*Review* Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

I cannot believe it's been a year since I posted anything here. I keep saying I'm going to get regular and post stuff because I have lots to say!!! Hehe. Anyway, I thought I'd post this review that I did for swoonyboyspodcast.com back in August. I love this book and CANNOT wait till the third book comes out I think in February. Anywho, here's my review.



Daughter of Smoke & Bone
by Laini Taylor
418 pages


"Daughter of Smoke and Bone," what can I say? Two years have passed since I read DoSaB and just sitting here thinking about what to say transports me back to that eerie but magical otherworld that Laini Taylor so vividly painted in this first book of the trilogy. Laini’s prose are so lush and beautiful that they breathe life into the places and characters that at face value should be terrifying, but as the layers are revealed they became friends I’d want to have and places I’d want to visit. I found myself wishing I could knock on doors, as Karou did, and wait to be granted entrance into, "Elsewhere."

She was no longer in Prague.

Even though she had lived in Brimstone’s shop, she still didn’t understand where it was, only that you could enter through doorways all over the world and end up right here. As a child she used to ask Brimstone where exactly "here" was, only to be told brusquely, "Elsewhere." -- "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" page 35

Karou is a 17 year old art student with blue hair. Her best friend, Zuzana, is totally awesome, in part because she accepted the secret side of Karou, who on a whim could be gone for hours or days running her mysterious "errands" only to come home disheveled and sometimes sick. Who knew that Karou was balancing the life of a normal human girl and a completely separate life of an orphan raised by chimeras, who collected teeth for Brimstone, the wishmonger, and moved about the world through mysterious doorways? Why did he need so many teeth? Why was she an orphan? Why was she raised by these partially human, partially animal creatures? Where exactly are they? I loved Karou’s bravery and determination to find the answers she so longed for even when she is thrust into the center of a war she never knew existed, shaken to the core by death, and comes face to face with an angel bent on revenge - all of which are pivotal to the secrets of her past.

Akiva!!! Can I say SWOON?!?! In so many ways he doesn’t seem swoonworthy. He is an angry angel set out for revenge. But as the story unfolds, you learn that his anger comes from a heart wrenching loss of love so devastating that he vows to avenge the love he will never have again. Part of his plan for revenge involves following Karou and for a long while in the book I’m not sure whether to fear him or love him. But from the moment we meet him there was something about him that pulled at my heart. I ached for him before I even knew why I should. He is described as breathtakingly beautiful and as having "live fire in his eyes," but trust me by the end of the book he is completely swoony. His swoon is one that breaks down barriers of worlds we never thought possible.

There are so many twists and turns with elements of surprise around every corner. This book is not the typical YA book that I’m used to reading. There is no High School girl in love with the new “hot guy” at school – drama ensues. The first page of "DoSaB" reads,

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well.

There is a certain dark theme set up from the beginning, but the thrilling intrigue, epic love, and magical world that Laini Taylor writes so impeccably beautiful, leaves you in awe and begging for more. Although the answers to the burning questions that surface while reading are revealed rather quickly and the book sort of ends abruptly with a "kill me now" ending, you are lucky because you have "Days of Blood and Starlight" to read right away, which continues the brilliance of Taylor’s writing. I had to wait like a year – ugh.

DoSaB is a must read. Don’t let yourself miss out on this epic masterpiece.