Spells by Aprilynne Pike

Spells by Aprilynne Pike

"Six months have passed since Laurel saved the gateway to the faerie realm of Avalon. Now she must spend her summer there, honing her skills as a Fall ...more Six months have passed since Laurel saved the gateway to the faerie realm of Avalon. Now she must spend her summer there, honing her skills as a Fall faerie. But her human family and friends are still in mortal danger--and the gateway to Avalon is more compromised than ever.

When it comes time to protect those she loves, will she depend on David, her human boyfriend, for help? Or will she turn to Tamani, the electrifying faerie with whom her connection is undeniable?" (summary from Author's Website)

So, surprisingly I really liked Tamani in this book. I remember not really liking him in the first book, but he is growing on me. Alas, David still hasn’t won me over much. I thought that Laurel’s summer in Avalon was fun to read about because we got to learn more about the mythology and culture of fairies in her world. I had wished there was more of this in the first book, and hope for more of it in the sequels. The details of the Avalon world made the this book have just a bit more of that magical feel that I was wanting from the first book. I thought it was interesting to see how Laurel’s mom reacted to her being a fairy in this book, and thought it was cool that Pike would include Laurel’s parents as pretty major minor characters in the book. I ‘m glad they are not completely forgotten like the majority of fantasy fiction.

I’ve noticed that a common complaint about the first book was that the fairy’s enemies—trolls— aren’t very well developed and kind of show up randomly. I’m afraid this book is pretty much the same. There are still a bunch of evil trolls wandering around trying to get into Avalon, and randomly attacking Laurel and her friends. There are some more interesting developments in the conflict with the trolls in that we get the feeling that they have an larger evil plan going on, and that there are professional troll hunters out there, but other than that they show up, make life hard for Laurel, get beat up and disappear. Hopefully, we get to learn exactly what these troll villains are up to in future books. Also, Tamani gets a super- secret mission for the next book. I have to admit I’m curious to find out what he is planning to do.

Something that bugged me about this book was the amount of making out done by David and Laurel. Laurel’s mom is always reminding them to stop. It was really annoying and I wish the author hadn’t included so much of that in the book. It got old really fast. So, really this book is not squeaky clean in that regard.

So, when it comes down to it I guess my feelings regarding this book are kind of mixed. There were a few things that I didn’t like about the narrative, but I still had an enjoyable time reading it for the most part. I had a hard time putting the book down once I started.

Aprilynne Pike's website

Wings by Aprilynne Pike

Wings by Aprilynne Pike

Laurel has a hard time adjusting to High School after her family moved from the California countryside to the city. She makes friends with a boy in her biology class, David. Then just as things start to seem alright she starts sprouting a plant looking thing on her back, and when it unfurls it looks like wings. When she returns to her old house she meets a familiar stranger named Tamani, who tells her that she is a fairy. At first Laurel refuses to believe it, but then she starts to notice how different she is from those around her from the food she eats to the huge flower blossom on her back.

I especially liked Laurel’s character in this story. I have to say I’m a secret nature lover myself. I’m no environmentalist, but nothing sparks my creativity like a change in seasons, and nothing clears my mind more than a quite walk among green things. Currently, I roll down my window when I drive through the forest on the way to work so I can smell the trees. So, I like Laurel’s down to earth naturalness, and I could empathize with her embarrassing teenage predicament. What are you supposed to do when you have huge wings growing out of your back you need to hide from everybody? I didn’t like David that much, he was a nice guy and all, but he was so nice that he was a little bland. Not that I would want him to be mean—not at all! I just wish that quirks of his personality were played up a bit more.

Wings was an entertaining first novel, though I didn’t feel that it set up a sequel so well. There was kind of a romance triangle introduced as hook for the next book, but that was a little predictable. Still the book is a good read for those that like the Harry Potter/Percy Jackson/Twilight books. Wings didn’t capture my imagination like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson did, but still, it was a fun read.

Pike's Website