Daughter Of Smoke And Bone

Daughter Of Smoke And Bone by Laini Taylor – 494 pages

 Book Blurb:

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?

 My Review: 2.5 stars

I’m torn on my rating because if I were rating only the first half of the book, my rating would be higher. I also think I went into this book with way too high of expectations so naturally the inclination is to be disappointed. After perusing reviews that encouraged me to read this book, I was set up to believe that I’d compare this character to Katniss from The Hunger Games.  I didn’t find that all. Both were likeable, strong YA protagonists that have a hunky counterpart for the reader to imagine as the most perfect male specimen.  The first half of the book read well and my interest was quite peaked throughout. I loved the unknown factor of her background and parentage. Her descriptions of Prague were beautiful. I imagined her drawings clearly in my head. I loved her petite best friend. It the second half however that blew it for me. A flood of characters, battles, demons, angels and monsters were rapidly written into the book so that we could finally understand the underlying reason for the epic war that’s at the heart of this book. I recommend this to true paranormal/sci-fi lovers.

Quotes I liked:

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well.”

– “Wishes are false. Hope is true. Hope makes its own magic.”

– “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.”