Spells by Aprilynne Pike

So the Video that is included gives you a quick book preview for spells. Since Spells is book number two from Aprilynne Pike I am going to do a plot summary for Wings and then again for Spells. SPOILERS INCLUDED IN BOTH SUMMARYS.


Wings (Book 1): In Wings we were introduced to all the main players in the series so far. The main plot goes something like this; Laurel has just moved to a new house and started high school. When a lump on her back blooms into a flower that sort of resembles wings she finds out she is actually a fairy. After much research and experimenting with her friend David she realizes she is a plant. She doesn’t have human cells and she doesn’t bleed or breathe oxygen. She goes to her childhood home with her parents one day to get it ready to sell. While in the forest she meets Tamani a male fairy who seems to know her and she is told that she is a fairy, the flower will fall off until next fall and that she was given to her parents so that she would inherit their family land. The family land holds the gate to Avalon which is where all the fairies live. Trolls are the enemies of fairies and they are trying to get into Avalon by buying the family land. Tamani tells her that it is essential that the trolls not get access to the land or Avalon will be in trouble. She tells him she will try her best but when her father gets sick, her mother decides that to pay the medical bills she must sell the land to Mr. Barnes. Laurel doesn’t trust Mr. Barnes so she and her friend David follow him home. There they find that he is a troll living with other trolls and he poisoned her father to get access to the land. They are discovered and the trolls attempt to kill her and David by drowning them in the river. She and David use each other to breathe underwater and they survive and run to tell Tamani what happened. Tamani then tells them to take him to Barnes house so that he can kill them. After he leaves her she follows him and watches as he kills 3 trolls but when he reached Barnes he gets shot and can’t finish it. So Laurel picks up a gun and points it at Barnes but he doesn’t believe she will shoot him. He lunges for Laurel and she shoots him in the shoulder out of reflex. Barnes then runs away and David and Laurel take the gravely injured Tamani back to the woods by the gate to Avalon. When they get there the Winter Fairy Jamison opens the gate from the inside and while the other spring fairies take Tamani to get healed Jamison talks to Laurel. He tells her that he is proud of her and that the fairies are willing to help her and her family if tell give Laurel the land. He then gives her a huge Diamond and a special elixir of healing for humans. He then tells her to hurry because her father doesn’t have much time left. She and David rush to the hospital and give some of the elixir to her father and then she gives some to David. She then tells her parents the truth about what she is and tells them that the Diamond was given to them in return for putting the land in her name. At the end of this book she still firmly wants to stay in the human world with her loved ones and starts a relationship with David. However she is still drawn to the fairy world and to the bewitching Tamani.


Spells (Book 2): This book starts six months after the events in wings. Laurel’s relationship with David has grown and deepened but her relationship with her parents is still strained due to her being a fairy. When the book opens we find out that over summer break Laurel has been summoned to attend the Academy of Avalon due to her lack of education as a fall fairy. Laurel is at first weary of traveling to the woods much less Avalon because she is worried about her connection to Tamani and the other fairies. However when she arrives at the woods she is instantly comfortable with Tamani and she goes to Avalon. In Avalon she is torn it too, she is mostly uncomfortable because she does not remember anything nor is she used to the strange customs of the world. It doesn’t help that she is doing nothing at school but reading and study about plants and how to make potions. However the world itself feels very comforting to Laurel because it is where she comes from. Tamani comes to visit her a few times while she is at school and he takes her to the markets and to visit his mother. However this makes her uncomfortable as well because she is a fall fairy and therefore she is higher in rank than Tamani the spring fairy. This leads to him acting subservient and she does not like this custom since it is so different from her life at home. She also finds a friend at school named Katya and a fall fairy named Mara who hates Laurel. Tamani comes back and takes Laurel on a trip to the world tree which is where his father became a part of the tree and added his voice to that of other fairies. While there she is told that David bothers Tamani so much because Tamani can’t just proclaim his intentions anything that happens between them has to be started by Laurel because she is fall and he is spring. When her summer break is finished she returns to her home in the human world but before she does Jamison tells her to be weary because something is coming and she should not forget that Barnes is still out there somewhere. Laurel feels bad because she hasn’t been very good at making simple potions and other fall fairy magic so she is still behind and when she gets home she is still having trouble making vials and potions. When home Laurel reunites with David and we find out that although her father is excited about her being a fairy her mother has been distant ever since. This distance is made easy by the fact that her mother opened up a natural medicine store beside the bookstore her father owns. We are also told that Chelsea is dating Ryan. Laurel blossoms after school starts and then David and Laurel go to a party that Ryan and Chelsea are throwing. While there they realize that trolls are outside waiting for them so they run to the car and then try to speed away but they crash and are attacked by several trolls. David injures his leg and a troll rips off some of Laurel’s flower petals. They are saved by a mysterious woman named Klea who takes them to a camp and gives them guns to protect them from Barnes whom Klea is tracking. David trusts Klea but Laurel doesn’t so she hides the fact that she is a fairy and Barnes is a troll. The next day Laurel goes to the old house to see Tamani and to clean and air out the house. She tells him about the incident with the trolls and with Klea then she and he clean the house. The next day David set up a romantic picnic in the woods and they enjoy each other’s company and discus the future even thought Laurel isn’t sure she will be able to have one outside of Avalon. Then Laurel is invited to Avalon for the Samhain festival. She sneaks there without telling David and meets Tamani who escorts her to the summer fairy play which is a loose version of a midsummer night’s dream. Then they have drinks and food and Tamani kisses her. She runs away and Tamani follows her back out if Avalon where David is waiting and he kisses her again telling her that she really does like Avalon and is happy she just won’t let herself realize it. David feels betrayed and leaves her and says not to call him until he is ready to talk to her. When she gets home she finds a note saying that Barnes has Chelsea and Laurel must be at the lighthouse in time or else. Laurel goes out to her back woods to look for the sentries she is supposed to have but they are not there. So she goes to David and tells him Barnes have Chelsea. David grabs the guns that Klea gave him and then Laurel stops by her mother’s shop to get ingredients to make a sleeping potion. Her mother is worried but Laurel doesn’t have time to tell her everything so they both tell each other they love each other and Laurel leaves. When they get to the light house hey find that the tide has come in witch means that the light house is sitting on an island surrounded by the ocean water. Salt water is draining to plants and it will harm Laurel so David carries her across. In the house the trolls take a gun away from David and beat him while Laurel crushes a potion vial in her coat pocket. The potion puts 3 of the lesser trolls out cold but it burns Laurels hand and David is still tied up and hurt and Barnes still has Chelsea. Just when it seems all hope is lost Klea shows up after Barnes hears something and had her toss her gun up the stairs. She then goes to stand beside David and pulls a gun out of his waist band and shoots Barnes before he can shoot them. Klea and her team have a small boat and are able to help the kids across the water to their car. They then get in and start the heat for David and Laurel treats her friends’ wounds with her healing potion. Chelsea says that she knew about Laurel and thinks it is awesome but Laurel says her secret comes with a price, danger and secrets. Laurel asks Chelsea if she wants laurel to use a memory potion on her or can she handle it. Chelsea says she can deal with it. Later that night Laurel tells David that he is the one that she wants and if he wants her to she will try to cut ties with Tamani and Avalon because she loves David and he is the one for her. David forgives her and the book ends with Laurel going to the cabin in the woods to tell Tamani good bye but she instead tells Shar everything that happened. She then says she won’t be around very much and she was saying good bye to Tamani but Shar tells her that Tamani already left because he was reassigned. After Laurel leaves we learn that Tamani didn’t really leave yet but he has been assigned a new mission that he thinks he can handle.


Review:
I love this world that Aprilynne has created an awesome world and mythology to go along with her world. I think it is awesome how she has created a cast system based on the rolls they play in society which is dictated by what season you were born. All this shows her creativity even though I don’t agree with the practice in the book. I think this is defiantly a book worth your time if you like character driven books. It defiantly has the classic story line of a love triangle which can sometimes be tedious. However, in this book I understand it more and it doesn’t bother me as much as other series because the love triangle is so closely related to the pull of the two different worlds she is a part of. Both guys are very different and yet great guys I can see why she has such a hard choice. I wish we saw more of Tamani outside of the Submissive role he plays in Avalon but alas that is what the next book is for. The only issue I can find with this book for me is that I wish there was more action going on in the story throughout the book and less day to day life at school and such. I can’t wait to see what happens next and what assignment Tamani was given. I also hope to learn more about the winter queen and Mara and see more of Jameson and Chelsea.