Review: Daughter of Smoke & Bone

Title: Daughter of Smoke & Bone
Author: Laini Taylor
Date Released: September 27th, 2011
Pages: 432
Rating: 5 out of 5

Description:
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?

Review:
I thought that Daughter of Smoke & Bone was absolutely unique and full of awesomeness.  It definitely had a really cool twist on the story of angels and demons.

In Karou's world, the demons are made up of different parts of animals. They could have a lion's head, a human's arms, a turtle's body, or a flamingo's legs.  The angels are a different story.  They are beautiful creatures, more like humans actually, with wings and gorgeous bodies, like Akiva (BTW, isn't Akiva such a cool name?).  I loved this unique aspect of the demon and angel world.  It still has the same concept that they're at war, but how they were described just seemed so vivid and amazing.

The characters were really awesome!  I loved Karou and her whimsicalness.  If she were a real person, I think she'd make a really cool friend to hang out with, although she has a tendency to lie, but still.  She's pretty amazing.  Her friend, Zusana, was SO cute!  She's described as this little, short 17(ish?) year old and full of cuteness, although she probably wouldn't want to be described as cute... But still!  Ohhh, and Akiva!  He's the gorgeous soldier of the book and Karou's love interest.  Ahhh, I think that basically sums Akiva up :)

The plot was really interesting in that it started with Karou and eventually snowballed into Karou finding out who she really is and why she and Akiva have this almost sort of instant chemistry between them.  It's definitely a starcrossed lover sort of story with both of them not meant for each other because of what they are, which makes their love for each other really sweet.  I loved how Taylor went back and forth in the second-halfish of the novel between Karou in the past and Karou in the present because it added so much more intrigue to the overall story.

Taylor's overall writing was absolutely beautiful.  With vivid descriptions of everything around Karou and the insight into her thoughts, it just really sucked me in.  Everything just flowed so well that it's almost hard to explain it.

A very whimsical book full of mystery, Daughter of Smoke & Bone was just absolutely perfect, blending the war between demons and angels with a modern-day setting of Prague and beautiful writing, giving it this cool vibe.  I'm totally going to read Taylor's other book, Lips Touch Three Times, and I'll definitely be on the look out for the second book, Days of Blood & Starlight!

Cover Review:
I LOVE this cover!  The light blue feathered mask in contrast with the white and black really makes it pop out.  I'm totally in love with the font for the title as well.  Can't wait to see what they'll do for the second book!

Cleo :)

*Description and cover from goodreads.com
**Review copy borrowed from the library.