REVIEW: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

 

Author: Laini Taylor

Series: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Pages: 432

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Amazon: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Synopsis (Goodreads)

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

REVIEW: 4 out of 5 stars

Karou is a 17 year-old, blue-haired art student who spends her time being a normal teenager in Prague and running ‘special’ errands ‘elsewhere’, she draws detailed creatures in her sketchbooks of mythical creatures but what others don’t know is they are in fact very real and a part of her other magical life.

Akiva is an angel and on a mission to seal each of the portals which link the Chimaera to the human world, he is a trained soldier who has experienced grief and is brutal and unyielding in his ways. I liked the initial introduction we are given to Akiva and his reactions to Karou, the mystery surrounding both of these characters had me intrigued and curious to learn more.

Ms Taylor has given us a twist on Angels and Devils or in this book ‘Chimaera’ as we know of them, they are at war and Karou is about to learn more about elsewhere than what she has ever expected or imagined.

I absolutely loved the main characters, Karou was unique and I loved her journey of self-discovery, Akiva was a mystery and I wanted to learn so much more about him. The romance was beautiful and forbidden and written absolutely perfectly.

I really liked each of the secondary characters, especially Zuzana who is Karou’s best-friend; her loyalty and support was really nice to read about and I am so eager to see a return of Brimstone, I am hoping things aren’t as they appear - Issa, Twiga, and Yasri were also a great supporting cast.

Laini Taylor pulls you into the creative and unique world she has created and you are able to truly experience the exciting story she is telling. Her writing is absolutely amazing, it flows beautifully and you are literally immersed in all of the glorious details.

The only thing I found with the Daughter of Smoke and Bone to be frustrating was the pacing at times was too slow for me but other than this I absolutely loved the thrilling fantasy world Ms Taylor has created.

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well." I absolutely loved this quote! It describes this story perfectly.