Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bones by Laini Taylor

Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Author:Laini Taylor
Release Date: September 27, 2011
Publisher: Little, Brown Company
Daughter of Smoke and Bone Book #1
ISBN:  0316134023
ISBN13: 9780316134026
Genre: Young Adult

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?
Karou is human but was raised by underworld characters called chimaeras. She has no clue how she became their ward and has a ton of questions but never gets any answers. Karou is very independent, snarky, artistic mysterious and lonely. Akiva is an Angel and he hates the chimaera with a passion. He is dead set on destroying them and has no humanity left in him, that is until he meets Karou and stops himself from killing her. He is pulled to her from the moment he lays eyes on her and cant begin to realize why. The mystery of their attraction is slowly revealed for what it truly is. I found the pacing to be a bit frustrating at times, when you think things would be revealed it would just drag out longer. The world building in this book is fantastic. Its unique, descriptive and imaginative. The detail in which all the different characters are depicted made it very easy to picture them.  The ending WOW I cant even begin to tell you how it knocked me around. I would have never imagined things would end up that way and hopeful things will be revealed quickly in book 2. DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONES is definitely worth the read.

I gave it 4/5 stars


 

4 comments:

  1. Great review Stacy. So does this book leave readers in a huge cliff hanger? Still sounds like a great story though.

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  2. Yeah it really does. Its not horrible but its frustrating. You finally get some closure of things and then a huge unexpected bomb is dropped and you don't get to see anything of the aftermath.

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  3. Thanks Stacy, I think I still want to read it. :) maybe closer to the second book.

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  4. This complex story is about a girl who has no idea of who she really is. Her life has been filled with creatures that would cause terror to most but have been family to her. Karou is a strong, talented seventeen year old who helps her "family" of demon like characters collect teeth. The teeth have a use, but Karou has never found out what exactly. She just goes to designated sights through portal doors to collect the teeth and then goes back to her private art school and her one friend. Her lonely life is interrupted by the sight of an angel who is trying to put a stop to the teeth trade and the creatures who traffic them. Even though he should destroy Karou ,he can not bring himself to kill her due to her similarities to his long lost love. What follows is an intriguing tale of forbidden love in a lush, imaginative world.

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