Violet Wings

Another of Victoria Hanley's books is Violet Wings.

This book's protagonist is named Zaria, an orphaned fairy who lives with her strict teacher. When the book begins, Zaria is about to turn fourteen, the age at which fairies and genies (by the way, all fairies are female and all genies are male) receive their wands and watches.

Wands enable them to use magic above a certain level; watches show them how much magical energy (radia) they have and up to what level they can perform magic. Zaria and her best friend Leona are rare in their extraordinary abilities - high levels and tons of radia.

But those of you who know even a little bit about Spiderman know that with great power comes great responsibility.

Sadly, our girls don't handle the power high very well, Leona especially. Worst of all, Zaria is attracted to and entranced by the very place that killed her family: Earth.

This book was okay. Its quality, I guess, is similar to Light of the Oracle. Thankfully, it's certainly not as confusing as The Healer's Keep because before every chapter, Hanley adds an excerpt from a history-research genie that explains more about the world into which she's dropping us.

The book leaves a lot of questions unanswered, though. The only thing it really resolves in the end is Zaria decides to become a better person for all that happened. Who knows if that will last long in the sequel?