This was a Barnes & Noble Nook Free Fridays offering. 
 Laurel has always been a bit odd, but when a weird lump grows on her back and sprouts a flower, she realizes just how odd. As she searches to find out who she is and where she comes from, she discovers that danger is as much a part of her heritage as beauty. 
 Wings was better than I expected. (I expected another version of Twilight.) While the narrative got off to a rocky start with far too much telling and almost no showing, when the main plot finally took off, the whole story got much more interesting; it was almost as if Pike dashed through the first few chapters in order to get to the meat of the story, but in doing so ended up with a flat and uninteresting opening sequence. 
 Once Laurel's would-be-boyfriend arrives on the scene, however, Pike's writing takes on a new shine. The dialogue between Laurel and David is rich, funny, and believable. As a character, David is well-formed and written, with a philosophical, no-nonsense view of the world that helps temper Laurel's panicking over what's happening to her. 
 Unfortunately, a love triangle appears in the form of a faerie named Tamani, who is a much less interesting character. Because he is the one who accompanies Laurel through the climax of the book, it is a much less interesting climax than it could have been. Laurel's attraction to him is instinctive and physical; she likes him because she's supposed to, because they're both faeries, not because he's likeable. 
 Overall, the book shows quite a bit of promise, but doesn't quite deliver on it.