Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Title: Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Author: Laini Taylor
Series: Daughter of Smoke and Bone #1
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
Date Published: September 27, 2011
Buy: Amazon

Goodreads Summary

“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?

Spoilers, read at own risk.

I started this book with so much hope. So many people gave it such great reviews that I was convinced that this book would be worth my time. It started out great. Everything about it was interesting and compelling. It made you want to get lost in Karou’s world. But like so many YA female leads no matter how kickass as soon as the guy steps in they melt into a puddle of goo. In my opinion it was no different for Karou. You could use the excuse that you know her soul recognized Akiva but she didn’t even bother questioning it. Which she should have. I think the fact that Karou was Madrigal was kind of obvious so that revelation didn’t surprise me one bit.

It wasn’t only Karou that disappointed me. Akiva did as well. For starters if he was grieving Madrigal for who he went so far to get revenge (that’s one of the other reasons why he disappointed me but back to that later) as soon as Karou came in he was intrigued by her. I guess I shouldn’t be annoyed because he would have had to get over her at some point but at that point we all clearly know he was still grieving her, then why is Karou so INTERESTING???

And then the revenge, I suppose after reading the book I was incredibly pissed. I hated Akiva so much that I was ready to give this book a 1 star rating but now I don’t really know. What he did was unacceptable but I guess I understand to a degree. If he had done nothing then I would have been surprised. So it goes both ways. I think he took his revenge to the extreme but if we look at it from his point of view I guess I get it. But that doesn’t excuse it.

Also there wasn’t a lot going on in the book, there wasn't much of a plot. I would have liked a lot more action.

All in all it’s the same story, good world building but everything else meh.