Daughter of Smoke and Bone

!!!Spoiler Warning!!! If you haven’t read this book yet, I give away some key spoilers!

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

by Laini Taylor

I knew this was going to be good.
I absolutely loved Strange the Dreamer, and was hoping that Laini Taylor‘s earlier work would be just as beautiful, and it was.
This is fantasy writing as its best. I normally run a mile from any book that mentions angels and demons falling in love, but this is so not what you’d expect. It’s wonderful.

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well.

The book follows Karou, a teenage girl studying at art college in Prague. She’s been raised by demons, or Chimaera, as they’re usually known. Since childhood she’s lived half in the human world, and half in a little shop with her Chimaera guardians. Brimstone being the most prominent. Her job is travel around the world via portals and collect teeth that Brimstone uses for his magic. In exchange for these teeth, collectors are granted wishes.
Then there’s Akiva. He’s an angel with great wings of fire. He’s a soldier who is sworn to kill the Chimaera, but when he sees Karou things suddenly take a drastic change. This is not one of those love at first sight books, or rather, it is, but there’s a reason for it all.

Your soul sings to mine. My soul is yours, and it always will be, in any world.

The characters are wonderful. I think I like Zuzana best of all, and I can’t wait to see more of her in the sequel. At least, I hope we see more of her. She’s completely awesome!
The plot is masterful, with plenty of time being given over to backstory, building intrigue, romance and everything else that’s needed for a pretty perfect book. The non-human creatures are stunningly detailed—they really seem to come to life on the page.
The world-building is also phenomenal. The place where the Chimaera live is exciting to read about, and I’m looking forward to, hopefully, seeing more of the Angel side of things soon.
I love the way the ending managed to answer so many questions, but at the same time completely invest me in the continuing story so I need to read more. Perfectly done.

It is a condition of monsters that they do not perceive themselves as such. The dragon, you know, hunkered in the village devouring maidens, heard the townsfolk cry “Monster!” and looked behind him.

There can be no beating around the bush here—I loved it!
There’s so much going on in these pages that no review could possibly do it justice. If you haven’t already read this book, you need to do it now. Right now. Go on. It’s glorious.

Wishes are false. Hope is true. Hope makes its own magic.

Villain Rating

While for the most part, this book manages to stay away from true villainy, focusing instead on the star-crossed love story around Karou and Akiva, I will make an exception for Thiago. He’s the one I’m naming as the true bad guy here. He’s the one whose jealousy caused him to execute and murder a young couple in love. He’s the one who is perpetuating the hatred that causes this stupid war.

Thiago doesn’t really get a fair hearing here, though. We know nothing of his background, or his point of view. From the others characters perception, he seems to be vain, conceited and arrogant. He also seems remarkable shallow. I wonder if there’s more to him that that, though. It’s a shame we didn’t get to find out. Maybe there’s more in the next book? All in all, he might have been the bad guy here, but he was acting very much on the side of his laws. He’s not a true villain, just a man doing his unethical duty. 4/10

Happy Reading,

Claire