Book Review- Wings

Laurel was mesmerized, staring at the pale things with wide eyes. They were terrifyingly beautiful—too beautiful for words.

Laurel turned to the mirror again, her eyes on the hovering petals that floated beside her head. They looked almost like wings.

In this extraordinary tale of magic and intrigue, romance and danger, everything you thought you knew about faeries will be changed forever.

I've seen this book for a while and I've heard lots about it. I saw an interview of Aprilynne Pike on Inkpop and I saw that she said her Faeries were different from other ones. She said that she thought that she was the only one to make Faeries into pure plants. Well I remember thinking that she was wrong because I made Faeries like that in one of my own books...only they are not fully plants like hers. 

What I liked: I loved her idea of Faeries and how they are pure plant like creatures. While the idea is kinda orginal, I've seen it in other books but it just wasn't as explained as this book. You could tell that she did her research and I thought that was really cool. 

All the characters were very good, although at times David seemed the Mr. Perfect we've seen one too many times. And sometimes Laurel seemed like she wasn't a girl who could take care of herself. I found myself partly crying when we found out that Laurel's dad may not make it and when her mom was about to sell their old house. But then I was really glad when that Jamison guy came and gave her stuff to help her out. The only part I didn't like that him was that I have no idea who he actually is! He seems like he must be some kind of gate keeper to me.

I thought that while I like Tamani (his name is cool too) was cute and stuff, I thought it was kinda creepy the way he likes her. It seems to me that he's more of a stalker-ish guy who doesn't really like her for who she is but just wants her body or whatever. David was cute, I really hope Laurel ends up with David. 

The plot was good, I enjoyed how Laurel knew that there wasn't something right about the guy who wanted to buy their old house and how in the end she kinda helped fight then trolls off. I hope that in the next couple of books we'll see more of Avalon or whatever it was called and I hope that we learn even more about faeries. 

One of the things about this book that I didn't like was that I thought that the book took a while to get to the action and that it started out really slowly.  Overall I really liked this book and I hope to read the next two books. Hopefully, they will be even more exciting. 

So have you ever read a book where the author took a different look at something that's been done lots of times before? Did you like it or not?

Sincerely,

Peony

Book Review- Little Blog on the Prairie

Gen's family is more comfortable spending time apart than together. Then Gen's mom signs them up for Camp Frontier, a vacation that promises the thrill of living like 1890s pioneers. Forced to give up all of her modern possessions, Gen nevertheless manages to email her friends back home about life at "Little Hell on the Prairie" as she's renamed the camp. It turns out frontier life isn't without its good points, like the cute boy who lives in the next clearing. And when her friends turn her emails into a blog, Gen is happily surprised by the fanbase that springs up. But just when it seems Gen and family might pull through the summer, disaster strikes as a TV crew descends on the camp, intent on discovering the girl behind the nationwide blogging sensation, and perhaps ruining the best vacation Gen has ever had.


I found this book at the library and I started reading it there but I didn't rent it there that day because I already had some books checked out. But when I went back a couple days I ago I decided to get it again. 
As I started reading it, I found it amusing that Gen's family would go on something like this. It even made me wonder if there are actually camps where you can do this kind of stuff...not that I would, but it'd be interesting. 


I found Gen to be a relatable character, in fact, all the characters were good. Her humor is silly and I love how she sneaks texts messages to her friends and then later on faces what happens. I could totally see myself sneaking my phone in to text. 


I loved the research put into this and I enjoyed seeing what it could have been like to live back in the 1890s. That being said, I felt bad for Nora who has lived almost her whole life there homeschooled and only seeing kids her age (maybe) there once a year. And then only to have them leave several months later. I thought that Nora was mean through the whole book and that I thought it was ridiculous that she stayed mean throughout the story. 


I also enjoyed seeing the other characters and learning how they got there and why. But one of the biggest shocks was the shack where Nora and her family have all this modern day stuff and they don't allow any of the rest of the campers to use it. And then when Gen accidently leaves her phone there and Nora's father finds it, I began to really dislike him. I really did. 


One of the most disappointing things for me while reading this book was never actually getting to see the blog. Sure we got to see the text messages and have Gen narrate the story, but I would have loved to have actually have seen the comments and the blog posts myself. And how many readers did the blog get? How did the blog affect her when she got home? Did she continue it or let it die? 


I enjoyed the ending though. Seeing how Nora was able to go on TV and was able to travel to New York city and act like a normal, modern day girl for a while. It was cool. It was also cool seeing how Gen and Caleb stayed in touch afterwards. Plus how that her family might go back again next summer. 


Overall I really enjoyed the book although I think it is meant more for tweens or teens who enjoy history mixed with some boring parts where much doesn't happen. 


On Goodreads: Little Blog on the Prairie
Author's Website: Cathleen Davitt Bell


So if you were able to go to a camp like Gen's, where you lived like how people did in the past, would you go? And what time period would it be? 


Sincerely,
Peony