Review: Dreams of Gods and Monsters

Dreams of Gods and Monsters (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #3)
Author: Laini Taylor
Published: April 8, 2014
Hardcover, 613 pages
5 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads)

By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her, if there can even be a future for the chimaera in war-ravaged Eretz.

Common enemy, common cause.

When Jael's brutal seraph army trespasses into the human world, the unthinkable becomes essential, and Karou and Akiva must ally their enemy armies against the threat. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people.

And, perhaps, for themselves. Toward a new way of living, and maybe even love.

But there are bigger threats than Jael in the offing. A vicious queen is hunting Akiva, and, in the skies of Eretz ... something is happening. Massive stains are spreading like bruises from horizon to horizon; the great winged stormhunters are gathering as if summoned, ceaselessly circling, and a deep sense of wrong pervades the world.

What power can bruise the sky?

From the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond, humans, chimaera and seraphim will fight, strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy. 

At the very barriers of space and time, what do gods and monsters dream of? And does anything else matter?

Everything and nothing is solved in this epic conclusion to the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series. Alliances are tested, friendships are formed and renewed, and love triumphs above all else. This book urges you to dive in, eager to find out how it will all end and who will end up winning the war - the angels or the chimaera. This book begins with a bang. The angels have descended to earth, creating a huge stir throughout the world, everyone wondering what this arrival means. Some believe it is God speaking to them, others believe it is the Apocalypse - it is certainly the latter. Karou has taken over the chimaera army, in disguise, and is trying desperately to stop the war from this side, or at least, to join forces so that they can all stop Jael's army of angels before they destroy the earth. Karou and Akiva are keeping their dream alive, if everyone works together, its possible to win. But the angels and chimaera do not want to be anywhere near each other and tensions are high as they wait for the signal to attack.

This was the perfect conclusion to the perfect series. It took me to a whole other world that I never wanted to leave. It kept me guessing until the end, unsure of how it would all go down and crossing my fingers that Karou and Akiva would finally get their happy ending. Taylor have created this completely new universe and races but compels the same feelings and worries we have on earth. War is all around us and the only way for it to end is for us to work together and plan an agreement. This was all too familiar with the real world, and all too familiar to Romeo and Juliet, but thankfully Taylor gave us the happy ending we so wanted. Everything was perfectly woven together to bring it all together in the end. Her writing is smooth and fluid, and every word is needed. She has written it in a way that makes it run together like a Tolkien novel, creating all these different perspectives that end up together before the story is over and work together to get to the conclusion. She is a genius with words and does not leave any character behind. Zuzanna and Mik are still there, trying to be normal in a not so normal world. Liraz gets a bigger part and I loved her and her masculine feminism. Ziri was wonderful and swoon worthy in his own light and his ending was perfectly played out. Issa is back and hilarious as ever, and Karou and Akiva are, as predicted, the most wonderful pairing I've read in a fantasy series. 

This book had everything I was looking for in an ending. I cried, I laughed and I hugged the book to my chest as I read the reunion I've been waiting for. A wonderful series for anyone who loves fantasy, or is just looking for an epic love story with a lot of fighting in between. Either way, go read it now!

“It was the first time either of them had ever held another's hand, and for them alone, the immensity of what unfolded that night was overshadowed by the perfect wonderment of fingers intertwined - as though this was what hands had always been for, and not for holding weapons at all.” 

Review: Days of Blood and Starlight

Days of Blood and Starlight (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #2)
Author: Laini Taylor
Published: November 6, 2012
Hardcover, 517 pages
5 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads)

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.

This is not that world.

Art student and monster's apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.

In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.

While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.

But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?

The ending of Daughter of Smoke and Bone was a game changer. If you haven't read it, don't read any further because there will be spoilers, there's no stopping it.

Karou finally knows who she really is. A whole other life and all the memories that go with it have been revealed to her by Akiva, that and his betrayal against her family. Karou goes to live with her kind, taking over Brimstone's job and catching Thiago's attention once again. Trying to keep Akiva from her mind, she fills her days with teeth and magic, just as Brimstone did, and tries to find a way to be okay living like that. But Zuzanna and Mik have other plans, trying desperately to find her, and Akiva is trying to find a way to end this war once and for all. 

Their journey is long. I wait and wait for Akiva and Karou to find each other again, to follow their hearts and be together, but I must continue waiting. Karou shows her true strength in this book. Now that she knows she was a warrior, she has no trouble fighting back. She knows Thiago needs her and she will play it to end and find a way to escape his hold on her. There are many new viewpoints, a deeper look into the Chimaera race and more into the danger of the angels. This book is long, but it reads quickly and it's hard to put down because there are so many unanswered questions. Zuzanna is once again the comic relief, her and Mik are wonderful together and their story, as small as it may be, flies off the pages and demands attention. Karou and Akiva's story is bigger, more epic, but it is quiet throughout the novel, their love laying dormant until the moment they can express those feelings again. 

This is still the Romeo and Juliet love story I was looking for. They are just reacting much better than those lovers did. Akiva knows he has to fix what he did to Karou's family before even going back to her. But he can't stay away and the fleeting moments between them are heated and heart-wrenching. This story swoops to every end of the earth. There is love, fear, evil, war, and in the mist of it all - hope. Taylor has done it again with a wonderful tale spun so beautifully together that it's hard to imagine that Eretz does not exist in real life (or does it?)

Once, the lovers lay entwined in the moon’s secret temple and dreamed of a world that was a like a jewel-box without a jewel—a paradise waiting for them to find it and fill it with their happiness. This was not that world.

Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Author: Laini Taylor
Published: September 27, 2011
Hardcover, 418 pages
5 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads)

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 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?

This story swept me up and still hasn't let me go. Karou is not the kind of character you get to see very often, and her story begins as what could easily be a contemporary story about a girl trying to figure out who she is, but quickly unravels into something so much bigger, a world that will claim you and make you never want to leave. Taylor weaves a complex tale of loyalty, love, and family. Karou's life is full of mystery. She has blue hair, fills her sketchbook with pictures that seem way too crazy to be real, and can speak many languages, some of which aren't human. By day she is an art student, hoping to stop her feelings for her ex-boyfriend, and trying to spend time with her best friend, Zuzanna. But most of the time she's running errands for Brimstone, her would-be father who is anything but humanly. To her, its normal, but she has no idea where she came from or who she really is. But the more she finds out, the more she wants to just be a regular girl.

Prague is the perfect setting for this rich, beautiful story. The old buildings and dark alleys left lots of room for mystery and the angels. It's as much a character as Karou or Zuzanna or Akiva. Brimstone's apartment, the Poison Cafe and the bridge all play important parts in Karou's story. The hints at what will happen are so well written, I couldn't believe it sometimes. One sentence and suddenly I'd know something bad would happen three chapters later. Taylor has a wonderful way of subtlety slipping in dramatic irony and making each scene count. Her words describe both the real world and a world we've never seen, but after reading about, seems way too real. 

This was just the beginning to a fantastic journey through the worlds. I'm a sucker for Romeo and Juliet like stories, and this reminded me of the star crossed lovers in the best sort of way. I'm normally disappointed when it comes to direct re-tellings, so this was perfect in the way that it literally had nothing to do with the play, but made me think of all the things I loved about the Bard's tragic play. Two people from totally different worlds who know they can't be together, who know there is no way their story will have a happy ending, but decide to be together anyway. They want to stop the war, they want everyone else to know that it's possible to not have to be enemies, and Karou and Akiva are the epitome of lovers who will do anything to be together. This is the just the beginning of their love saga, and I'm already invested.

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