Daughter of Smoke & Bone
Days of Blood & Starlight
Dreams of Gods & Monsters
Night of Cake and Puppets (a novella to Daughter of Smoke and Bone)
SYNOPSIS: Karou is a seventeen-year-old art student living in Prague. Aside from the fact that her sketchbooks are filled with drawings of monsters and she has blue hair and weird tattoos, she's normal. She has a best friend named Zuzana and she's constantly trying to avoid her ex-boyfriend Kaz. But this is just one side of her life.
Karou also has monsters for a family. She doesn't know who her real parents are but she lives with and was raised by three devils/chimaera/demons in a shop that has a portal for a door, which can open in different parts of the world. One of them, Brimstone (her father-figure) is always sending her on errands around the world to "buy" teeth. Yes, teeth. From dealers, smugglers and grave-robbers. He pays for the teeth with wishes that he makes himself with magic. Karou doesn't know what Brimstone uses the teeth for, and upon asking, he never tells.
But Karou's life starts to change when black, scorched hand-prints begin to appear on Brimstone's portal-doors all around the world. It is shown that they are burned there by three, fiery, winged angels. And when, on an errand in Marrakesh, Karou comes face to face with one of them, Akiva, she instantly knows that he is the enemy but there is a deep feeling of recognition inside her that she can't explain. Akiva feels it too, for he doesn't kill her right there.
And from there starts an other-worldly war, in which, Karou will finally find out the truth about her past. A past life, a lost love, an unfulfilled dream, a war between two races, and in the midst of it all, hope.
(For things to be clear, you should read the blurb too)
BLURB: Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love.
It did not end well.
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 otherworldly 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 beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery 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?
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Okay, so this novel was absolutely ... perfect. It has everything you might want in a novel.
The characters were so different from any I've ever read about. I mean, they're so interesting and complicated and simply amazing. You really fall in love with them, and not just the main characters but the minor ones too. *day-dreams about Akiva and Ziri*
The writing style is one of the most beautiful I've ever read. Honestly, you don't know anything about a good writing style if you haven't read this series. Like, wow. Laini Taylor writes these amazing things in such simple sentences that it literally takes your breath away. I'm NOT kidding. I'm not even exaggerating. Okay, I'll say it: this series has the best writing style from among all the books I've ever read. And that's saying a lot, since I've read a lot.
The plot is ... huh, I'm out of words now. It's ... majestic. So powerful and understandable. The themes, concepts of family, friends etc is amazing. *cries because of its beauty* And the plot-twists! They are breath-taking. I'm still not over the one at the end of DoSaB.
It is set in Prague, which is a beautiful city with its gothic and mysterious aura. DoSaB literally made me want to visit that city.
The best thing about this whole series is the main concept of it. Hope. It's all about hope, and how it can change the world, even bring two enemies together. It tells us that hope is much stronger than magic or wishes. Hope can do anything, move anything.
The second novel, Days of Blood and Starlight, is haunting and filled with depression and dark days and sorrow. It introduces a new character that I instantly fell in love with, correction: head-long crashed into love with. You'll see him when you read it.
The last novel, Dreams of Gods and Monsters, was EPIC. Like, E-P-I-C!! How the story unfolds and the suspense and just hoping for everything to be alright and then.... Honestly, I have never silent-screamed so much in my entire life, while I was reading it. And character development! WoooWwwwwww!
I should stop now because you're probably bored. Honsetly, I cry whenever I recommend it or talk to someone about it. I'm like "read this omg huh huh huh read it like GOD it's beautiful it's awesome *sob* *sob* please read it *sniff* *cries*"
It is thrilling, heart-breaking, funny and full of action. A must-must-MUST read.
YOU ARE READING
Book Recommendations (with spoiler-free reviews)
FanfictionThese are my book recommendations, with spoiler-free reviews and opinions (no hate). If you love YA, dystopian, sci-fi and fantasy novels and can't figure out what to read or in which order to read them, you can look here.
