Jen K’s #CBRIV Review #38: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Awesome book! Go read it now. Or read the review first.

Scootsa1000’s #CBR4 Review 52: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

Yay! Finally book #52, and I’m happy to report its a really good one.

But first, a bit of housekeeping. Now that I’ve hit my goal, I have to say I just don’t think I’m going to get around to reviewing the stack on the “to review” pile. These books include: Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner, World War Z by Max Brooks, Enders’ Game by Orson Scott Card, Julia’s Child by Sarah Pinneo, 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson, Wool Vol. 1 by Hugh Howey, Messy by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, and The Truth About Forever/Keeping the Moon/Someone Like You/This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen. Some were great (World War Z, Wool). Some were completely entertaining (Messy, Julia’s Child). Some were formulaic and predictable (Then Came You, all books by Sarah Dessen). And some I just didn’t get (I’m looking at you, Ender’s Game). I’ll start reviewing again in January for CBR5, but until then will be helping Joemyjoe and Bunnybean meet their Cannonball quotas by posting some reviews for them.

Earlier this year, along with many of my fellow Cannonballers, I fell under the spell of Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I immediately pre-ordered the sequel on my Kindle, and was pleasantly surprised when it showed up last week.

Days of Blood and Starlight takes place pretty much immediately after the end of Smoke and Bone. After breaking her wishbone, Karou remembered her life as Madrigal, and her love story with Akiva. Now that she knows he is responsible for the deaths of Brimstone and the rest of her chimaera family, she will never forgive him or allow herself to love him again.

The brutal war between the chimaera and seraphim wages on. The chimaera are almost completely destroyed, but for a small group of rebels who are holding their own against the armies of angels attacking them night after night. For both sides, the only strategy is to kill as many of their enemies as possible — all of the potential peace and harmony once dreamed of by Madrigal and Akiva is now an impossibility.

While Karou and Akiva are still the main characters in the story, Taylor has introduced and/or expanded the roles of a lot of the others, and the narrative jumps from human to angel to chimeara smoothly. We spend time with Karou’s friends from Prague; Akiva’s bastard brother and sister; the seraphim emperor and his horrible brother; Thiago the wolf (who originally had Madrigal be-headed); jumping from past to present without a hitch.

The last book was a bit of a war-torn love story. In this book, I’d call it more of a love-torn war story (is love-torn a thing?). We spend a lot of time reading about the brutality of this ongoing war, and of the innocence lost by so many good souls. The love story is still lurking around in the background, but is by no means the main attraction here.

I’ll be honest, I had a tough time getting into the story. I expected to jump right in and be as swept up as I was last time. But it took me about 70 pages until I really got into its rhythm — and then, I couldn’t put it down. For once, I’m looking forward to the last book in a trilogy!

You can read more of my reviews (and Joemyjoe & Bunnybean) on my blog.

sevenstories’ #CBR4 Review #24: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

“In general, Karou has managed to keep her two lives in balance. On the one hand, she’s a seventeen-year-old art student in Prague; on the other, errand-girl to a monstrous creature who is the closest thing she has to family. Raised half in our world, half in ‘Elsewhere’, she has never understood Brimstone’s dark work – buying teeth from hunters and murderers – nor how she came into his keeping. She is a secret even to herself, plagued by the sensation that she isn’t whole. Now the doors to Elsewhere are closing, and Karou must choose between the safety of her human life and the dangers of a war-ravaged world that may hold the answers she has always sought.”

Despite have similarities to many popular books at the moment, Daughter of Smoke and Bone manages to be a really unique and unusual book. The brilliant heroine and break away from vampires and werewolves to more unfamiliar and imaginative characters and worlds makes this stand apart from its supernatural romance counterparts. Not necessarily a favourite, but a really solid, well written, and highly enjoyable read with a twist that I didn’t work out for a satisfyingly long portion of the book.  Whilst I didn’t reach the end desperately frustrated that I couldn’t read the next instalment immediately, I will definitely be having a read at some point when it is published. I didn’t love it overwhelmingly, the way many readers seem to have reacted to it, but I really enjoyed it and would recommend it as a high quality entry in the supernatural romance genre.

You can read the full review on my blog.

First Line: ‘Walking to school over the snow-muffled cobbles, Karou had no sinister premonitions about the day.’

Scootsa1000’s #CBR4 Review #3: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

I read a few really great reviews of this book last year and kept meaning to pick it up, but there was something about the art on the front cover that made me say “meh”…and I kept putting it off.  A vague face in a blue Mardi Gras mask?  Whatever.  But then, around Christmas, I had some free time — with grandparents visiting and playing with the kids, I could actually sit down and read a few books — so, I finally gave it a shot.  And am so glad I did.

Read my full review here on my blog.