Book Review: Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor

Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor

Release Date: January 1, 2013

Publisher: Little, Brown Book for Young Readers

Source: Library

Summary

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.

This is not that world.

Art student and monster's apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.

In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.

While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.

But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?

(Courtesy of Goodreads)

My Review

By the time I finished Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor I was hooked and excited for the third book. Unfortunately, it took me a while to get hooked as the first have was rather drawn out and lacked action. However, the action of the second half and the merging of the different story lines from the beginning of the book redeem the book as a whole.

Book Review: Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

Release Date: September 27, 2011

Publisher: Little, Brown Book for Young Readers

Source: Library

Summary

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 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?

(Courtesy of Goodreads)

My Review

From the start, I was intrigued by Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor. The story is so different from the typical young adult books you see today. The story is told from multiple points of view that don't appear to connect at first but when they do, they converge seamlessly. It is not your typical love story, but so much more and by the end of the book you just want to pick up the next one.