Foliage Faerie

Wings by Aprilynne Pike
reviewed by Chimey

Written into the world by faerie lover Aprilynne Pike, Laurel Sewell was filled with reluctance as she tentivately approached Del Notre High. Home schooled until now, her first time in high school, Laurel danced to the tune of a different melody—different from everyone else.

While other people preferred hamburgers and fries for lunch, she munched with the dedication of a vegan on fruits and bright green vegetables. She was small and dangerously striking, with light hair, and had been awkwardly placed at the doorstep of her home for her parents to find her.

Being different came naturally to Laurel, whether it was for better or worse. She met new friends and warily adjusted to her school until the time she woke up one day to find pale strips of flower petals growing on her back. It took a week to courageously approach her new-found friend David, and show him the sprouting plants.

Amidst frustration, Laurel took a trip to her old home and family land which her mother was planning to sell to a Jeremiah Barnes for the price of her father's surgery at the hospital. She met a boy with olive-green eyes and matching hair roots, Temani, a boy who is the same creature as she—a faerie.

Incredulous, Laurel left, only to return later with a plea for help in confronting a brutal creature. Jeremiah Barnes had been discovered to be a troll. He planned to take over the faerie land and slip past the entrance to the world of Avalon.

With brilliance, a dab of luck, and a sprinkle of loyalty, David, Laurel and Temani chased Barnes away—yet failed to kill him. The faerie king handed Laurel a diamond to pay for her father's surgery.

Temani possessed a painful secret: Laurel used to be friends, and possibly more, with him. But after having her mind erased because of her responsibilities in the human world, Laurel returned to David and Temani was left in his shattered world of lost friendship.

Wings is a heart-breaking story, carefully crafted.

This is the first in a series of four books.