It took me a long time to get over my expectations for this story. You see, I am a firm Victoria Hanley fan. I discovered Seer and the Sword when I was a teenager, caught by Trina Schart Hyman's stunning cover. I loved Hanley's rich and romantic world. I'm not talking about love-romantic, but romantic in the sense of visionary, idealistic, and to quote the dictionary, "marked by the imaginative or emotional appeal of what is heroic, adventurous, remote, mysterious or idealized." I love the way she can blend relationships and a little love-romance into her stories without it dominating the whole plot, as so many YA novels seem to do. (No, I'm not talking about Twilight. I'm talking about how the majority of YA fiction is focused on romantic relationships. It irritated me when I was a teenager and it irritates me now). Anyways.

I was soooo excited when I heard she had a new story coming out! One for tweens! But it's taking me some time to sort out how I feel about it. First, the story seemed completely different than anything she'd written or what I'd expected. It's non-stop action with minimal character development. A young fairy, Zaria, is shocked to discover there is something very unique about her. Suddenly, everything completely changes and she's battling spells she doesn't understand, enemies she can't find, and even her own friends. Her unique powers help her free the world of TirFeyne from an evil villain and she learns a startling secret at the very end. I know that's not a very good plot summary, but I don't want to spoil it.

At first, I didn't like it. It's divided into very short chapters, each one prefaced by a lengthy excerpt from a history of TirFeyne. Some of the excerpts are as long as the chapters! All the fairies have names derived from jewels and every time I thought I had figured out how their world worked, another part of it showed up. Their system of magic was based on complicated mathematical calculations (well, complicated to me!) and involved an odd and seemingly cliched trope of magical-education fantasies, those with more magic despise those without. The nasty human Zaria encounters is unbelievably horrible.

But then I thought about it a little more. And you know what? It works. It really, really does. The action grabs the reader, pulling you along until suddenly you realize "I know these characters!" Every new facet of the world is a like a marvelous surprise. The drama, the confusion, the exaggeration, it all perfectly fits the characters of the twelve-year-old fairies, suddenly encountering completely new circumstances and power they have no idea how to handle. Even the jewel names, which seem to have bugged quite a few readers, fit into Hanley's strangely beautiful world, a world both barren and vibrant. I want to know what happens next!

This book is not going to please fans of YA faerie novels. It's probably not going to work for those who want only the quasi-high fantasy adventure of Hanley's previous stories. But this book is perfect, absolutely perfect, for that in-between stage. Tweens who love romantic and thrilling fantasy but aren't ready for the more edgy YA titles will fall in love with Hanley's elaborately imagined and tensely plotted story.

Verdict: This is the absolutely flawless recommendation for the vast squadrons of little girls (and boys!) who are huge fans of Rainbow Magic but want to move on to something more challenging. Victoria Hanley has a massive and ready-made audience waiting for her newest creation; all we need to do is put it in their hands!

ISBN: 978-1606840115; Published August 2009 by Egmont; ARC received from the publisher at ALA; Purchased for the library (purchased again after it was stolen); Added to my personal wishlist

It is very si-fi It is entertaining in all ways and it keeps you reading even when you have other things to do. Q3P4 AHS/ Rachel P

I thought the world and how it worked was creative. While much was explained in those snippets at the beginning of chapters, important things were discussed in the chapters as well. Knowing how the world was divided (ie. who lived where), knowing how they determined a fairy or genies power and what it meant, and how a fairy godmother or genie godfather were all shown to the reader, and it made the world more real.
I found the plot interesting and engaging. Zaria's journey to earth, her dealings with the evil fairy, and the realization that more may be going on in her world than they knew all kept me interested and wanting more.
Most importantly though, I kept wondering, how the story was going to end. It seemed like a lot of major plots were introduced that couldn't be solved in one book, and for awhile I was afraid that was exactly what was going to happen. I was very happy when I got to the end of the book and realized that it was the start of a series (at least I hope more books are on there way, because this was left very open ended).
For the rest of my review, please visit: http://readingisdreamy.blogspot.com/2011/04/underrated-review-violet-wings.html ( )

This is a good book, but I wouldn't say it's a great book. It gets from okay to better if you keep on reading it, and then there's the ending. The ending is a cliffhanger, and it's good, but there's room for improvement. Then again, there are some ups to the book, like all the mystery, like what happened to Zaria Tourmaline's (that's the main character) parents and brother. There's also a "fairy explanation-thingy" at the beginning of each chapter by "Orville Gold" and that has a little weird explanation.

The story starts out when Zaria is telling about her life story about what happened when she was 9. Her parents and brother disappeared mysteriously disappeared in the "human world". Leona (Leona is Zaria's friend) and Zaria's "rank" which is both Purple, the highest rank of the fairies. They then get caught up in an adventure, where the Forcier (the highest fairy tax collecter and rank) was actually hoarding radia (a fairy's power and the taxes). The Forcier's name is Lily Morganite, and she is responsible for Zaria's parents "incident". ( )

Reviewed by Andrea for TeensReadToo.com

In the Fey world, turning twelve is a big deal. This is when you find out what level of magic you have and what color amount of radia you have. This determines how powerful you are and how much magic you have to use.

When Zaria turns twelve, she learns that she is more important than she thought she was. And after she takes a trip to Earth, she realizes how much she loves it, even though her family was supposedly killed by a human after going through a portal.

She soon learns that people in Feyland want her power. Even Lily, who is her mentor and the Forcier who collects the radia tax every year. When Zaria realizes that Lily isn't as good as she seems, Lily puts spells on her and her friends. Zaria has to learn to use her power to help quickly!

This was a cute fairy story. I think the younger YA audience will enjoy it, and it's a different take on the Fey world. Here, fairies are human-sized, have levels of magic (but they only have a certain amount they can use), and they have wands.

I enjoyed reading about Zaria. She was a cute character who had some pretty good morals. But she had a backbone, too. Her friends were much the same way.

This was a light, quick read. I feel like a lot was left unanswered at the end, though. I want to know more about what happened to Zaria's family, and where Lily went. I'm not sure if there is going to be a sequel or not, but I hope there is. ( )