Destined (Wings, 4)

Laurel, as always, is a fabulous main character.  I love that, although she is fae, she has retained her humanity and has tried to embrace both sides of her life.  But in her quest to save those she loves, both human and faerie alike, Laurel can often be more than a little reckless.  She is quick to react and to act, but not always with as much thought as maybe she should have.  But her selflessness is endearing, even if she is often too self-sacrificing.  I like that, as a character, she is written to be imperfect, which makes her character one that is easy to love and to cheer for.  What I find most interesting about her as a character is the type of person she has been created to be.  She really doesn’t fit anywhere, not fully.  She was raised as a human, not knowing her own heritage as a faerie.  She has human ideals and her ways of thinking are fully rooted in the human world.  But there is no escaping the fact that she is not human, but faerie.  There is so much about her that is completely different from humanity, not the least of which is her very anatomy.  These things set her apart from her human friends and family in fundamental ways.  But nor does Laurel fully fit into the faerie world.  She hasn’t grown up living within the faerie ways, and doesn’t remember her early childhood in Avalon.  Many of the faerie traditions and ideals seem wrong to her because she wasn’t raised within them.  As a result, Laurel isn’t just alien in the human world as a faerie, but in the faerie world with her human ways.  Pretty clear commentary on the life of a teenager, or anyone!David was a star in this book, as was Chelsea, too.  David took on a fight that wasn’t necessarily his own, the fight to save Avalon.  Considering he had lost his beloved Laurel to Tamani, there was no reasonable expectation that he take that on.  But he put aside his ego and his feelings and stepped forward to be the hero Avalon needed.  On the flip side, there was the Queen.  I couldn’t stand her, which was appropriate for the story line.  She was supposed to be the extremely powerful Winter faerie Queen and she seemed to be more concerned with her own power than those who she was supposed to be leading.    The ending (no spoilers!) was done in a really creative and interesting  way.  It was not the traditional, “happy ever after” ending that I was expecting.  There is a certain expectation for a neatly tied-up ending, especially in a faery tale.  While it wasn’t a bad ending, it wasn’t at all what would fit that faery tale formula, more bittersweet than sweet.  It was terribly beautiful in some ways and terribly heartbreaking in other ways.  I came into the ending expecting it to follow that formula, but after experiencing it, no other ending would have been as emotionally right for the series.  It could have ended at the end of the final chapter, with a perfectly acceptable ending.  But immediately after that, Pike inserts a note to the reader, a note that brings the reader into the mind of the author and subsequently into the mind of David.  The note explains that there is more to the end of the story, an end that is not so “HEA” but more human.  In other words, more realistic and more imperfect.  This ending is written in the form of a letter and was beautiful, and terribly sad in so many ways.  Thoroughly emotional and full of its own magic.Things to love about Illusions...   --The themes.  This book was a bit darker than the others, and touched on some more universal themes.  I think the darker tone made the story, although fantasy, more believable because the situations were not glossed over.     --The intensity.  This was my favorite of the four books, far more action-packed and far more intense than the others.  There was more of the “sweet fairy tale” feel throughout the other books, until the end of the third and this one and I liked the more realistic feel to the darker Things I wanted more or less of...   --A little more of the Queen.  I felt that her character was underutilized in the overall story.  Her aloofness and refusal to protect her own seemed to be too much out of character for those of Avalon so I wanted to know more about why.  I really would have liked a more expanded role for her, more depth into her character that would have explained more fully her reactions and actions.Some quotastic goodness...   --Sleep wasn’t an option, not while the only thing between him and an angry Winter faerie was a thin line of table salt (7).   --“Never underestimate the power of a situation you put yourself into (23).”   --“No person’s life should be defined by a single purpose, especially one they didn’t choose (246)."   --The best, most lasting changes are those which come about gradually; to reach great heights, a tree must first put down extensive roots (331).My recommendation:  I am sad to see this series end and can only hope for a companion series in the future!  A must read!

Destined is an amazing read! From the first page to the last, it was fast paced, heart wrenching, romantic, action packed and just a wonderful book! It’s a great ending to such a fun series that I have enjoyed reading.Destined picks up where Illusions left off. Laurel and her friends are dealing with a very angry winter fairy Yuki. It starts off or continues from Tamani’s apartment where they have Yuki being held. It’s not long before Klea shows up and everything goes crazy from there. After some battles happen Laurel and Tamani make the decision to go to Avalon to warn them. What they don’t anticipate is taking David and Chelsea with them. It’s been a very long time since any humans have been allowed to enter Avalon.Most of the book takes place in Avalon. There are lots of epic battles that are fought and not everyone will survive. Laurel will have so many tough choices to make not only with her love life but also who to save in Avalon. She wants to save everyone but that is not possible. There are even some that I was surprised that she tries to save. For being humans David and Chelsea really came into their own in this book. The way they took commands and the battles that they were involved in were amazing. I don’t want to give anything away but this is such an amazing ending.I was happy with the way the book ended. The author’s letter after the ending really got me though. You’ll have to read it to find out what I’m talking about. There are some characters that I am left wondering what happened to them after Laurel and her friends left Avalon. I know there is another book in this series that has some of the characters from the previous books that I am looking forward to reading. Overall a wonderful, fun, and entertaining series that I highly recommend!

The story opens to a very tense scene. Yuki is being held hostage and Tamani, Laurel, David, Chelsea and Shar are taking turns guarding her. Now that the know she is a winter faerie, they know how dangerous she is. They are expecting Klea to come for her. When she finally does, it's chaos and carnage. Laurel's sole purpose of being sent to the human world was to guard the gate of Avalon, but Yuki has ripped that information from her mind and our stalwart heroes know it will not be long before the assault on Avalon begins. In the wake of Yuki's rescue, our friends race to get to Avalon to warn them of the imminent arrival of Lea with Yuki and any number of trolls. They arrive in time to warn Avalon, but the Queen, foolish as she seems to be, heads back to the Palace her successor in tow and about 200 guards that will be essential in the defending of Avalon. In their arsenal, the young heroes have Jamison, another winter faerie. He takes them to the Palace where he relays the story of King Arthur and Excalibur. King Arthur, being a human, rose up and protected the court of Avalon with the mighty Excalibur, only it's not a myth and the sword is real and embedded in a stone. Jamison requests David take of the sword to defend Avalon once again. With sword in hand, David becomes invincible, but he will be vulnerable if the sword falls from his hands. Leading the way, David with Tamani, Laurel and Chelsea head off to defend Avalon against the horde of trolls storming the gates. While danger and the possibility of death has been central to every volume, none are more tense than this final volume. The stakes in the final battle are high with either side unwilling to give in. Laurel, Tamani and company fight to protect Avalon and the right to live another day, while Klea fights to right the wrongs perpetrated against her. Yuki fights for Klea with a misguided sense of loyalty. The battle does end, but at what cost? Laurel also comes to understand who it is that holds her heart, finally at the end of all things. Where David and Tamani had been rivals for Laurel's attentions, now they become brothers in arms. Where Laurel and Chelsea are the best of friends, now she feels jealous of Chelsea's love of David. Laurel finally has to accept her own feelings for one as well as the hurt she must cause the other, but she must at last embrace one of the boys and let the other one go. Within this final installment there is an overwhelming amount of sorrow and tragedy, but there is also love, joy and the celebration of life. It is never an easy thing to say goodbye to those we care about, but life moves on, and they remain, as they always were, locked in our hearts and minds.

I've loved this series and, like many, am sad to come to an ending. I'm here to tell you to take a chance and try this series if you like fantasy, romance and some action.After reading the 'The 13' series (by Michelle Harrison) about fairies, I started looking for more books on them. I came across 'Wings' and thought I'd try it and see what it was like. Well, boy am I glad I did! I've thoroughly enjoyed the books and I think if your a teenager with a big imagination or an aspiring author, you should buy 'Wings' and just enjoy the emotional merry-go-round of realistic life but with a little magic touch to it. If you like the first book, then go for the rest and I'm pretty sure you'll feel the same way I'm feeling right now. :)The story starts off with 'Wings' where Laurel, the stubborn but likable and typical teenager finds out a big secret with help from David - a sweet, caring and everything you would want in a boyfriend guy, who plays a big part of Laurel' s love life throughout the series. But then comes along Tamani - wild, cocky (in a good way!) and eccentric. As he reveals the answers to Laurel' s questions (to do with the 'big secret' I mentioned earlier) Laurel realizes that she's not only falling for David but for Tamani as well. She's always been pressured to choose between them but in the end she makes a decision which I'm relieved with because I always thought that Pike would leave it hanging open with Laurel saying she loves them both and she couldn't stand to live without either of them but, good on her for making a decision!Aside from the lovey-dovey stuff, there are threats as well and not just your typical off-the-mill villain - TROLLS! It was really exciting to read about them and a bit creepy but still really good! Destined definitely had the most action and that's why I enjoyed it the most out if the series.Back to the love stuff, I've always liked Tamani better than David and I guess that once you read the story, you'll kind of understand but David is also a great guy and there's a note at the back from Pike saying that she created a letter written by David and you're warned to read it. I think just go ahead and read it, it's too hard to resist and you may as well see what happens. Lots of people have warned you not to read it though so it's your own choice (no pressure!)My fingers are getting kind of tired now so I'll wrap it up. So here's your fantasy, romance and action - try the first book and see how it goes! I'm so envious that you get to read all the books without knowing what happens and get to enjoy them to their fullest point, good luck! :)P.s try the 13 series, there's a darker side than these books but still worth a read.P.p.s The rebel fairies you should try as well!P.p.p.s I know that I've spelt fairy wrong but I couldn't remember how to spell the way how it is written in these books so apologies! :)

Being the last book in this series I had a feeling there would be plenty of action in it, but I never imagined it would start so early on in the story and continue pretty much throughout the whole book! It felt like I was holding my breath the entire time because it was so tense and exciting.There were some really sad moments and incredibly touching scenes that kept me completely enthralled by the events unfolding in front of me. There was an interesting addition that came in the form of Excalibur which added yet another magical twist to the story.At one point an awful misunderstanding threatened to destroy the prediction I had made about the ending, this was definitely one of the moments that had me holding my breath.Towards the end of the book it became a race against time and I could almost feel the panic and fear rolling out of the pages at me. Once things had come to an end I thought I had it all figured out but then came `The Last Word' - an extra section at the end, kind of like an epilogue, that I hadn't expected at all.Although not everything ended how I had hoped, I still felt happy with the conclusion and I can happily say that I thoroughly enjoyed this series. Each book had me on the edge of my seat and kept me turning page after page trying to find out what would happen next. I'm actually going to miss Laurel, Chelsea, David, Tamani and all the other lovely characters in these books.Fantastic, magical and addictive books that I would highly recommend.

Definitely the best in this series. This rather epic finale takes place over a 24 hour period and barely slows down for 5 seconds. It was just action action action all the way through - rather a turn around from the other 3 books in this series.I can't go into details because of this being a last book in a series but I will say that I thought the ending was just perfect. And definitely not predictable at all - which was nice! I got on much better with Laurel, she seemed to become much less annoying in the midst of all the battles and pressure.So overall a solid 4 stars for Destined. I recommend this series if you are a fan of faery books that are light, fun and have some great action (eventually!)

Warning: May be spoilersThe final book of the wings series and I was not disappointed. From the first book to the last you can see Aprilynne Pike mature as a story teller. I couldn't believe that the book was set on a time period of one day! But she pulled it off. Never a dull moment and it had suspense, romance and great characters.I'm soooo glad that she chose Tamani! Bravo! I personally never had much love for David so didn't feel that sympathetic but I got the drift on what he was feeling. However I was glad to know that Chelsea ends up happily married and to be honest if he didn't notice her then why should Chelsea and David end up together in the end? So I was quite satisfied with this book but it might be a bit expensive for a kindle book.The reason I didn't give this book five stars is that I found I wasn't that upset to say goodbye to the characters like I normally do over books. But this book wad not the case.Overall a enjoyable read- I would recommend it.

I have to say I loved Wings it is one of my favourite books. The other books Spells and Wild were good but not as good as Wings.I did enjoy Destined but was reluctant to buy it because of the reviews on Davids letter the final piece of writing at the end of the book.Some of the aspects that I did enjoy was the love triangle at first I thought that David was better for Laurel however i grew to like Tamani and found he was much better for Laurel. Against my better judgement I read the letter. David's letter was a big disappointment Pike built his character to be nice and caring and the letter felt so fake. I also felt so sorry for Chelsea and I really felt like crying. The book I would recommend but I would suggest not read Davids letter it ruined the whole book for me.