Title: Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #1)
Author: Laini Taylor
Published: September 27th 2011
Add It: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon |
Barnes & Noble |
The Book Depository
Around the world,
black hand prints 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 grows 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?
Daughter of Smoke and Bone is an absolutely incredible fantasy novel with unique plot and writing. It captivated me from the very first sentence and held my attention until the very last one. Words
"to be continued..." have never been so frustrating for me to read. Also, have you seen the cover? It's absolutely stunning. That alone is enough for this book to have a secure place on my bookshelf.
“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love.
It did not end well.”
The plot. The best things about this novel were the world creation and writing style. I feel like Taylor
has built a very unique world which definitely stands out among other
angel-demon books. I’m not usually the one to be all excited about too much description,
I’m more egaer to read wicked and great dialogue, but this book was written so
uniquely that it didn’t bother or tire me at all. I was intrigued by the fact
that our heroine was brought up by demons, therefore, angels really seem like
enemies at first sight, but over the time we see that everything isn’t as black and
white as we thought. Their history is painted bloodred by betrayals,
death and war. What I found the most fascinating was the
society of Chimaera aka the Monsters. It was all so very complex and surprisingly fresh take on demons.
The characters. There were 4 of them who caught my attention
as soon as they were introduced. Karou is
strong, independent, compassionate, loyal and sarcastic (which always adds an
extra point in my book). Akiva is the other protagonist and when
we first meet him, he is blinded by rage and cruelty, but beneath that façade
is a beautiful tortured soul, he is strong and been through a lot. Brimstone
was such an interesting character and I wish there would have been more of him.
I’d like to see a novella of him or something, because this just wasn’t enough. I feel
like we didn’t get to see that many shades of his personality and I’m eager to
learn more about him as a character. Thiago was probably the one I should've hated the most
and I did, sort of, but I’m intrigued by how he got to the point where he
became so vicious and vindictive.
One thing that stood out while reading this book were the
names of the characters. Like with Peeta and Katniss - you just can't
mix them up with characters from other books. Karou and Akiva are
the two names I liked the most, they're unique and different. There are
enough Noras, Wills, Janes etc so it's quite refreshing to see something
new and interesting. Whether you're a fan of these names or not, you
must admit there're probably very few books, if at all, with characters
named like this.
On the
other hand, while I though this book was pure awesomeness, I kind of guessed
some of the plot twists. It’s always great to play bingo and see what moves you
can guess, but there’s nothing better than a book keeping me on the edge of my
seat and surprising me when I least expect it. I figured out the huge reveal about 100 pages before it
even happened, therefore, I was a bit disappointed by that.
“Oh, it’s not magic. The wishes don’t really come true.”
“Then why do it?” She shrugged.
“Hope? Hope can
be a powerful force. Maybe there’s no actual magic in it, but when you
know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can
make things happen, almost like magic.”
In the end
I was extremely satisfied with the amazingness that is Daughter of Smoke & Bone and I’m eagerly looking forward to
receiving my copy of Days of Blood &
Starlight which was luckily dispatched last week so it should arrive soon. Yay!
So.. Do I recommend? Umm.. Yes! It was definitely something fresh and original
and that’s something I always enjoy tremendously.
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
Meet the
author
Oh, and it's got a beautiful trailer, it's one of the prettiest I've seen where there aren't actors involved, just art and drawings. Simple, yet stunning!
