Review: Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

• Pub. Date: September 2011
• Publisher:Little, Brown & Company
• Format: Hardcover 432pp
• Series: Daughter of Smoke & Bone #1

http://www.lainitaylor.com

"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?"

First Sentence: "Walking to school over the snow-muffled cobbles, Karou had no sinister premonitions about the day."

Once upon a time,

an angel and a devil fell in love.

It did not end well. 

Daughter of Smoke and Bone had my attention from the minute I came across it, the title itself drew me in and then the blurb was something to be extremely curious about.

By far one of the most interesting and unique novels I have read this year. The mythology of the Chimaera and Seraph was highly intriguing and I couldn't get enough of it, I loved Taylor's take on their centuries old war. I also liked the fact that the question of who the bad guys and good guys are is still up in the air.

The world building was well i'm still a little speechless ... it was brilliant. As far as the characters go Karou was the type of female characters I like to read about, the ones that can take care of theirselves and face dangerous situations head on. Akiva was not as fleshed out as Karou and I didn't feel that connection to him. I should have felt something for him after learning his back story and the pain he has endured but I didn't. Also one of the things that really made me take a star away was the insta love. That is one of my biggest pet peeves in books and this one had it.

The pacing was a little off for me. It started off slow but kicked up when Akiva entered the picture. I have to admit I'm not a fan of flashbacks and Daughter of Smoke and Bone has alot. There were times that the flashback had me totally entranced and I was loving every minute of it and then there were a few times when I was getting a little impatient and wanted to know what was going on in the present day.

Then there was the ending. A major cliffhanger that had me in shock and leaving me anticipating for the next book in the series.

Overall this had an original plot with a dark otherworldy setting and a book worth reading.

Book Trailer