Review of Daughter of Smoke & Bone

My review of Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor is based on an ARC that I won in a giveaway. The following review is my honest opinion of the work.

Goodreads Summary: "Around the world, black handprints 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 grown 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?"

By the second page I was completed lost in the world that Laini Taylor had created, by the end of the first chapter I wanted Karou to be my friend, and I knew that this book was going to end up on my favorites shelf.

Karou is a butt-kicking, gorgeous specimen of the ultimate in YA heroines. And her blue hair? Wicked. Just wicked. [Special little shout-out thank you to Laini Taylor for proving that giving your heroine interesting physical features does not a Mary Sue make. Take that, old beta readers of mine!]

And Akiva? Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum. [Why yes, in my head that does replace the Red Robin slogan.] There is just something about hot guys with mysterious pasts that does me in every time. I want to know more...MORE I TELL YOU!

I loved the through the doors Narnia-esque feel of this book, the perfect melding of the "real world" with the fantasy one that Laini Taylor created. And the creatures, oh the creatures, it was like a mythological creatures encyclopedia come to life. Okay. Not quite. But she brought some mythological beings into play that simply don't get enough credit in most books. And the history? The weaving of present with past? Oh I want more.

I'm giving Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor a five out of five stars review. Normally I would tell you that I devoured a book in a single sitting, that I just read it straight through...but Daughter of Smoke and Bone was too amazing for just that. I would read a chapter or so then immediately start gushing to whoever was closest to me about the sheer EPICNESS of this book. A must read for sure, go out and get a copy now! Now I say!