Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Title: Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Author: Laini Taylor
Pages: 432
Publisher: Paperback, Little, Brown & Company (ARC)

From Goodreads:

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 otherworldly 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?

My review:

This book was sooo good!

Now I'm here to tell you why.

Laini Taylor is an amazing writer. The way she added so much detail so that you could everything in your head was just amazing. She has a unique style of writing, which at first I was a little mystified by but then loved. Seeing everything was just made easier when she described it against something we already know.

For example: Eye's like a tiger.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone isn't just written in one point of view either, which is great because you get that chance to see the situation in the eyes of another person. I love when authors do this because it allows you to see what's going on in the character's head and therefore lead you to understand them better.

The big issue of the story on it's own isn't that unique, and it's something we've read more than once, but when it was added with all the different elements of the story it seems like its own unique story. It really goes well with the book since it allows you the see how the different sides of the war view not only the war itself but also each other and themselves.

I enjoyed how the different parts had their own little sentences to tell you what you could expect of the segment. It was great when you got to read about what happened in the past, so that you understood why characters were acting they way they were in the present.

The characters stay true to themselves, they didn't just magically change their way of speech or manner when something drastic happened. Sure, they adapted to the changes, but they did it in their character like way. It's something hard to describe, but I hope that made some sort of sense. They were also great characters to read about. Each one had a unique personality that made them stand out in the story and of course you just loved them (or hated them). I feel like some characters, such as Kaz, were suddenly forgotten about, their own little story either didn't end or just wasn't tied up nicely. But seeing as this is going to be a series (we can expect at least one more book since that could not have been the ending) I hope that Laini Taylor is going to bring them back in some way and tie it up.

Or not. It could be that Karou's journey in the human world is done and that for now on it'll take place elsewhere.

A few things confused me though, like the location of Elsewhere (mostly likely not called that). And where exactly is the shop? Is it in this intersection between Elsewhere and the Human world? And how the chimera's world is connected to the seraph's? Because if they were in the same world, I don't understand why the serphas went as far as they did with the door and the hands. (Don't want to spoil it! So that may sound confusing).

*mini spoiler: skip till end of spoiler if you don't want to read*

Karou and Akiva are so cute together! I knew that something was going to keep them apart though, their relationship(if that's what they had) just started off way too fast and without issue for it to keep going smoothly.

*End of mini spoiler*

The title of the book makes perfect sense by the end, and so does the cover! (The cover pictured here, in case they change it when they really publish it.)

I'm definitely going to have my eyes out for the next book.

Overall:

Did I fall in love with this book? Heck yes! I loved this book. I put off summer reading, which is due on Monday, to read this book. I spent consecutive hours reading this book, missing most of dinner, because I was just so captured and enraptured in it.

Would I recommend it to someone? Of course! Why wouldn't you read Daughter of Smoke and Bone?

Rating: 4.73/5

Karina