Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

★★★★★
Wow

Beware: This review may have high levels of gushing.  I just loved it so very much.  In fact, I am having difficulty writing this as all I want to do right now is go and read the second book in the series.  I can hear it calling to me from my bookshelf...

Moving on.

I don't want to try and summarise this story, because there is a lot going on, and trying to tell you all of it would only ruin it for you.  All I will say is that it is a young adult fantasy/paranormal book which is certainly worth your time if you don't mind strange, magical things.

The main thing that stood out to me in this story was the writing.  It was so smooth and most of the time reading this was as easy as breathing, which is something I rarely find in a book.  Because of this, I was sure within the first few pages that this was going to become a favourite.  The setting was also an important aspect of my "favourite-detection" - Prague.  I felt it was the perfect place for this story to take place in, it just suited the mood of the book.

I also loved most of the characters and their relationships with each other.  The main character and her best friend's conversations always made me smile.  In fact, I think the best friend, Zuzana, was my favourite character in this book.  She was such a normal person with normal reactions, which I was amazed by.

The last thing that I can say without spoiling anything is that I loved how everything seemed to fall into place in this story, like pieces of a puzzle.  Yes, I still have questions, but in my opinion, that's just part of reading a series.  I can't wait to read the second book, and I highly recommend that if you haven't already, you should pick this book up!

I'm going to move into some more of my thoughts, but they're going to contain spoilers, so don't read on if you haven't finished the wonderfulness that is Daughter of Smoke and Bone!




Trying to sort my thoughts out has proved to be a challenge, so I'm going to jot them down under some headings.

The Wishes and The Teeth
I loved how wishes were kind of a currency, that was a cool concept.  I would love a string of scuppies like Karou had - how awesome (not to mention hilarious - itchy enemies, anyone?) would that be?  Karou's collection of languages was also enchanting.  That would be amazing, to learn a new language with very little effort on your part - unless you pulled out a tooth for one...that was a little creepy.  The whole pain being converted to magic idea was very original and creative.

Karou vs Madrigal
I was spoiled about the fact that they were the same soul, but it didn't really bother me, because I felt that it was being led up to pretty early on (either that, or Karou was Madrigal and Akiva's kid, which seemed a little unlikely).  I thought that their personalities were similar enough to make it plausible, and I wasn't irritated.  I really loved this character.  I'm also going to mention under this heading that I did like Akiva and I enjoyed learning more about him throughout the book - I started off with hating him for what he did to the doors to 'Elsewhere', but I grew to like him and understand his choices better.  Except I'm really mad at him for what he did at the end, which leads me onto...

Are Brimstone and Co. Really Dead?
I loved Brimstone and Issa and Twiga and Yasri :(  Every time Brimstone was proud of Karou/Madrigal, I would feel proud too.  And Issa was the loveliest part snake I've ever heard of.  If they're really dead, I'm going to be so upset.


So, to answer my questions, I'm off to read Days of Blood and Starlight!