Wings by Aprilynne Pike

This is the first book by Aprilynne Pike that I have read, and I must say I wasn’t disappointed at all!  I got a copy of this at the RT Convention back in May of this year.  I’ve actually not really been a fan of fairy or fae stories.  Not that I mind when they are in other stories, but I haven’t actively sought out those types of stories.  I’m finding more and more that maybe it is time to give them more of a chance.  I gave this book a pretty high rating, 5 stars, on Goodreads because I picked it up this morning, and pretty much barely stopped until I was done late this afternoon.  It was that good.  I read one comment that said it was a very simple story, and I guess it was.  But, as a former science teacher, I loved how this put science into the mythology behind fairies.  Very unique to me, but again, as I haven’t read a lot of this type of creature, maybe it’s not.
So, the main character is Laurel, and she has just moved to a new town with her mom and dad, actually her adoptive parents.  Up until this year she has been home-schooled by her mother.  But now that she’s in high school, her mom doesn’t feel like she can teach as much that Laurel needs as if she goes to a real school.  At first Laurel really isn’t happy about it.  But what is nice is that she makes a friend right away.  A very nice boy at school named David.  David is in her Biology class, which Laurel can tell from just opening the book and paging through it that she is going to be struggling.  But David doesn’t seem to mind her strange habits, the fact that she only eats vegetables and fruits and drinks Sprite.  That she wants to eat outside instead of in the cafeteria because it is too loud and she just feels that she gets refreshed with the time outside.  He even gets his group of friends, some of them at least, to eat outside with her.  Things seem to be going well, she’s making friends, kind of fitting in.  Then one day she gets a zit or some kind of bump on her back.  This is weird, as even though her body has developed, hips, etc., she’s not really gone through puberty, never had a period, acne, etc.  But she decides this is normal, and decides not to worry about it.  Until it gets bigger.  And then one morning she wakes up, and the bump is gone, but now she has petals, actually a flower, growing out of her back.  Now, here is where I’m not quite sure I’d have done the same, but instead of talking to her parents about it, she talks to David.  And David is pretty intrigued.  The science geek in him wants to look at it under a microscope.  And he does, and it is a plant.  Soon, he begins to wonder other things about Laurel, even as she does herself.  When Laurel and her parents go back to the old house, she runs into a really interesting boy in the forest behind the house, named Tamani.  He tells her some more stuff about herself, tells her she is a plant, that she is a fairy.  When she shares with David, they begin to do more research into it.  You’d think maybe this is the big deal of the story, but no, Laurel also learns that she needs to keep her parents from selling the land, that it needs to remain her property to protect something.  But when her dad gets sick, and the hospital bills begin adding up, her mother has to sell just to get the money.  But this leads to a dangerous situation.  Life and death, and also to Laurel learning even more about her past and what may be in store for the rest of her life.
Like I said, I loved the science and mythology in this story.  It was a quick, easy read.  One that grabbed me and made it hard to put it down.  I know I’m a bit behind on this series, and if you are as well, you need to grab it and check it out!