Spells (Laurel #2), by Aprilynne Pike

Spells is the second book in the Laurel series by Aprilynne Pike and I've already reviewed Wings and if you'd like to get the general gist of the overall story, just click here.  As for the latest installment, a lot is going on in Laurel's world.  She has a whole summer to train at the Academy in the magical realm of Avalon; she has a lot of magical potions, tinctures and recipes to master; she has her two lives to try and keep separate and she has a lot of explainin' to do when her boyfriend David catches her in a kiss with her faerie friend Tamani.  This book has been my favorite in the series so far.  I love the element of faery chemistry that added such a unique layer to this book.  Modern fantasies don't seem to include many special potions or life-saving tinctures and Laurel's often botched attempts gave rise to a nice source of conflict too.  Will the potion work?  Will it produce different results?  Will Laurel finally learn to harness her skills?  One of my favorite things from Wings carried over to this book as well and that was the vivid descriptions of nature and the outdoors.  I love reading books like this during the spring and summer and it really puts me in the mood to listen to the bird songs outside my window, to go for a walk and to reconnect with nature.  I would recommend this series for any fans of fantasy, YA, romance, love-triangles, fae, nature or even chemistry, because that element was really fun in this book.  :)

Favorite things:  the nature references, the chemistry parallels, the love-triangle, the character growth from Laurel's mom, the lead-in to the next book, writing style in general and the incorporation of a modern-day weapon (a gun) that helped keep this fantasy grounded and somehow more realistic and more dangerous.

Criticisms:  I didn't like the cover as much as the first one and the series has been so consistent and innocent that when danger approaches it doesn't feel very scary, because I almost know that they're going to be okay and they're going to figure it out.  Other than that, nothing, it was a great book!  So, I'm sure you can guess I thought this one was...

Overall:  5 out of 5 stars!  I heard the next one wasn't quite as good though, so that's a bummer.  I do hope the 4th book returns to the quality of Wings and Spells though if that's true about Illusions.  Read this series if you haven't, it's worth a spot in your huge TBR piles people.  :)