REVIEW: Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

RATING: 3.5-4 STARS/5

“Walking to school over the snow-muffled cobbles, Karou had no sinister premonitions about the day.” – Daughter of Smoke & Bone

“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 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 beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery 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?”

– Taken from Goodreads review

Angels, devils, monsters, humans… otherworlds. I was pretty excited to get my hands on this book to say the least. Paranormal romance has always been my favorite genre.

Since Dreams of Gods & Monsters came out and the trilogy is now complete I thought I’d give it a try.

The descriptions of the drawings in Karou’s sketchbook fascinated me as well as the scenery, Prague and all the other places Laini Taylor described, the teeth. There was enough detail so that I could picture everything but not so much that it made me skip pages trying to get to action. I loved the aspect of hope and wishes. The give and take relationship between getting something you think you wanted but for what price? It makes you think. It’s realistic and not ohhhh everything comes so easy! I liked that Karou wasn’t a delicate little thing. Her ‘job’ could get her hurt, and she did get hurt. She was tough and could handle it. These things I liked.

One thing that bothered me while reading was the extensive use of the suffix “-ness”. Oh.my.gosh! It was getting on my nerves. Beautiful-ness. Great-ness. Whole-ness. Blue-ness…. but that’s just me.

Another was that for the greater part of the beginning of the book it was in Karou’s POV (which I liked) and then abruptly switched to Kaz’s (her ex-boyfriend). From there it went back and forth between different characters. This wasn’t a major deal but it caused it to be a choppy read for me.

All-in-all I did like the book. I’d lean closer to 3.5 stars for the majority of the book.

Would I re-read this: Probably. Most likely after I finish the whole trilogy to see what I missed.
Would I recommend this to a friend: Yes I would.

TSR, Tru

(DISCLAIMER: I did not receive this book from anyone —I borrowed it from my library— nor was I paid from anyone to read and review it. The above review is solely my own opinion, good or bad. Amazon links are a part of their affiliates program so any purchases made through those links will give me a small percentage of income.)