Book Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor,
international paperback edition book cover

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

by Laini Taylor

Series: Daughter of Smoke and Bone #1

Genre: YA, urban fantasy, paranormal

Editions available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle, ebook, audiobook,

audio CD, international, large print, unabridged mp3 download

Published September 27th 2011 by Little, Brown & Company

Source: Gifted (Thanks again, Tiffany @ Read, Breathe, Read!)

Buy: Amazon * Barnes & Noble

* Book Depository * Indiebound * iTunes ( physical / audiobook ) * 

Blurb (Goodreads):

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:

I don't know what to feel about this book. Up until I write this review. Daughter of Smoke and Bone is one of the books on the top of my wishlist, I'm SO excited when this was gifted to me on our Filipino bloggers Christmas party. But I was quite disappointed in some things.

Karou is a likable female protagonist. She's unique, strong and loving. While Akiva is one hot caring gorgeous angel that any female being would instantly love. Their chemistry is really nice and I felt the butterflies when they get near each other. But the things I loved about this book stops there.

I was bewildered after a couple of chapters. Honestly speaking, I couldn't understand most of the words and nouns used. The world building is completely new and nice but I was overwhelmed. It's like the narrator kept talking and I had a hard time catching up who is who and why is why. There's a lot of factors for what went wrong, but I cannot pin point. It is there, it is everywhere, it is nowhere to be seen, but I can feel it. And it put me an headache.

More confusion and why's came in the middle of the book. From the middle through the ending, the book was told from the past. What the story behind these two star-crossed lovers. And I'm not sure if I liked it that way. For one, their past was an insta-love. I don't know anyone who likes insta-love. So I hated their past love story. I'd prefer the present one.

Some parts are pretty boring that I urged myself to finish it (as I said, the last part of the book contains reminiscing and I didn't liked that part) because I want to finish it before the year ends (I finished this hours before new year). Also, it would work more if the book was told in Karou's perspective, rather than told by the narrator. It would put the readers closer to the characters and their world and maybe I would have liked her past self.

I really want to love this book, since it's one of my Dying-To-Read books. But I guess you can never pretend or convince yourself to the wrong feeling. I expected a lot from this book, and I end up getting the other side of surprise. I am still not sure if I'll continue the next book.

Recommendations:
I would recommend this to readers who liked the combination of angles, post-apocalyptic novels, forbidden love and has patience in high fantasy.

Rating: