Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Goodreads
424 pages, YA Paranormal (Angels)
Daughter of Smoke and Bone #1
My rating: 5 stars

Synopsis

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?

My 2 cents

Oh my gosh, I LOVED this book!  I'm so glad I finally had a chance to read it!  The writing was beautiful, and the words just came alive on the page!  I also loved the setting of Prague.  It made me really want to go visit!

I've read loads of angel books--fallen angels, good angels, bad angels, but this book took it to a whole other level!  And normally, in an Angel war, there are demons.  Well, this book had demons, but not any demons that I've ever read about.  Its funny, because at some point, one of Karou's friends says something along the lines of, "This isn't Narnia!"  But it really felt like it at times.  It was a whole other world nestled in our own, and it was done so well!

I loved Karou.  She is one of the most interesting kick butt characters I have read about!  And it was kind of crazy how much I liked Brimstone.  I got the feeling early on that he had to be a bad guy, but he really felt almost like a Dumbledore type figure to me.  I hope we learn more about him later in the series.  I must admit, I wasn't very fond of Akiva.  I realize that he and Karou were in love, but he seemed like such a jerk!

And when we finally learn who and what Karou is...it was just devastating to me!  Suddenly the whole novel made perfect sense, but I bet we have even more to learn in future books! I can't wait to read Days of Blood and Starlight, I'm going to have to go pick it up soon!