Wings

Basic plot synopsis: Preternaturally lovely teenage girl discovers she is something other than human—the big tip-off is when she starts growing wing-like flowers out of her spine--and that she is to play a key role in securing the future of her supernatural kin. Insert love triangle between girl, human boy, and supernatural boy. Add villains for conflict. Mix and enjoy.

It took me about 50-60 pages to get into this book. Honestly I almost gave up on it, but I hung in there and did end up enjoying the read. I only wish the first several chapters weren’t full of awkward dialogue, flat character development, and way-too-obvious clue dropping. Things steadily improve once the plot gets going. I wish the author had truncated the whole discovery-of-supernatural-self portion since the reader knows from the book cover that this discovery is coming. Once the character, Tamani, (the more alluring of the two guys in the love triangle) appears, the book gets infinitely better. The author slips back into cliché dialogue when the Big Conflict with the Bad Guy scene unfolds—for instance: “You’re not going to get away with this,” and “You can scream all you want now. No one’ll hear you.”--but happily this sort of dialogue passes quickly, and the interesting elements of the story resume.

There are quite a few people on hold for this book and it’s the kind of story that will appeal to Twilight fans. Many readers won’t mind or notice the things that gave me pause. One thing I did like is that the main character is a very strong girl who takes action. The end is set up for a sequel or a series, and I would certainly read more. Hopefully the second book will be a little more subtle than the first with less canned dialogue and even more emphasis on the love triangle.