Reviewing: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

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. Forhope.

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

*Contains spoilers*

Spoilers will be between these [ ] -- Highlight to read them.

Days of Blood and Starlight moves on the lighthearted romance/magic/action vibe that Daughter of Smoke and Bone had and becomes entirely war-based, meaning the book just got a whole lot more violent, gory, and intense.

And I liked it. In the first book, my attention would sometimes drift off and I would start thinking about fudge and chocolate chip cookies and the like. But in this one... I couldn't tear my eyes away. I read it in one sitting.

So why, you ask, are you missing a star?

Okay, well, as fabulous as it was, it just wasn't perfect. I still didn't [see how Madrigal and Karou were the same person at all. There wasn't even a fraction of Madrigal inside of Karou, and even though I liked that it showed how much she had changed, I just couldn't feel the story as much as I could have.]. Also, the book focused less on the characters and more on the plot. Now, I am all for plot, don't get me wrong. But in my opinion, characters carry the plot, not the other way around.

Karou is an amazing character, but I wasn't really able to connect with her in either DoSaB nor Blood and Starlight. The only thing I really felt when reading in her point of view was her love for her family and her fierce will to survive. 

I loved Mik and Zuzana. They added so much... spark to the book and I am so, so glad Laini Taylor didn't just let Zuze -- the best friend-- fade into the background once Karou started getting involved with the chimaera. However, I was not a big fan of [how easily Karou decided to stay with the chimaera-- the ones who tricked her and plotted to kill her-- instead of her best friend in the modern word. The modern world that has wi-fi. Priorities, people.].

Akiva had a lot of character-building in this book. At least, I thought so. I liked how it actually showed things from his point of view and allowed us to really get to know him beyond the fierce warrior with awkward side angel person we saw in Daughter of Smoke and Bone. 

Laini Taylor has an incredible writing style that makes every sentence sound haunting and has a big impact on the reader. I hung on to every word.

Reviewing: Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

I read Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor and immediately wondered how they were going to find people beautiful enough to play the characters. Because I watched Catching Fire and The Book Thief before I read the book (in fact, I still haven't read them. I'm a bit terrified to read The Book Thief. I think my tears will contribute greatly to the Pacific Ocean.) I was able to judge them as movies, not how they compared to the book-- but it's awesome when you've read/watched both and can compare.

Like with The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. Comparing the characters to my mental image was pure awesome. (Jace and Clary were nothing like how I imagined them. Neither was Alec. Or Valentine. Or a lot of other people.) I watched Rubinrot (ahem. German movie of Ruby Red.) and loved it, even though there were a few changes. 

Anyways. I am going terribly off-topic. 

I figured I should review DoSaB (I'm calling it that because I'm lazy) before I forgot everything about it. The below notes are my attempts at remembering/organizing my thoughts. 

Apparently I think very little.

The beginning I liked. It was to the point, introducing the characters and the drama and the love interest. You get to know the main character fairly quickly. (She has blue hair. Naturally. Well. Not naturally, but naturally.) She's kick-butt. She's smart. She's drop-dead gorgeous. She speaks a mind-boggling amount of languages.

The love interest is fierce and intimidating in the eye of his beholders, but once I read in his POV (point of view), I felt like he was an awkward puppy. Weird I know, but very true. Instead of thinking of him as mysteriously hot, all I could think was: this guy's adorable. He gets more adorable as time goes on. Be warned. He's kind of obsessed, though. Like, seriously, dude. Stop stalking. It's weird.

(Also, they're apparently the two most attractive non-peoples to exist. One thing I didn't get is: angel girls are beautiful, right? Just as beautiful as the angel-dudes are. So why is Akiva so taken with Karou's beauty? Shouldn't he be used to it?)

The plot twist (well, the main one) was a bit hard to grasp at first. At least, it was for me. A few chapters were dedicated to explaining how it all went down, which felt a little weird. Yeah, it all made sense after I read them, but if your plot twist has to be that twisted then maybe it should be spread out more, not just all in one huge chunk that leaves you leaping between worlds. Worlds that also would need a few chapters to explain.

The characters were well-thought out, even though I felt like a couple had no purpose whatsoever. DoSaB does a good job of showing the good and bad in each side. The angels are awesome-- unlike most angel books, where they have no reason to be swooping down to earth to conquer and destroy, this one did. I was so relieved. I thought I was just going to be sitting there like... wait. Why are they leaving handprints everywhere again? (obviously, because their hands are fabulous and the world needs to admire them.)

I have one tiny complaint about the angels. Their names. I don't know if Laini Taylor was going for biblical renditions (which, actually, is the only rendition.) but angels don't get named Akiva. It sounds epic, but angel names always end in El. Raphael. Michael. Gabriel. Zaphael. (I could go on, but I won't, because I blanked.)

*After checking out angel names because of reasons I realized that some names didn't end in El. My bad.

Mid-book gets a bit... slow. Well, as slow as you can get with a potential war brewing. And then everything speeds waaay up, and I, for one, was a bit confused.

The ending leaves the possibilities open, and Karou mad as heck.

I need the second book.

Later,

Tansie G.