Days of Blood and Starlight (Laini Taylor)

Title: Days of Blood and Starlight

Author: Laini Taylor

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Length: 517

Rating: 5/5

In this sequel to Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Karou has finally learned who she really is. But this revelation and the betrayal it exposes shatters her world. To avenge her people, Karou is pulled into a deadly war between angels and demons that has been raging on for centuries.

This book is both stunningly gorgeous and terribly tragic. I had the pleasure of meeting author Laini Taylor at a book signing, where she admitted that it took her a while to realize that this book had a completely different tone from the Daughter of Smoke and Bone, the tone of a war book.

This isn’t the magical, romantic world of Prague any more. Karou teams up with the monsters, but still struggles to find the clear line between good and evil, while the reader roots for it to never exist, because we love characters on both sides of the war. We get the same struggle from Karou’s angel, Akiva, and I loved seeing the world from his point of view.

The book was just so beautiful, and so well-written, and I’m so upset I have to wait for the third book in the trilogy to come out. Until then, all I can do is hope that Karou and Akiva can find some sort of peace, because I’ve come to love them and all their friends so much!

You can find a great interview with Laini Taylor here.  

Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Laini Taylor)

Title: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Author: Laini Taylor

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Length: 418 pages

Rating: 5/5

In the human world of Prague, Karou is a talented art student with bright blue hair who creates fantastical drawings of monsters and storylines to go with them. She’ll tell you with a quirky smile that they’re real, and you won’t believe her. But the monsters are real, and they’re her only family. When scorched hand prints start appearing on doors all over the world, Karou is drawn into a brutal other-worldy war. Who is Karou, and what side is she on?

Everything about this novel is utterly gorgeous. The European setting, the characters- from chimera made of different animal body parts to winged angels- and especially, the writing. Beautifully crafted from the first sentence, I occasionally got lost in the words, but was scared to get too lost in Karou’s world, where there is no exact line between good and evil, and dangerous beings spilled from another world, pulling Karou into their battles.  

Karou, more than anything, desires is to know who she is. She feels like part of her is missing. The story is artfully constructed backwards, so that all is revealed as Karou discovers it- much like a mystery. One must read at least two-thirds of the book before the significance of the title and cover alone are revealed. Even though Karou and the reader don’t know who she is, we still love her. She’s smart, tough, funny, and flawed because nothing of the other world has been explained to her.

I WANT MORE (yes there will be a sequel). By far the best book I’ve read yet this year, and would have definitely been included in the Top Books of 2011 had I read it in time. Seriously, treat yourself and go read this book.