REVIEW: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Laini Taylor
420 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown
Release Date: September 27th, 2011
Source: Hardcover from Publisher

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?

  Throw a glance at Laini Taylor's latest and you won't be able to resist picking it up. The dark, gorgeous exterior promises an equally gorgeous interior - and delivers.

  Before reading Daughter of Smoke and Bone, I read three novels that ended up as disappointments. I was afraid this one would amount to the same. But of course, Laini Taylor's latest was a pleasant surprise that left me hungry for more. Lush writing, descriptive prose, and vivid characters filled the pages from one end to the other. The main character, Karou, was a young girl we would all want to read about - lonely, talented, artistic, and unique.

  Karou is different. Her lapis lazuli hair grows that way out of her head. The necklace of bright beads she wears around her neck is more than just adornment. The lifelike drawings she sketches in her many books are real - the monsters that don those pages really exist. Though no one believes her. And then there's Akiva. I won't tell you much, but Laini Taylor knows how to write. The words she uses to describe everything in utmost detail will leave your heart wrenching.

  In conclusion, I'll say this: You must pick this up. Daughter of Smoke and Bone has it all, notably a writing style that will leave you craving for more, just like it did for me. If the cover isn't enough to catch your attention, this review should have your scampering around the bookstore until you find yourself a copy.

The cover was what drew my attention to the book. 

It's shiny, dark, and that blue is just mesmerizing!

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