[Review] Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Title: Daughter of Smoke and Bone #1
Author: Laini Taylor
Published: September 29th 2011 by Hodder & Stoughton
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance.
Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads summary:

"Errand requiring immediate attention. Come.

The note was on vellum, pierced by the talons of the almost-crow that delivered it. Karou read the message. 'He never says please', she sighed, but she gathered up her things.
When Brimstone called, she always came."

In general, Karou has managed to keep her two lives in balance. On the one hand, she's a seventeen-year-old art student in Prague; on the other, errand-girl to a monstrous creature who is the closest thing she has to family. Raised half in our world, half in 'Elsewhere', she has never understood Brimstone's dark work - buying teeth from hunters and murderers - nor how she came into his keeping. She is a secret even to herself, plagued by the sensation that she isn't whole.

Now the doors to Elsewhere are closing, and Karou must choose between the safety of her human life and the dangers of a war-ravaged world that may hold the answers she has always sought.

Emma's thoughts:

Wishes are false. Hope is true. Hope makes its own magic.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is simply... extraordinary. There's really no other word for it. From the first page, the first line, the book completely enthralled me. The world Laini Taylor has set Karou in is strangely beautiful and alluring, yet dark and completely foreign.

Karou, having living her whole life in two very distinct parts, is an admirable protagonist that likes to waste wishes on petty revenge on her ex. She's got bright blue hair, matching eye tattoos on her palms and often collects teeth for her 'boss', Brimstone. Brimstone's a strange, mysterious character that's been the father figure (of sorts) in Karou's life. I wish we could've seen more of him, understood more of what his purpose was and what he did with 'wishes'. 

I loved the idea of being able to purchase 'wishes' and wishes of different values too. Just think about all the things you could do! Flying would just be the start... And I guess, that's a point Laini Taylor made in the book. Wishes can be dangerous. Well, no, not the wishes themselves, but the greed inside oneself that would compel one to pull out all one's teeth for the most powerful wish of all. It's demonstrated by a character who'd pulled out all his own teeth for the wish of knowledge. Knowledge of everything. And what'd he get? A fallen angel shadowing his every step, haunting his every move. And what'd it lead to? A jump off a building.

Evil is always so tempting isn't it? When the devil strikes you a deal, you only ever see the good side of it til it's too late. Brimstone, the wishmonger himself knew it, and he protected Karou in a way by keeping her out of the dark.

And then she met Akiva... 

How do I explain Akiva? How can I even put him into words? He's an angel, and honest to God, I cannot resist angels, deadly or not. He's just.. he's charming, and utterly wonderful. If you haven't read Daughter of Smoke and Bone, you must, for Akiva. You'll understand the adoration...

I think it's simply the way Laini Taylor wrote this book. I think, if it had been any other person writing the exact same story line with the exact same characters, it wouldn't have been the same. Taylor's prose is simply beautiful. It's poetry, really. Every sentence in Daughter of Smoke and Bone tells a story of it's own. It's unforgettable.

Overall rating: 5 stars~ Utterly breathtaking and beautiful ♥

First:

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love.
It did not end well.

Favourite:

"Have you ever asked yourself, do monsters make war, or does war make monsters?"

Teaser:

Once upon a time, an angel lay dying in the mist.
And a devil knelt over him and smiled.

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Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Title: Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Author: Laini Taylor
Published: September 27th 2011 by Little, Brown & Company
Rating: 5 hearts!

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?

Racquel's thoughts:
It goes without a doubt that Daughter of Smoke and Bone is the second Divergent of the year and I mean that buzz wise. I haven't read Divergent myself, but everyone has and everyone that has read it loves it and Daughter of Smoke and Bone is the exact same way. It barely came out today and already the hype about it is HUGE, so many people loved it and not a person hated. It's a favorite of the year for 90% of people who read it and let me be the first to say, ALL THE HYPE IS TRUE!

Laini Taylor really is an amazing writer, the world she created is fantastic and her characters are loveable, the plot? A page-turner but I think it's none of that that ultimately makes this book the 5 star deal for everyone but it's the writing.

It is beautiful.

So beautiful I kept rereading sentences because they are just so... fabulous! What do you think of when you hear the names Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn and Coco Chanel? Classy, beautiful, fabulous and iconic. They make you wanna whip out you're cat frames sunglasses, a ciggy and feel like you own the world. Well this is how the writing of Daughter of Smoke and Bone is.

Fabulous. Excellent. Marvelous. Magnificent. Remarkable. Extraordinary. Brilliant. Spectacular…. Just look up wonderful and all the synonyms you get describe the writing and prose.

Taylor has real skill, she has talent writers wish they had an ounce of. Anyone can come up with a half decent plot, half decent characters and make a half decent novel and sell it but Taylor has the magic. She has the sparkly pink fairy magic dust people wish they had so they can throw it around and wish to make things better.

I mean I bet when you open Daughter of Smoke and Bone the is probably what you will see:

and when you finish it you will be like:

and then you will be feeling:
for reading such a good book!

I kid you not, the writing is that good. I kind of want to eat it from how yummy it is!! I think if we took away the amazing writing we would just end up with yet another fantasy story, granted better then others but ubiquitous nonetheless. Lets be honest, at some parts of the book I was confused to the point where I literally had no idea what was going on but all of that is a trick on Taylor’s behalf and everything does clear up and I think the romance was too insta-love and I didn’t understand all the way how it came about, it just happened. Even after the big GASP happens and that should have cleared all doubts about the love, it still didn’t make 100% sense to me and. Also, Akiva’s past and his ‘kind’ didn’t have a solid background explanation for them to make them convincing and believable but in the end these things don’t smother the fact that the book is unique, it's amazing and mesmerizing and you better read it or I will hunt you down with black fairy dust and the results will not be that of the dreamy kind.

You have been warned.

Rating:

First Line:

"Walking to school over the snow-muffled cobbles, Karou had no sinister" premonitions about the day."

Teaser:

"of all the theories she'd dreamed up about the other door, she'd never imagined this..."

Favorite:

"...before losing herself in a kiss that made her melt against him like sun-warmed honey."

Have you read Daughter of Smoke and Bone? Don't hesitate to share you feelings!!

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