If I Promise You Wings - by A K Small (Hardcover)

About the Book

Seventeen-year-old Alix balances her fashion internship at Paris's premier feather boutique with her grief and relationships, including an emotional love triangle.

Book Synopsis

Hold Still meets You've Reached Sam in this lyrical novel about one young woman's journey through the Paris fashion scene as she chases promises, overcomes grief, and falls in love.

Alix Leclaire has a plan: graduate high school and land her dream job as a feather artist at Mille et une Plume, where her creations will help define high fashion. Her best friend Jeanne will get a record contract and they'll take over the Paris art scene together.

But then Jeanne dies.

Alix is lost, until the day she feels Jeanne pushing her to the feather boutique. Soon, Alix is living a life she hardly recognizes--pursuing a passionate affair with an alluring artist, stealing feathers for her own creations, risking everything as Jeanne once did. But then Alix meets Blaise, the dreamy musician who comforts her, centers her, challenges her.

Torn between two beautiful boys and coping with grief, Alix's art takes on a frightening and wild beauty. Living like Jeanne has given her everything she thought she wanted--but she must decide whether to hide in Jeanne's shadow or soar on her own wings.

Review Quotes

"Readers will feel quickly at home among the feather bins at Mille et une Plume and get swept up in the life Alix creates for herself.... Her steamy romantic ­entanglements with the shop owner's charming son and Jeanne's friend, a guitarist, will satisfy romance-lovers, though it doesn't detract from Alix's story of working toward her dreams and reckoning with her memory of her late friend.
VERDICT A charming story of personal growth that glitters with the art and culture of modern Paris."
--School Library Journal

"A prettily executed account of a young woman learning how to spread her wings... Readers will remain intrigued by the locale and atmosphere until the finale."--Kirkus Reviews

"Set in dazzling, breathtaking Paris, If I Promise You Wings draws readers into Small's vibrant world of plumes... A sparkling, unusual novel."--Booklist

"Small transports readers to Paris in this dreamy portrait of grief, fashion, and love... Unhurried, ethereal prose works well to present this fanciful rendition of learning how to move on. Elements of seemingly unlimited freedom, found family, impossible dreams, and dancing on the Eiffel Tower in the rain make this lyrical novel a sure thing for romantics and Francophiles alike."--Publishers Weekly

"If I Promise You Wings is a beautiful masterpiece--vivid, immersive, and a heart-wrenching depiction of grief and healing. A. K. Small has written absolute magic."--Rachael Lippincott, New York Times bestselling author of Five Feet Apart

"A. K. Small is a conjurer of precise beauty. If I Promise You Wings is an exquisite tale of artistic ambition, the dreams of youth, the weight of friendship, and (of course) the thing with feathers. If you know, you know. An absolute stunner of a novel."--Anna Godbersen, bestselling author of the Luxe series

About the Author

A.K. Small is a French-American writer. She was born in Paris, France, fell in love with ballet at a young age, and grew up in the 9th arrondissement, in Toulouse Lautrec's old loft. She moved to Richmond, Virginia at age fifteen and has lived in various American cities. She's a graduate of The College of William and Mary and has an MFA in fiction from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her first novel, Bright Burning Stars was adapted to film as Birds of Paradise. When she's not writing, she spends time with her husband, her daughters, and her dog. Visit her online at aksmallwords.com.