Review: Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

Daughter of Smoke & Bone
Daughter of Smoke & Bone #1

Author: Laini Taylor

Publication Date: September 27, 2011

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Genre: Fantasy

---

Synopsis:

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?

My Thoughts:  A LOT of people love this book, most people it seems (including Jenn and Meghan check theirs out!).  So, I am not sure what happened with me.  Maybe going into the book my expectations were too high or I was expecting something entirely different.  In different places in the book, my reading stalled and I just couldn't get into it.  Something just jarred me out of the world and it took me awhile to get me back.

I really enjoyed the characters, all of them.  They had a lot of back story and were really developed.  I could feel for pretty much all of them.  It made me sad when anything bad happened to any of the characters in this book which really speaks for the author.  Her characters were well fleshed-out and pretty awesome.

The plot was a little too up in the air for this to be a book that I couldn't put down.  Most of the time (not all) I could just put it aside at the end of a chapter with no immediate need to find out what would happen next.  That doesn't mean this isn't a great book, just one that didn't create a sense of urgency about the plot and where it was going.

Karou I liked especially.  She was flawed in ways that were obvious to the reader which was a welcomed reprieve from the goody-innocentness (a word?  I think not lol) of the MC that I have been reading a lot recently.

I loved when the main characters first met and the fight scene ensued.  I felt it had real chemistry and could go somewhere.  After that, I felt a little let down.  It was pretty much an instantaneous love and it confused me a lot.  So, I gave it the benefit of the doubt and continued on thinking that it had something to do with Karou's mysterious past.  When I found out the truth behind it, I have to admit I was just as disappointed.  These two seem to just fall in love out of the blue with each other and it kind of irked me a little.

I did enjoy reading about the past, but I think I would have liked it more if it were slowly leaked to me.  The dedicated chapters of past just tore me out of the present and I found it jarring.

I liked the world that Taylor created.  It was interesting to learn about and read about it.  The chimera in particular were wonderful and I loved creating their likenesses in my head. If I were any sort of artist I probably would have scratched a couple down - especially Brimstone.

In short, it took me a long time to make it to this book - it seemed like I just kept putting it off.  I am still glad I finally picked it up and will probably read the next one.