Mini-Book Review: Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor (Daughter of Smoke & Bone #1)

[Publisher’s Review]

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 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 beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery 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]

Reading this book was like seeing a tapestry unfold before my eyes. A beautiful intricately woven tapestry that reveals so much more when you look closer – when you examine it from every angle and stroke its worn surface with your fingers.

Akiva. Karou. Brimstone. Issa. Nwella. Chiro. Brimstone.

Apart from loving the exotic places Brimstone sent Karou, for teeth, I absolutely love the names the author uses. Why? Their names are neither commonplace nor forgettable and each seems to the suit the character so well. E.g. Karou = hope. 

I fell in love with the main character. Mysterious and haunted, she struggles to find a missing part of herself and passionate, desperate Akiva, helps her do just that but at a terrible cost.

Karou is so unlike most book characters because of her strangeness. Most characters are transformed through events and yet Karou has always been different. I also love how she stays true to herself and has  the power to break away from her narcissistic ex-boyfriend. (The scene where she takes revenge on him had me in fits of laughter!)

I like how Karou’s and Akiva’s relationship is based on more than physical attraction and they actually share this deep connection.

I loved this book so much and I would definitely recommend this book to you. Although it belongs in the fantasy genre, it has a very enthralling plot.

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