Review of Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Yesterday, I just finished reading possibly my favorite book this year. Many of you have already read it. Daughter of Smoke and Bone is a spectacular novel by Laini Taylor.

Goodreads Book Description: Around the world, black hand prints 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 grows 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 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 rating: 5 out of 5 stars

My Review:
I feel so lucky to have read such a wonderful assortment of books lately. This book, highly recommended by Antony John (author of Five Flavors of Dumb), was a treat from start to finish.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor is a colorful excursion with a very unusual progtagonist named Karou ("meaning Hope") who has bright blue hair. She goes to art school during the day and also does errands for her adoptive father (I won't describe him any more so that no one will be spoiled but his name is Brimstone and one of my favorite characters), mysteriously being able to transport through a door to any place in the world. He collects teeth, but for what reason, she does not know. Then she meets a mysterious stranger, and everything starts to spiral out of control.

I was completely blown away by this book. The world building is the best I've seen in a long time-- the characters are colorful and unique. The plot smoulders and at certain points, I thought I knew what Taylor was going to pull, and instead she made the absolute right moves and surprised me in the best way possible. Nothing comes easy to our protagonist, and there are secrets galore-- ones that I was eager to find out-- but also okay to wait for, as the pacing really worked.

Overall, this is one of the best books I've read all year, with terrific and mind blowing world building and three dimensional, quirky characters, and I cannot wait for the next installment.  

Vote on my Amazon review!
Daughter of Smoke and Bone Review

How did you feel about this book? Were you as blown away as I was?

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