toddler. (I know...a little cliche, right?) She has pale blond hair and fair skin. She is a strict vegan and would rather spend all her time outdoors than in. You see where this is going, right?
Laurel's parents move from her childhood home to a town where she will be attending high school for the first time ever. She becomes fast friends-with-an-undertone-of-being-more with a sweet guy named David. One day Laurel discovers what she thinks is her first ever zit on her back. But then it doesn't go away. In fact, it gets bigger and bigger, until one morning she wakes up to find she has a whole friggin set of flowery wings sprouting from her back!
David sticks by her side and helps her learn the truth that yes, she is indeed a faerie. On a trip back to her old home, she walks into the forest behind her house and meets a faerie guardian, the too gorgeous for words Tamani. He seems familiar but she is not sure why. Together with the help of both her guys, Laurel finds out the hard to believe truth about herself and why she must be kept safe at all costs.
At first I was wondering if I was going to like Laurel. I couldn't decide if she was socially inadequate from being home schooled or just plain old snobby. Fortunately as the book went on she got more tolerable, and eventually even showed a bit of backbone and took some action when it was necessary.
I'm also anxious to see who she's going to end up with. Both guys are likable to me, and I can't see how she could choose one over the other. This book was very short, only 200 pages. And it took more than half the book for some substantial action to actually occur! I hope to get a bit more character development in the next book. Finding out why Laurel is so important to the faerie kingdom, and seeing what happens with her two guys, are enough reasons to make me want to continue to read this series.
Laurel has always been different from other kids her age. For one thing, she is adopted--she was left on her parents' doorstep as a toddler. (I know...a little cliche, right?) She has pale blond hair and fair skin. She is a strict vegan and would rather spend all her time outdoors than in. You see where this is going, right?
Laurel's parents move from her childhood home to a town where she will be attending high school for the first time ever. She becomes fast friends-with-an-undertone-of-being-more with a sweet guy named David. One day Laurel discovers what she thinks is her first ever zit on her back. But then it doesn't go away. In fact, it gets bigger and bigger, until one morning she wakes up to find she has a whole friggin set of flowery wings sprouting from her back!
David sticks by her side and helps her learn the truth that yes, she is indeed a faerie. On a trip back to her old home, she walks into the forest behind her house and meets a faerie guardian, the too gorgeous for words Tamani. He seems familiar but she is not sure why. Together with the help of both her guys, Laurel finds out the hard to believe truth about herself and why she must be kept safe at all costs.
At first I was wondering if I was going to like Laurel. I couldn't decide if she was socially inadequate from being home schooled or just plain old snobby. Fortunately as the book went on she got more tolerable, and eventually even showed a bit of backbone and took some action when it was necessary.
I'm also anxious to see who she's going to end up with. Both guys are likable to me, and I can't see how she could choose one over the other. This book was very short, only 200 pages. And it took more than half the book for some substantial action to actually occur! I hope to get a bit more character development in the next book. Finding out why Laurel is so important to the faerie kingdom, and seeing what happens with her two guys, are enough reasons to make me want to continue to read this series.
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
The problem with this book is the main character--the author doesn't develop her past "oh wow Im such a weirdo because I have natural model looks and am super thin." Besides that...she's a blank slate in the worst way.
I applaud the new idea of faeries being plants and that David was written like a real teenage boy but I just couldn't get past the blandness of the protagonist.
I applaud the new idea of faeries being plants and that David was written like a real teenage boy but I just couldn't get past the blandness of the protagonist.